Abstract
This project aims to design a stove that is fuelled by wax, rather than paraffin, in order to reduce the
problems created by the use of paraffin and paraffin stoves among the urban poor living in South
African townships and informal settlements. The project, in suggesting that conventional approaches to
industrial design are inadequate to this task, seeks to explore more appropriate avenues for resolving
the design-related problems that arise from the socio-cultural and economic conditions of poor urban
communities. In order to more accurately address the needs of these communities with whom the
designer may have little in common, indigenous knowledge traditions, and the needs associated with
these traditions, are valued in defining the design problem. Fieldwork was conducted from this
intellectual standpoint with the purpose of gaining a fuller understanding of the conditions under which
paraffin stoves are used in South African townships and informal settlements, and to determine how
these conditions should impact on the design of the stove. A set of recommendations, that are informed
by the principles governing fuelled stove efficiency, and by which further wax-stove developments
should proceed, is presented with reference to the findings of the fieldwork programme. The practical
outcome of this research is the design for a wax-stove fuel system that accounts for the specific
requirements of potential stove users and supports the most successful solutions to the problems of
wax-stove ignition, control and shutdown that have been developed through the course of this project.
Mr. P. du Plessis