Program

Sustainable Building Solutions

20 percent of the world lacks adequate shelter while many building techniques and materials are unsustainable. Sharing low-cost, low environmental-impact, community driven solutions can improve living standards globally. Both modern and traditional cultures can benefit from the exchange of ideas.

Track Themes:

Cross Cultural Design and Construction

Cross-cultural design and construction can be both practical and sustainable given the resources of a particular region. We have much to learn from other cultures about living in harmony with our environment and communities to develop sustainable living models. There must be a cross-cultural dialogue to blend tradition with modern ideas.

Development and Environmental Impact

Development will always have an environmental impact. The way we develop our living environments will directly affect the ecosystem we live in. In designing and building infrastructure, such as roads, dams, bridges, sanitation systems, landscaping and buildings we must strive to minimize the environmental impact to protect our natural resources (or natural living environment?)

Sub-Standard Housing Solutions

Everyone deserves to have adequate shelter. Globally, many people are living in sub-standard housing, some un-safe against climatic occurrences and without basic necessities, such as clean water or adequate sanitation. From refugees to inter-city housing, affordable and creative housing solutions are part of the future.

Creating Sustainable Communities

Community is perhaps the most important survival technique that we have developed in our evolutionary process. Our present implementation of creating structures has not placed community as a high priority, ignoring the fact that community meets our psychological/emotional needs as well as our physical needs. There are many successful examples of both traditional and modern approaches to building and design that sustain and initiate community.