The Next Stride in Local Upliftment with Urban Think Tank Empower’s Soweto-Caracas Community Centre
Created through the Urban Think Tank Empower Upgrade Model, the Soweto-Caracas Community Centre is a milestone in transforming informal settlements into holistic environments. The project was born as a thought experiment in 2016, and nearly a decade later is a movement in creating formal, safe, dignified, and empowering spaces for community members on the land they have inhabited for over 30 years.
A hub for connection
As part of the Empower project’s dedication to uplifting the people in Khayelitsha, Urban Think Tank Empower (UTTE) was determined to develop a space to provide support for the immediate and surrounding communities. The Soweto-Caracas Community Centre was an obvious move in achieving this goal. The facility is equipped to encourage community cohesion, provide practical and social support, and create a central hub and gathering space to facilitate increasingly sustainable socio-spatial equilibrium.


Celebrating collaboration
Housing is more than just four walls and a roof — an obvious notion, but one that is often overlooked in the provision of affordable homes. The community centre, however, places this as priority, providing a plethora of facility functions: a multi-purpose hall, a gathering space, an indoor soccer/netball field, a daycare centre and crèche, and a rooftop farm. Further, the centre provides an office and coworking space, as well as kitchen and bathroom facilities. Many design discussions were held with the community members to ensure their needs were met, even including them in the programme selection. This collaboration was celebrated as a clear path to the successful execution of the project, proving to be a beacon of hope and a colourful commitment to empowering people and improving lives.
A system of sustainability
As a multi-faceted facility designed to ensure socio-economic sustainability for the full Empower precinct, the community centre utilises every component of the rooftop farm to provide a result far more valuable to the community than the sum of its parts. The rooftop garden provides food security, education, and income generation for ongoing management and maintenance of the development. ‘The Urban Farm initiative addresses food insecurity while supporting economic independence,’ says Delana Finlayson, Managing Director of UTTE. ‘It empowers residents with fresh, nutritious food and practical skills, fostering a stronger, healthier community.’
The building is designed to operate off-grid and doesn’t have an Eskom connection, rather relying on a PV solar system above the rooftop farm, generating sufficient energy for the building to run itself and provide public lighting to the area. There is also a series of green practices provided to ensure sustainability through a variety of lenses and at a variety of layers, from the water recycling and storage tank below the building to passive ventilation and expulsion of hot air on the sports fields.


Choosing local for longevity
UTTE was passionate about staying local in as many areas of the project as possible. The building is built from locally produced, easily sourced, and robust materials. The palette prioritised socioeconomic sustainability through an alternative building practice with 50% of the labourers being recruited from the local community and ensuring a skills transfer that would be relevant and beneficial in the area long after the immediate project’s completion. These approaches are all rooted in the concept of empowering the community through the centre, both in the construction as well as its future.
The inauguration of the Soweto-Caracas Community Centre testifies to the power of collaboration, particularly when pursuing the development of a space set to boost social support. Forward thinking and holistic, Urban Think Tank Empower’s project is a step in the right direction for community development and upliftment through architecture — a much-needed movement for the local built environment.
This article is an extract from our 2024/25 Coffee Table Edition. Click here to read the full issue.