Uploaded on 2020-08-29 by Corinne Di Tizio-Schneider

This house stays in Potchefstroom, South Africa. A city 1500m above sea level. The climate with very cold, dry winters and hot summers with a lots of rain daily, needs a roof with properties as this thatched roof. Good isolation against heat, water and cold. The house is more than fifty years old and the knowledge about the behavior of the cape grass as roof material, is well known. The local material helps the sustainability and the transporting distance is short and has a small footprint. It grows every year along the roads. The modern standard of living is possible, also because in combination with a ceiling, you can have a inside living space without smell of the grass. Could the grass have similar properties as the straw? So maybe the organic material could be used together with the Catalan vaulting technique for further construction? Traditional roof shapes can easily made with this grass.