Cities of the Global South face an unprecedented urbanisation pressure, which led to a sporadic, unplanned and uniform infrastructure development. Natural ecosystems, cultural distinctiveness, human scale, wellbeing and liveability were heavily compromised upon. As a result, most of our cities are overcrowded, home to increasing inequalities and vulnerabilities, offer poor and insufficient infrastructure services, a low-quality building stock and a uniform cityscape. Cities face increasing damages from extreme weather events, high carbon footprints owing to high embodied and operational energies, lack of unique visual identity affecting cities' economic competitiveness and social cohesion in the long run.
In this context, we urgently need to identify an alternative way of meeting today's infrastructure and housing needs which equally responds to the need of building fast and affordable and to the need of building unique, sustainable and livable. Cities have a short window of opportunity to do so. The World Bank estimates that over 60% of the infrastructure the world will see in 2030 is yet to be built, and a large part of it will be built in cities. Once in place, this infrastructure will lock cities into a living pattern for decades.
A number of break throughts are already taking place: compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB), use of wood to make tall buildings, prefabricated/modular and 3D printed housing tailored to the local context or circular economy mainstreamed into construction materials are some of the examples. These tailor building materials and techniques to the local context, utilise appropriate technology, and activate the potential of bringing togethe ...
Hotel Borobudur Jakarta (Sumba B) 55th ISOCARP World Planning Congress in Jakarta/Bogor, Indonesia congress@isocarp.orgCities of the Global South face an unprecedented urbanisation pressure, which led to a sporadic, unplanned and uniform infrastructure development. Natural ecosystems, cultural distinctiveness, human scale, wellbeing and liveability were heavily compromised upon. As a result, most of our cities are overcrowded, home to increasing inequalities and vulnerabilities, offer poor and insufficient infrastructure services, a low-quality building stock and a uniform cityscape. Cities face increasing damages from extreme weather events, high carbon footprints owing to high embodied and operational energies, lack of unique visual identity affecting cities' economic competitiveness and social cohesion in the long run.
In this context, we urgently need to identify an alternative way of meeting today's infrastructure and housing needs which equally responds to the need of building fast and affordable and to the need of building unique, sustainable and livable. Cities have a short window of opportunity to do so. The World Bank estimates that over 60% of the infrastructure the world will see in 2030 is yet to be built, and a large part of it will be built in cities. Once in place, this infrastructure will lock cities into a living pattern for decades.
A number of break throughts are already taking place: compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEB), use of wood to make tall buildings, prefabricated/modular and 3D printed housing tailored to the local context or circular economy mainstreamed into construction materials are some of the examples. These tailor building materials and techniques to the local context, utilise appropriate technology, and activate the potential of bringing together localized vernacular approaches and cutting-edge technologies. Such breakthroughs need to be further upscaled and new ones need to be identified.
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