Designing Safety Together: The Khayelitsha Model
Community-led fire safety and learning system
Communities living in informal settlements face a disproportionate burden of fire risk, yet are often excluded from the systems designed to protect them. Kindling uses a community-led, human-centered approach that combines local knowledge, participatory mapping, fire science, and co-designed learning tools to build safer communities. Rather than designing for communities, we design with them. Residents shape bilingual educational materials, visual reminders, films, and interventions that reflect local realities. The result is a scalable model that transforms communities from recipients of safety information into co-creators of safer futures.
Great way to empower local communities to co-create their own fire safety. Community-led, human-centered approach. An impactful model for inclusive safety design.
WINNER STATEMENTWe are honored. Winning the iF SOCIAL IMPACT PRIZE 2026 means that fire safety, when designed with communities rather than for them, is recognised as a design innovation. Our community-led project ensures that residents in Khayelitsha are the agents of their own safety. This prize allows us to continue co-creating practical knowledge about how to prevent fires with those who need it most.
Design