Bamboo Housing for Sustainable, Resilient Urban Development and Post-disaster Recovery

The event will begin with opening addresses from UN Habitat and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing followed by technical presentations that highlight how bamboo is becoming a codified building material that is helping cities increase resilience and preparedness to disasters, as well as rapidly respond to them. Experiences will be shared from Ecuador (CONGOPE), Peru (San Martin University), Colombia (AIS), China and Nepal (ICBR), and the Philippines (Base|Hilti Foundation). The event will also launch three publications; a post-earthquake assessment of bamboo structures in Ecuador and technical reports on bamboo shear wall testing and design and strength grading. The main theme of this side event will focus on how to use bamboo as a strategic resource to build urban resilience through the provision of sustainable, safe, culturally appropriate, and affordable housing. In recent years, there have been major advances in the standardization and codification of bamboo engineering in several developing and least developed countries. This is now allowing urban planners, particularly in Latin America and Asia, to incorporate bamboo housing and infrastructure into sustainable urban systems. This has already had a major impact in supporting both post-disaster responses, as well as disaster prevention in many urban and periurban areas. The side event will share these experiences with Habitat III participants, as well as latest technical innovations in bamboo engineering. This is expected to enable further uptake of bamboo as a building material across its entire natural growing range of Asia and the Pacific, the Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa.