Designs of substance: Solar oven

This piece is the result of a 1 week project and was shortlisted for the Audi Foundation's 'Designs of Substance' competition, 2007. The brief was to design for the residents of a township in South Africa who lack the facilities that they require for adequate security, education and family life.

The solar oven is designed to be easily built, cheap, simple to use and efficient; the user can simply receive an oven kit or use scrap sheet material to build their own oven using the instruction leaflet as a guide. The oven works by reflecting the Sun’s heat into the insulated box where the temperature can reach up to 150 degrees Celsius. This temperature is more than enough to sterilise water or to slow cook most kinds of food including bread, soup, potato and meat.