Great Trek A coordinated migration of South African families

The plan

We are not moving into a town. We are building one.

The host country assigns an area of land. Our planners, engineers and builders go first and design it with them - not near an existing town, not competing for existing housing. A town designed once, properly, with everything we now know about materials, energy and water.

The kind of place planning departments fly people in to look at.

Where it starts The plan on the ground Built by the people moving in A town that works

Where it starts

Assigned land, surveyed and agreed with the host country. Nothing built, nothing promised, everything still to decide - together.

Illustrative concept rendering
Where it starts
01 - Where it starts
Assigned land, surveyed and agreed with the host country. Nothing built, nothing promised, everything still to decide - together. Illustrative concept rendering
The plan on the ground
02 - The plan on the ground
Street pattern graded in, plots pegged, services routed. The advance team works alongside the host country's planners from the first week. Illustrative concept rendering
Built by the people moving in
03 - Built by the people moving in
Our own builders, electricians, plumbers and engineers. Local labour and local suppliers alongside them, paid at local rates. Illustrative concept rendering
A town that works
04 - A town that works
Homes of three sizes in one material language, a school, a clinic, a high street. Built to be studied, and to be lived in. Illustrative concept rendering

The masterplan

The masterplan

One town, designed once and properly. Housing of three sizes intermixed rather than sorted by income, a high street within walking distance of every home, a green corridor along the watercourse, and its own power, water and treatment works at the edges.

The masterplan

Illustrative concept rendering

  1. 01Residential blocks - three plot sizes, deliberately intermixed
  2. 02School and sports fields
  3. 03Medical centre
  4. 04Market square and town hall
  5. 05Green corridor and watercourse
  6. 06Solar array and battery storage
  7. 07Water and wastewater treatment
  8. 08Workshops and light industry

Three sizes, one town

Three sizes, one town

We will have wealthy families and families who are not. They live on the same streets, in the same material language, behind no walls. This is set on day one because it cannot be fixed later.

Three sizes, one town
Three sizes, one townIllustrative concept rendering

Compact

One or two bedrooms · courtyard · single storey

Family

Three or four bedrooms · garden · two storeys

Homestead

Four or more bedrooms · wider plot · workshop

The things that make it a town

A primary school within a twelve-minute walk of every home
A primary school within a twelve-minute walk of every homeIllustrative concept rendering
A high street you can do the week's shopping on, on foot
A high street you can do the week's shopping on, on footIllustrative concept rendering

How it works

How it works

Every figure below is a DESIGN TARGET, not an achievement. Nothing has been built.

How it works
Illustrative concept rendering
  1. 01

    Rooftop solar and block-level battery storage, sized to carry the town through an ordinary evening peak without drawing from the grid.

  2. 02

    Rainwater capture and greywater recycling on every plot, with potable and non-potable supply kept separate.

  3. 03

    Street-side swales and a stormwater corridor, so runoff is slowed and absorbed on site rather than piped away.

  4. 04

    Building fabric and insulation specified for the host climate, so heating and cooling demand is low before any system is switched on.

  5. 05

    Materials sourced locally wherever the host country can supply them, with local labour alongside our own trades at local rates.

  6. 06

    Waste separation, composting and recovery designed in from the street layout up, not retrofitted.

The count is open.

Enrol your family