Social Habitat and Development: Pan-American Architecture Biennale

BAQ 2008 invites all design professionals worldwide to participate in the ‘WORLDWIDE COMPETITION of SOCIAL HABITAT AND DEVELOPMENT’. All participating projects will be published in the XVI Quito Pan-American Architecture Biennale catalogue, and will be part of the BAQ/2008: Feel the Latin American Architecture.

In attention to the increase of poverty in all the world, caused by urban sprawl as a spontaneous answer to the deficit housing, the BAQ/2008, in partnership with the Department of Housing Development and Management (HDM) of the University of Lund, Sweden and under the Program PROMESHA (Programa de Capacitación para el Mejoramiento Socio Habitacional para Latinoamérica), financed by Swedish Agency for International Development (ASDI) and the, within the context of the BAQ 2008, have decided to include an international award oriented to visualize and acknowledge efforts made in the region to improve the lives of most vulnerable urban populations, within a sustainable framework, which grants them better living standards and an improved quality of life.

This category includes housing projects designed for users under the following parameters: community and collective habitat; shared in common and collaborative; self-built experiences; minimum housing and/or progressive housing; low-cost housing prototypes; technological advancement; neighborhood improvement; recovery of public spaces; natural habitat restoration and urban landscape design; collaborative design. The projects to be presented, must contribute to solve housing issues, and present cultural and esthetic contributions that strengthen the identities of their local communities.

Worldwide projects with a construction completion date between 2004 and 2008 and who’s entrant belongs to the professional bodies of the countries where they exercise their professions, may participate in this Competition.

http://www.bac.cae.ec/