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.

As a global phenomenon, the housing situation of the poor is dramatic: An estimated 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing, and this number will almost double until 2030. Most of them will end up in so-called informal settlements, starting to build by themselves. In Lima, Peru, like in many other regions of the world, housing construction is a long-lasting process, not a purchase. For low-income families in particular, construction costs are often more critical than quality, which impacts the families’ safety and health.

Habitat for Humanity, a longtime partner organization of the Hilti Foundation, has started to build safe and disaster-resilient homes in Nepal for families in need. Since its inception in 1997, bamboo has been the environmentally friendly and local building material of choice for Habitat Nepal. But the current project is the first in the country to use the Hilti Foundation’s innovative CBFT.

The first Africa Housing Forum is rapidly approaching! Organized by Habitat for Humanity International this hybrid event will take place both place both virtually and in-person in Nairobi, Kenya from May 12-14, 2022. Hilti Foundation is the forum’s global presenting sponsor.

In 2011, together with its long-standing partner organization Swisscontact, the Hilti Foundation launched Construya, a qualification program for the informal construction sector in Colombia. Construya has developed training modules, in cooperation with state vocational training institutions, that teach better construction practices for the informal sector.

Globally, an estimated 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing. This has a significant impact not only on their safety and health, but also on their economic opportunities and social integration.

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 this episode of In this Case Johann Baar (Hilti Foundation), Scott Merrill (Habitat for Humanity), Corinna Salzer (Hilti Group) and Luis Felipe Lopez (Base Bahay) are talking about the Hilti Foundation’s approach to affordable housing.

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.