New 3-bunk version of the Nested Bunk Bed!

We are now selling the bunk bed as a three piece unit. We are very excited about this - the "triple-bunk" is better for smaller homes and comes at a new reduced price! Here's the ad that's going live in the next week in South Africa:

Care for Kids

This week we began a new project with Care for Kids, an organisation that supports churches looking after orphans and vulnerable children. Care for Kids is run from The Warehouse, a trust in Wynberg, Cape Town that forms the social-outreach arm of St John's Parish.

Together with Care for Kids, Shoebox Homes is installing beds in five different home across Cape Town. It's been a great week and we have met some wonderful and grateful people. The first two homes received their beds this week:

1. The Beukes Family, Gugulethu.




2. The Mabanga Family, Mxengi.

[photo removed]

Renovating in Mbekweni

About three weeks ago, we did some further work in the home of the Scott family in Mbekweni township. Their two room house (sleeping 15 people!) had a pokey kitchen and not enough sleeping space. In addition to providing the compact Nested Bunk Bed, we moved the kitchen wall and added a new door between the kitchen/main room and the second room. We also gave Mrs Scott some design/layout suggestions for her furniture so as to increase the space in the home.

Here are some of the pics before the walls have been plastered:

Delivering to the Hlanza and Mbembe Families

Two beds were installed this week in Mbekweni, bringing our total to 19! Our target is 20, so we've only got one more to go!

Mrs Hlanza received three beds in her home, improving the sleeping conditions for the seven people who live in her home (the room is not big enough to take the full five beds).

Before:
After:

Then we went over to the Mbembe home, who actually live in Fairyland very near Mbekweni. Like Mrs Hlanza, Mrs Mbembe also received three beds. However, after some design suggestions (simply rearranging furniture) more space will be created and we will be delivering the last two beds in the next week!

Before:

After:

Focus On: Y. Tsai

Y. Tsai is a Cape Town-based architect who runs Tsai Design Studio. He is the designer of our main product - the Nested Bunk Bed. He also contributed to Aram's moving wall idea by detailing some of Aram's concepts.

Tsai sits on the board of Shoebox Homes and is a key contributor to the activities of our organisation. We are always making demands on him for new designs, assembly instructions for the beds, and countless other tasks! Check out his website here.