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Why Ntlo?
During the  last two decades the topic of sustainable design has emerged as a major concern within the design and construction industries. While attention has been paid to the retrofit of existing buildings, the largest amount of attention has been focused on technologies related to new construction.

The rapid urbanization of the world's population together with the growth of urban communities have created a condition where a significant percentage of the world's population is living in what can be defined as substandard housing. The provision of adequate housing to these populations have been a point of research and discussion and while progress is being made it is clear that the problems associated with inadequate housing will not be solved easily.

What is Ntlo?
The Ntlo Project takes it name from the Sotho word for 'hut'. The primary goal of the Ntlo Project is to bring design knowledge to the poorest of the poor in order to enable them to improve the quality of their lives through low-cost, simple, community driven, architectural interventions. 

How does it work?
The Ntlo Project consists of 4 phases: Identification, Analysis, Generation, Dissemination. 

Identification: The identification of housing typologies in a specific geographic area is the first step of the project. Special attention is paid to the construction materials used in the construction of houses. This information together with geographic and climatic details provide the required information for analysis.
Analysis: Through the analysis of existing structures, specifically the environmental performance certain shortcomings are identified. In some cases energy modeling, measures of indoor environmental quality and spatial analysis are used in conjunction with more traditional research methods (e.g. surveys, photographic documentation and interviews)  to help identify potential areas for improvement.
Generation: Considering the potential shortcomings, low-cost, community driven solutions for improving existing conditions are generated. These solutions typically focus on small, simple and low-cost (rather no-cost) strategies to improve the performance of houses.
Dissemination: The final stage of the project is the dissemination of the information regarding the identified strategies. The primary means of dissemination is the distribution of appropriately translated and illustrated material within identified communities. Secondary strategies also include the establishment of task oriented community groups or utilizing the printed media. With the expansion of cellular and mobile services into underdeveloped areas, steps can now be taken  to developed simple mobile applications to facilitate not only identification and analysis but also dissemination.

Current focus
Our current focus is on two building types commonly found in South Africa, the RDP house and the informal 'shack'.

RDP House: Houses created under the South African Governments' Reconstruction and Development Plan are commonly referred to as RDP houses. These houses typically consists of concrete masonry walls with a corrugated sheet metal roof. While many of these houses are painted, many are unfinished.
"Shacks": Shacks typically consist of units with wood or corrugated sheet metal walls or roofs. These units typically have dirt floors.
While the RDP houses offer a much improved level of comfort over the informal 'shack', both these types tend to be lacking in terms of thermal and environmental performance and is currently the topic of this study. 

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