Family House

A low-cost, compact family home on the outskirts of Alexandra Township, its steel portal-frame structure allowing the first floor to extend beyond the ground floor to suggest a substantially larger home.

The ground floor holds an open-plan living area with the kitchen on a raised level, while an enclosed external staircase leads to a passage serving the first-floor bedrooms and bathrooms.

Steel portal frames at regular intervals form the framework, supporting a Gunite wall system, timber panelling, steel-framed windows and a pre-painted corrugated-iron roof — reinterpreting materials traditionally associated with informal housing.