A new bamboo housing project for the new worker population in Manila also has potential for Africa\u2019s housing problems.<\/p>\n
Earl Patrick Forlales, from Manila, has won the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Cities for our Future competition with an idea that could help solve the city of Manila\u2019s slum housing crisis.<\/p>\n
Forlales has designed a new type of modular bamboo housing that will be used for workers in the short term, before being applied to the rest of the city\u2019s slum community.<\/p>\n
The housing is both affordable at just \u00a360 per square metre (R1,046<\/span>) and fast to build – four hours per unit).<\/p>\n Forlales chose to use bamboo for CUBO\u2019s construction, inspired by his grandparent\u2019s rural bamboo house and its abundance in the region. It is also environmentally friendly, with waste used as a resource – converted into, among other things, biochar – a charcoal-like substance produced from plant matter and which has a range of uses.<\/p>\n The material is both treated and laminated, meaning that its lifecycle is 10 times as long as normal bamboo.<\/span><\/p>\n The key benefits of CUBO are:<\/p>\n Forlales will now work with RICS experts and industry professionals to begin work on the project next year.<\/p>\n According to Absa, the average building cost per square meter in South Africa, in the three categories of new housing in 2018:<\/p>\n\n
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