ALEXANDRA HOUSING Part 1 Project 2005 Tania de Oliveira Tshwane University of Technology Pretoria | South Africa Housing should be defined in terms of the dwelling environment and not the dwelling structure. The actual dwelling forms a small part of the neighbourhood. In a sense the areas and spaces surrounding the dwelling will play a big part in its success. The value is in the relationship between man and the environment and not simply the physical conditions.The concept is to integrate, or rather; to mirror the positive, vibrant lessons of Old Alexandra into the design in order to achieve a neighbourhood that is sustainable and native to its context. Tania de Oliveira This project applied the lessons learnt from a suburb in Johannesburg, a left over from APARTHEID era with a density of 700+ du/ha. The challenge to students was to identify the components of the wetness of the water that made Alexandra into one of the most active cultural centers of Johannesburg. Despite the physical discomfort of social structures and the extremely high criminal threats, these people have set up a sophisticated spatial organization to cope with the negatives. Due to minimum sized dwellings, streets and courtyards have become a continuum of living rooms. This project tried to capture that wetness.