Milky-Way

South African informal settlements are widespread and account for large portions of the population, unfortunately, the occupants of informal settlements are trapped in less than favourable living conditions. The very nature of informal settlements, by default, eliminates basic municipal services such as electricity and plumbing.

Located just 20 kilometres outside of South Africa’s Mother City, Cape Town, Gugulethu is a vibrant community. Unofficially established in 1958, Gugulethu is one of South Africa’s oldest and fastest-growing informal settlements. Apart from the bustling life within Gugulethu, the settlement suffers from extreme poverty, disease, crime, and sanitary and electrical challenges. The Milky Way design concept draws inspiration from the Milky Way constellation, representing a river of stars, visible in the night sky. This design concept aims at introducing light and colour to an environment that lacks both.

Cable theft is a large community challenge, leaving homes and streets without light sources, contributing to criminal opportunities. Apart from cable theft disabling electrical supply to many informal homes, cable theft also provides large health and safety hazards, as the remains of these cables, along with open power boxes and substations, all remain exposed to the public. The Milky Way design solution provides no interest to the cable theft industry, as the entire solution’s composition is free of copper or other high-value materials.

The Milky Way Light consists of PVC wind turbines that power bright LED strips for street lamps during the night, all while representing the shape and flow of the milky way and funnelling natural light through a focused lens and fibre optic cables to the interior of informal housing solutions during the day. Repurposing telephone poles that commonly run through informal settlements and are otherwise abandoned, simplifies the installation process. The PVC wind turbines connect to the inverter battery box and bright light for fibre optic plug-ins. Sequentially, the fibre optic cables connect to a secondary box, which is mounted to the interior of an informal housing structure.