There are few proper houses in Alex

Space in Alexandra is at a premium. Decades of chronic overcrowding and the unregulated erection of dwellings have placed a severe strain on services. The township has about 4,000 formal houses and 34,000 shacks for its 350,000 residents.

Christine Mahlalela lives with her husband, their own four children and her late sister’s three children in a single room in a rambling house. Two outside flush toilets are the only ablution facilities for the 30 families who share the house and its outbuildings.

“It’s small, but at least I can get my three-quarters bed in here,” says Christine. There is another single bed, shared by the older girls, while the boys and the small children sleep on a piece of foam rubber in the kitchen area.

Christine sighs as she surveys the holes at the corners of the room where the mauve walls meet the ceiling.

“This roof is old. When it rains, I have to move everything. The water comes down the walls and soaks everything.”

During winter, temperatures in Johannesburg plunge to –2C at night, and the electricity supply is erratic.

But Christine scoffs at the new houses being built by the Alexandra Renewal Project, saying she wouldn’t move to “those matchboxes”.

Tatyane's apartment is on the 9th floor

Curitiba, Brazil

The city authorities have bought up swathes of land along transport arteries and used them to provide high-density housing for low-income residents. But the region’s social housing organisation estimates that about 35,000 families still live in slums.

Tatyane lives with her husband in a small flat in an 11-floor apartment building near the city centre. They have two rooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, electricity and running water.

She and her husband bought the apartment with a mortgage which uses 90% of the salary he earns as an electronics technician. Tatyane says they live quite well in comparison to others in the city, although she would like more space and complains about noise, vandalism and fights in the neighbourhood.

Land use zoning and strategic restrictions on high-rise building have been enforced to encourage development that gives residents easy access to services, either by public transport or on foot.

This seems to have worked in their area: “I have everything I need here, within walking distance,” she says.