Often cultural factors such as social values, traditions, and attachment to a location can influence communities facing and responding to natural disasters. We have looked towards indigenous architecture to develop traditional building methods and materials, making this design process replicable and indebted to a search for ‘Africanness’ in space. The repeating fractal geometry captured and embedded within the latticed brick walls, for instance, is an acknowledgement of the ever-permeating fractal design found within braided hairstyles to housing settlements in Africa. Aside from a means of enclosure, the design on the façade also provides much-needed ventilation and lighting for the building. The fabric adorning the building is white in colour to translate the notions of purity and spirituality associated with the colour in African culture. This design of the EOC is also a design for domesticity, where the space bears immediate references to the equivalent structures of normal life in the local residential environment. By appearing domestic, as opposed to institutional, a normalised, welcoming, and familiar environment is produced, that can help calm occupiers and better support their participation in treatment and rehabilitation.