South African researchers push innovative building systems to close the housing gap
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A UN World Cities Day webinar hosted by Nelson Mandela University heard that certified innovative building systems, from polystyrene-cement blocks to cross-laminated timber, are ready to scale but still face financing and regulatory hurdles.
South African researchers and city officials have called for innovative building systems to be mainstreamed in low-cost housing delivery, saying tested technologies can speed up construction but remain constrained by financing and municipal approvals. The call came at a webinar for UN World Cities Day, held on 31 October and co-hosted by Nelson Mandela University's department of building and human settlement development and its Institute for Sustainable Futures, with the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation.
The 2026 World Cities Day theme was "Regenerating the City: Adequate Housing for All", which the webinar extended to cover the mainstreaming of innovative building systems. Convenor Sijekula Mbanga, the university's chair of human settlements, said innovative systems that improve people's lives are needed to address the shortage of low-cost housing. According to the United Nations, about 3.4 billion people, roughly 42 per cent of the world's population, lack adequate housing, while South Africa's housing deficit is estimated at 2.6 million homes affecting 12 million people.
Mbanga said innovative building systems and technologies include new construction materials and climate-resilient methods for faster delivery of energy-efficient homes, and that all of them undergo engineering tests for structural integrity and performance under different climatic conditions, with certification from Agrément South Africa, a public entity under the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.
Nolwandle Gqiba, a town and regional planner who is executive director of human settlements for the City of Cape Town, cited the Greenville project in Fisantekraal near Durbanville, a partnership between the city, the Western Cape government and developer Garden Cities that has delivered about 4,000 homes including fully subsidised units, using lightweight Benex blocks made from cement and polystyrene beads that interlock during construction. In the Western Cape, a community centre at Elandskloof near Citrusdal on a community-owned farm uses bricks made from felled black wattle combined with a binder, a method its supplier nonCrete calls "alien biomass to housing".
Architect Jamie Smily, founder of XLAM South Africa, said cross-laminated timber has been independently verified against South African National Standards but still faces regulatory, political and municipal hurdles, and called for financial and regulatory support for green building. The Eastern Cape's Ekuphumleni Eco-Sun Green Village near Kenton-on-Sea was presented as an off-grid pilot using polystyrene-and-cement bricks with solar power and greywater treatment.
Emma Ayesu-Koranteng, head of the department of building and human settlement development at Nelson Mandela University, said government needs to create an enabling environment for innovative systems, including financing projects, and that whole-life cost assessment, carbon performance, environmental impact and long-term asset value should become standard for all construction methods. The webinar also examined digital twin modelling of cities for managing energy, water and infrastructure demand.