Scene 8: Bringing Green Innovation to the Crèche

Background

            After meeting with Eric Atmore at the Center for Early Childhood Development, Stephen Lamb met with the Wash Team and a representative from the Flamingo Team about his company Touching the Earth Lightly and its potential support for the construction projects at each site.

Cast of Characters

WPI Project Team Member: Sarah
WPI WaSH Team
WPI Professors: Scott Jiusto, Lorraine Higgins
Touching the Life Earth Lightly Founder: Steven Lamb

Setting

On the patio at the lodge

Scene

Stephen Lamb, founder of Touching the Earth Lightly, joined students from the Cape Town Project Centre for a meeting with our advisers on the patio at the lodge.  He sat down and launched into describing the work he does with Touching the Earth Lightly.

His main focuses in informal settlements were “food, fire, and flooding,” he told us.  He proposed solutions to each one respectively utilizing vertical, space saving gardens, fire resistant structures, and seasonal flood planning.  These methods would help bring sustainability to structures, incrementally upgrade settlements and bring a naturally inspired value to what was currently viewed as extreme poverty.

A crèche in Langa recently received such a renovation featuring stilting to prevent flooding and seepage, poly-carbonate boards for use of natural lighting, two layer walls with corrugated steel exterior and fire boarded interior, and a vertical garden on the north facing wall utilizing an auto drip rain water catchment system.  Stephen then transitioned to our projects and focused on the WaSH facility in Langrug, then the crèche in Flamingo Crescent.

Stephen expressed interest in potentially funding a project that acts as a multi-purpose “Innovation Centre.”  In Flamingo Crescent, this would act primarily as a crèche, but it would also feature a second story multi-purpose community development space.  He was eager to integrate large windows and a vertical, educational garden.  Stephen was also extremely impressed by the CAD layout design of Flamingo Crescent and was eager to commit his resources to both teams.

Reflection

This was an important meeting for our team because we were able to land another potential donor and designer for the Flamingo centre.  Between the two resources, we can ensure that a facility is built after we leave.