ECOMATERIALS 5

SUSTAINABLE HABITAT

OCTOBER 12 TO 14, 2016, IN RIOBAMBA, ECUADOR

The EcoSur network is organizing the issue number five of the “International EcoMaterials Conference” in the week prior to Habitat III in the nearby city of Riobamba. The Global Network for Sustainable Housing, co-ordinated by UN-Habitat, has joined as co-organizer of the event.

From October 12 to 14 presentations and debates will be shown on basics around the construction, maintenance and upkeep of habitat focusing on developing countries. Our view goes towards towns and intermediate cities as well as to popular neighborhoods in large cities, but concentrating on small and medium scale actions with strong ties to the base. Technologies, practices and materials that can be produced or applied at local level and implemented by small and medium size actors are at the center of the conference. While we focus on “best practices”, proven and well tested, the conference will also provide space for promising innovations and new developments.

This conference is a complement to Habitat III (UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development) that will take place in Quito, Ecuador, with a platform for practical solutions. It is a follow-up to the previous four conferences that united several hundred participants from all over the world, presenting and debating ideas, solutions and experiences around the themes of sustainable habitat, disaster relief, know how transfer and new ways to reach sustainability.

The “EcoMaterials” movement has consolidated over the last 20 years. It is a good moment to look at the paths followed from the perspective of sustainability, which was the subject of the first of this series of conferences that took place in Havana in November 1998. Production and use of EcoMaterials is becoming more and more frequent in many countries and in some it has entered the formal sector with an impact in the local market. Its utilization in varied contexts, as in post disaster projects, in the fight against poverty or in formal commercial housing, has converted EcoMaterials into versatile solutions. The technologies developed do not constitute cultural, political, social or technical barriers.

The EcoMaterials Conferences are part of the international alternative movement demanding for alternative practices to be introduced into the formal housing market, as the economic, technical and social sustainability have been demonstrated. The Conference has converted into an ideal medium for multilateral contacts and interchanges among personalities and institutions which in one form or another are related with the development, production and trade of EcoMaterials. The work sessions are organized in workshops with debates on the different topics related to the Conference’s main theme: Sustainable hábitat

This is a unique opportunity for practically minded decision makers to combine their visit to UN-habitat III with an update on the state of the art in reducing the ecological footprint of their cities, neighborhoods and projects.

Please download the full conference call here (PDF, 320 kbytes)