A-rubber

About

The construction industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, meaning the potential for positive impact within the sector is equally great.

According to UN-Habitat and World Bank figures, by 2030 three billion people will need new housing and basic infrastructure.  Alongside the huge demand for construction this represents, we are at a point of unprecedented awareness of the depletion of resources used for building, and of the impact the built environment has on the health of people, communities, and the planet.

Now is our chance to take decisive action, by developing patterns of designing and building to improve quality of life for people around the world, and by learning from and advancing the local knowledge and traditional methods that have been adapted to climate and context over generations.

To find out more about INTBAU you can visit our website.  You can also register to be part of the Architecture Challenge, and to be sent more details about our interactive online programme.

A-rubber

About

The construction industry is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, meaning the potential for positive impact within the sector is equally great.

According to UN-Habitat and World Bank figures, by 2030 three billion people will need new housing and basic infrastructure. Alongside the huge demand for construction this represents, we are at a point of unprecedented awareness of the depletion of resources used for building, and of the impact the built environment has on the health of people, communities, and the planet.

Now is our chance to take decisive action, by developing patterns of designing and building to improve quality of life for people around the world, and by learning from and advancing the local knowledge and traditional methods that have been adapted to climate and context over generations.

To find out more about INTBAU you can visit our website. You can also register to be part of the Architecture Challenge, and to be sent more details about our interactive online programme.

A-earth

The Challenge

INTBAU organised the Architecture Challenge as a design competition for resilient and adaptable houses that advance, adapt and update specific local building traditions to meet 21st century needs.

We asked students, teachers, architects, designers, engineers, and anyone with an interest in buildings and building to take on the Challenge from 2021-23. You can still watch the interactive online learning series below. The winning entries have now been announced on intbau.org. The shortlisted design proposals will be exhibited in an online exhibition in the Spring.

A-earth

The Challenge

INTBAU is organising the Architecture Challenge as a design competition for resilient and adaptable houses that advance, adapt and update specific local building traditions to meet 21st century needs.

We asked students, teachers, architects, designers, engineers, and anyone with an interest in buildings and building to take on the Challenge from 2021-23. You can still watch the interactive online learning series below. The winning entries have now been announced on intbau.org. The shortlisted design proposals will be exhibited in an online exhibition in the Spring.

A-stone

Programme

The Challenge launched in 2021 with an online programme of webinars, interviews, Q&A sessions, and spotlighted case studies from around the world.

Sessions in the online programme will be held live until January 2023, and will be free and open to everyone. Certificates will be awarded to those who take part in at least four sessions in the online programme.

Upcoming Q&A Drop-In Sessions on 29 Nov., 7 Dec., and 17 Jan.

Please see ‘Workshops’ for more information.


Past Sessions

Session 1 (Launch): Architecture’s Responsibility and Opportunity

This session sets the scene, demonstrating the scope of the challenge considering up to 40% of global carbon emissions are directly and indirectly influenced by built environment sectors and the opportunity this represents for those designing and building to be part of the solution to the climate crisis – providing better homes, shelters, houses, and housing in the process.

View the session recording

Speakers:

Elsie Owusu, Eric J. Cesal, Mina Hasman, Yasmeen Lari

Session 2:  Vernacular, Traditional, Local, Indigenous

For millennia, our planet has played host to many hundreds of methods of building structures for people to live and meet in and around. These methods have been adapted over generations, developing from local factors such as skills, materials, and climates.  

In 2021, there is increasing recognition of the wisdom and relevance embodied in vernacular, traditional, local, and indigenous methods of building, which work with nature rather than against it. This session will demonstrate (a small fraction of) the extraordinary diversity of the world’s building cultures, and the role the knowledge held within them must play in a sustainable built future.   

View the session recording 

Speakers

Manalee Nanavati, Ellen Buttrose, Professor Marcel Vellinga, Ángela Calvo García

Session 3: Difficult Questions

The third webinar in the Architecture Challenge programme focuses on unpicking some of the difficult questions that come hand-in-hand with any discussion of the future sustainability of the built environment. This session will feature four speakers answering tough questions and giving their thoughts and perspectives on issues such as what ‘better building’ should mean, what it could look like, and what currently makes it complicated or impossible in many contexts around the world.

Supply chains, the definition of a ‘natural’ material, carbon calculators, and construction standards will all be on the agenda. We will also look at questions relating to responsibility, and who holds it. Where should we start making changes? Can time-tested, zero-carbon, local design solutions be adapted internationally and at scale? How can building regulations accommodate flexible approaches that put people and planet at the forefront of the design process?

View the session recording 

Speakers:

Andrew Coates, Dr Hans Friederich, Rebecca Reubens, Jane Anderson

Session 4: Material Matters

For the fourth session in INTBAU’s Architecture Challenge programme, we will hear from four experts about why ‘Material Matters’. Our panel will examine four natural (and ‘natural’) building materials, outlining the materials’ potential uses and abuses as well as their aesthetic and health impacts, and responding to some of the difficult questions surrounding the future of supply chains and provenance.

View the session recording

Speakers

Kiran Pereira, Jez Ralph, Toby Pear, Kathryn Larsen

Session 5: Material Matters 2

For the fifth session and the second materials instalment in INTBAU’s Architecture Challenge programme, we will hear from four experts about why ‘Material Matters’. Our panel will examine four natural (and ‘natural’) building materials, outlining the materials’ potential uses and abuses as well as their aesthetic and health impacts, and responding to some of the difficult questions surrounding the future of supply chains and provenance

View the session recording

Speakers:

David Trujillo, Mattie Mead, Andrew Evans, Phil Christopher

Session 6: Homes, Shelters, Houses, Housing

Our planet is host to an extraordinary diversity of building traditions, which in turn shape the shelters that keep us safe from the elements. As we progress further into the decade of action towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the world seems to have an equal number and variety of shortages and crises relating to housing and the places we call home. Whether problems relate to access, quantity, or quality, too many of us are without resilient and adaptable houses.  

This session will focus on the subject at the heart of the INTBAU Architecture Challenge: homes, shelters, houses, and housing. Speakers will set the global scene, and will provide case studies to demonstrate how shortages and crises can be addressed.

View the session recording

Speakers:

Orna Rosenfeld, Marianne Cusato, Michael Hailegebriel and Ben Bolgar.

Session 7: The Urban and the Rural

Our urban areas are expected to grow one and a half times by 2045, to over six billion city dwellers – with developed land projected to triple. This rapid urbanisation is also intrinsically linked to rural depopulation in many towns and villages across the globe. This talk will explore the scale, variety and nature of the challenges of designing for dense urban areas and for sparsely populated rural ones. Speakers will dwell on the context of the ongoing pandemic, and pose the question: does that fact that the countryside, with the space, and locally accessible natural materials it provides, render it a more sustainable site in which to build?

Speakers: Antonio Jimenez Martinez, Filip Gawliński, Patrick Lamson-Hall, Dr Alex Arnall

View the session recording

A-stone

Programme

The Challenge launched in 2021 with an online programme of webinars, interviews, Q&A sessions, and spotlighted case studies from around the world.

Sessions in the online programme will be held live until January 2023, and will be free and open to everyone. Certificates will be awarded to those who take part in at least four sessions in the online programme.

Upcoming Q&A Drop-In Sessions on 29 Nov. 7 Dec. and 17 Jan.

Please see ‘Workshops’ for more information.


Past Sessions

Session 1 (Launch): Architecture’s Responsibility and Opportunity

This session sets the scene, demonstrating the scope of the challenge considering up to 40% of global carbon emissions are directly and indirectly influenced by built environment sectors and the opportunity this represents for those designing and building to be part of the solution to the climate crisis – providing better homes, shelters, houses, and housing in the process.

View the session recording

Speakers:

Elsie Owusu, Eric J. Cesal, Mina Hasman, Yasmeen Lari

Session 2:  Vernacular, Traditional, Local, Indigenous

For millennia, our planet has played host to many hundreds of methods of building structures for people to live and meet in and around. These methods have been adapted over generations, developing from local factors such as skills, materials, and climates.  

In 2021, there is increasing recognition of the wisdom and relevance embodied in vernacular, traditional, local, and indigenous methods of building, which work with nature rather than against it. This session will demonstrate (a small fraction of) the extraordinary diversity of the world’s building cultures, and the role the knowledge held within them must play in a sustainable built future.   

View the session recording 

Speakers

Manalee Nanavati, Ellen Buttrose, Professor Marcel Vellinga, Ángela Calvo García

Session 3: Difficult Questions

The third webinar in the Architecture Challenge programme focuses on unpicking some of the difficult questions that come hand-in-hand with any discussion of the future sustainability of the built environment. This session will feature four speakers answering tough questions and giving their thoughts and perspectives on issues such as what ‘better building’ should mean, what it could look like, and what currently makes it complicated or impossible in many contexts around the world.

Supply chains, the definition of a ‘natural’ material, carbon calculators, and construction standards will all be on the agenda. We will also look at questions relating to responsibility, and who holds it. Where should we start making changes? Can time-tested, zero-carbon, local design solutions be adapted internationally and at scale? How can building regulations accommodate flexible approaches that put people and planet at the forefront of the design process?

View the session recording 

Speakers:

Andrew Coates, Dr Hans Friederich, Rebecca Reubens, Jane Anderson

Session 4: Material Matters

For the fourth session in INTBAU’s Architecture Challenge programme, we will hear from four experts about why ‘Material Matters’. Our panel will examine four natural (and ‘natural’) building materials, outlining the materials’ potential uses and abuses as well as their aesthetic and health impacts, and responding to some of the difficult questions surrounding the future of supply chains and provenance.

View the session recording

Speakers

Kiran Pereira, Jez Ralph, Toby Pear, Kathryn Larsen

Session 5: Material Matters 2

For the fifth session and the second materials instalment in INTBAU’s Architecture Challenge programme, we will hear from four experts about why ‘Material Matters’. Our panel will examine four natural (and ‘natural’) building materials, outlining the materials’ potential uses and abuses as well as their aesthetic and health impacts, and responding to some of the difficult questions surrounding the future of supply chains and provenance

View the session recording

Speakers:

David Trujillo, Mattie Mead, Andrew Evans, Phil Christopher

Session 6: Homes, Shelters, Houses, Housing

Our planet is host to an extraordinary diversity of building traditions, which in turn shape the shelters that keep us safe from the elements. As we progress further into the decade of action towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the world seems to have an equal number and variety of shortages and crises relating to housing and the places we call home. Whether problems relate to access, quantity, or quality, too many of us are without resilient and adaptable houses.  

This session will focus on the subject at the heart of the INTBAU Architecture Challenge: homes, shelters, houses, and housing. Speakers will set the global scene, and will provide case studies to demonstrate how shortages and crises can be addressed.

View the session recording

Speakers:

Orna Rosenfeld, Marianne Cusato, Michael Hailegebriel and Ben Bolgar.

Session 7: The Urban and the Rural

Our urban areas are expected to grow one and a half times by 2045, to over six billion city dwellers – with developed land projected to triple. This rapid urbanisation is also intrinsically linked to rural depopulation in many towns and villages across the globe. This talk will explore the scale, variety and nature of the challenges of designing for dense urban areas and for sparsely populated rural ones. Speakers will dwell on the context of the ongoing pandemic, and pose the question: does that fact that the countryside, with the space, and locally accessible natural materials it provides, render it a more sustainable site in which to build?

Speakers: Antonio Jimenez Martinez, Filip Gawliński, Patrick Lamson-Hall, Dr Alex Arnall

View the session recording

A-plaster

Workshops

The Challenge online programme continues in September 2022, giving designers time to work on their proposals with support from expert panellists and mentors from the series.

Session 8: Supply Chains Deconstructed

In the eighth Challenge session, speakers look critically at linear supply chains, dwindling material resources, and a demand for new construction that will see three billion people require new housing and basic infrastructure between now and 2030.

This session sought to highlight the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and the nature-inspired principles, closely related to local building traditions, that come with taking a more holistic approach to design.

View the session recording 

Speakers: Adam Lusby, Evie Faure, Phanos Hadjikyriakou, Jorge Santos Silva

A-plaster

Workshops

The Challenge online programme continues in September 2022, giving designers time to work on their proposals with support from expert panellists and mentors from the series.

Session 8: Supply Chains Deconstructed

In the eighth Challenge session, speakers look critically at linear supply chains, dwindling material resources, and a demand for new construction that will see three billion people require new housing and basic infrastructure between now and 2030.

This session sought to highlight the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and the nature-inspired principles, closely related to local building traditions, that come with taking a more holistic approach to design.

View the session recording 

Speakers: Adam Lusby, Evie Faure, Phanos Hadjikyriakou, Jorge Santos Silva

A-wooden-plank

Recordings

Need inspiration? Why not catch up with past sessions in the Architecture Challenge programme of webinars, with all seven sessions available to view below.

A-wooden-plank

Recordings

Need inspiration? Why not catch up with past sessions in the Architecture Challenge programme of webinars, with all seven sessions available to view below.

A-bamboo

Design Competition

The Architecture Challenge design competition has an extended submissions deadline of 31 January 2023.

Proposals must advance local traditions and be low-carbon, low-cost and easy to build, and respond to a real location anywhere in the world that is affected by one or more of

lack of houses that are affordable, sustainable, and appropriate for their context

climate that needs more, new, better, or different design solutions

rapid change through population growth or decline

Participants in the design competition will be encouraged to work in multi-disciplinary teams. The online learning series will also provide opportunities for networking.

Design submissions will include an application form downloaded from the Architecture Challenge website, which will require:

    • an application form downloaded from the Architecture Challenge website, which will require
      • a context statement which describes the location, its built and/or climactic challenges, and its building traditions, and which outlines plans for engagement with the local community/ies
      • a methods and materials statement which describes any advancing, adapting, or updating of the local vernacular to meet 21st century needs
      • a statement confirming the authors’ permission will be given for the design to be open source, shareable, downloadable, and scalable
    • a selection of high-resolution photographs, plans, drawings, and renderings

A first prize of £4,000 will be awarded to the winning entry, with two secondary prizes of £2,000 each. The deadline for submissions is 12:00 midnight (GMT) on 31 January. 

An international jury will select the shortlist and winning entry. The jury consists of Yasmeen Lari, Alireza Sagharchi, Marcel Vellinga and Farrokh Derakhshani.

You can download the application form below:

INTBAU – Architecture Challenge – Application Form

A-bamboo

Design Competition

The Architecture Challenge design competition has an extended submission deadline of 31 January 2023.

Proposals must advance local traditions and be low-carbon, low-cost and easy to build, and respond to a real location anywhere in the world that is affected by one or more of

lack of houses that are affordable, sustainable, and appropriate for their context

climate that needs more, new, better, or different design solutions

rapid change through population growth or decline

Participants in the design competition will be encouraged to work in multi-disciplinary teams. The online learning series will also provide opportunities for networking.

Design submissions will include an application form downloaded from the Architecture Challenge website, which will require:

    • an application form downloaded from the Architecture Challenge website, which will require
      • a context statement which describes the location, its built and/or climactic challenges, and its building traditions, and which outlines plans for engagement with the local community/ies
      • a methods and materials statement which describes any advancing, adapting, or updating of the local vernacular to meet 21st century needs
      • a statement confirming the authors’ permission will be given for the design to be open source, shareable, downloadable, and scalable
    • a selection of high-resolution photographs, plans, drawings, and renderings

A first prize of £4,000 will be awarded to the winning entry, with two secondary prizes of £2,000 each. The deadline for submissions is 12:00 midnight (GMT) on 31 January. 

An international jury will select the shortlist and winning entry. The jury consists of Yasmeen Lari, Alireza Sagharchi, Marcel Vellinga and Farrokh Derrakshani.

You can download the application form below:

INTBAU – Architecture Challenge – Application Form

Resources

Net Zero Carbon Guide

Climate Framework Resource Library

Healthy Materials Lab 

Prefabricated wooden housing at the Finnish Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Where are the architects who will put the environment first?

“Define what is a natural material” What about mycelium?

Yasmeen Lari: architects can no longer serve the 1%

Hemp Concrete: From Roman Bridges to a Possible Material of the Future

RIBA Stirling Prize 2019: Cork House

Health and Urbanisation: What Makes a Healthy city?

Cob: what can we learn from this traditional building material?

Laterite: low-impact, affordable and beautiful

Curry Stone Foundation

Ellen MacArthur Foundation 

Kathryn Larsen Tutorials

Hempcrete – Plant based, bound by earth, carbon dioxide absorbing

CobBauge: Bringing traditional Cob into the 21st Century

Straw-Bale Building United Kingdom (SBUK)