Imagine being decided upon, having your home taken from you overnight and being forced to rebuild with what you have left. For most people this is unimaginable, but for Rodelio and Marivic it became reality. The land their family had farmed for generations has been cleared for development, leaving them facing an uncertain future.

For centuries, bamboo has been central to life in Nepal, serving as a material for homes, tools and rituals. In the southern Terai plains, it was essential for survival in regions prone to natural disasters. However, traditional bamboo structures were temporary and fragile, requiring constant repair and maintenance, preventing families from investing in other aspects of their lives.

As we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the BASE Bahay Foundation, we look back on a decade of groundbreaking work in bamboo construction, transforming lives of thousands of low-income families through innovative and affordable housing solutions.

With its research and testing center, the Bamboo Academy and its own construction projects in the Philippines, Nepal and other Asian countries, the BASE Bahay Foundation, founded by the Hilti Foundation in 2014, aims to make bamboo a standard building material of the future – dedicated to the needs in construction of low-income families.

By 2030, it is predicted that 3 billion people worldwide will be living in substandard housing. Affecting their education, health and livelihood, this is one of the reasons why underprivileged families remain in the so-called poverty trap. To help alleviate this situation, the Hilti Foundation, together with the BASE Bahay Foundation, collaborate for affordable technology solutions to improve housing and the lives of low-income families.

To date, CBFT, has been primarily used in the Philippines and Nepal to build affordable homes for families in need. The Hilti Foundation's green and disaster resilient construction technology has now been further developed, showing high potential to be used in larger community buildings to provide livelihoods for families from disadvantaged backgrounds and their communities. The first facility has just opened.

The Affordable Housing & Technology focus area is about changing the way low-income families build and live. Here, our work is based on three initiatives: spreading bamboo construction, creating an inclusive housing industry, and building coalitions of impact.

Affordable Housing & Technology is one of the Hilti Foundation's focus areas. That involves more than the well-known Cement Bamboo Frame Technology, which provides safe and sustainable homes for families in need. The Foundation also supports the development and implementation of other solutions to improve the way families live and build.

The Hilti Foundation and Habitat for Humanity are working together to scale Cement Bamboo Frame Fechnology in Nepal and the Philippines. This innovative building method was developed by Base Bahay Foundation, an organization founded by the Hilti Foundation. The homes built using this technology are constructed with specially treated bamboo and cement plaster that makes them disaster-resilient and sustainable.

1,200 low-income families have found a new home thanks to Cement Bamboo Frame Technology, a disaster-resilient construction solution developed by the Hilti Foundation.

In January 2021, BASE inaugurated the BASE Innovation Center (BIC), a comprehensive research and testing facility for safe, affordable, green and sustainable housing technologies.

In January 2021, the BASE Bahay Foundation opened its BASE Innovation Center (BIC), a research and testing center for bamboo construction and other alternative building materials in Manila, Philippines.

Marissa, 47, is one of the so-called urban poor who are most strongly affected by the pandemic and its economic consequences. Marissa works as a garbage collector in Payatas, a neighborhood in Metro Manila, Philippines which is home to the country’s largest waste site.