Rwandan authorities have adopted a new national urban housing policy that makes it mandatory for developers to build high-rise structures in cities. The policy comes in response to the high rate of urbanisation and land shortage. Traditional single-storey buildings will be outlawed to save land for other uses such as urban agriculture.

Edward Kyazze of the Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA) told the New Times newspaper that high-rise buildings have the advantage that they require less infrastructure to connect to public utilities and infrastructure compared to low-density areas with one-storey structures. Multi-storey housing facilities will also feature social amenities, including sports and health facilities, shopping centres, social halls and learning centres.

But critics fear the ordinary Rwandan cannot afford multi-storey residential housing, particularly in the city centre with its high rents. Kalisa Vestinah, a student at the University of Kigali, would like the housing authorities to instead encourage developers to build affordable homes for low-income earners.

In Kigali, a lack of affordable housing is contributing to the growth of slums and other unplanned settlements. According to a 2012 housing market survey, the city requires close to 350,000 more residential units by 2022 in all categories – affordable, mid-range and premium housing – to satisfy growth....

Clay burnt bricks require wood to produce, contributing to deforestation across Africa and increased greenhouse gas emissions. In an effort to make the production of bricks more sustainable, the world’s largest cement producer LafargeHolcim, which is headquartered in Rapperswil-Jona in the canton of St.Gallen, produces Durabric.

Described as an environmentally friendly and affordable alternative to traditional clay burnt bricks, Durabric bricks are produced from a mixture of earth and cement, which is compressed into a mould and left to cure naturally without firing. According to a company statement, this process reduces greenhouse gas emissions tenfold compared to traditional fired bricks. Durabric is already being used in Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia.

To accelerate the production and commercialisation of Durabric in additional countries, LafargeHolcim has joined forces with the UK’s development finance institution CDC to launch a joint venture called 14Trees – named after the process, which saves up to 14 trees per house on average. The two partners are jointly investing CHF 10 million and intend to further finance the joint venture’s future growth.

“By combining CDC’s investment expertise with our technical skills and local knowledge, we will be able to scale-up the roll-out of Durabric more rapidly and in more countries,” said Gérard Kuperfarb, a member of LafargeHolcim’s Executive Committee in charge of growth and innovation....

With building emissions set to rise in the coming decades to support an ever-expanding urban population, researchers at the University of Cambridge are looking to create new building materials that are strong, sustainable and inspired by nature.

Bioengineer Michelle Oyen, who works in the field of biomimetics, is constructing small samples of artificial bone and eggshell, which could be used as medical implants, or even be easily scaled up and used as low-carbon building materials.

Like their real-life counterparts, artificial bone and eggshell are composites of proteins and minerals. According to a Cambridge statement, the protein gives the material its toughness and resistance to fracture, while the mineral makes it stiff and hard. In her lab, Oyen and her team “template” the mineral components directly onto collagen, the most abundant protein in the animal world.

But Oyen cautions that it will take some time before we’re living in bone and eggshell houses. Although the process takes place at room temperature and the samples take very little energy to produce, the researchers are now investigating if non-animal-derived or synthetic proteins or polymers could be used instead.

In addition, the construction industry is a very conservative one and constructing buildings out of entirely new materials would mean completely rethinking the whole industry. “But if you want to do something really transformative to bring down carbon emissions, then I think that’s what we have to do,” says Oyen....

The newly formed Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy builds on the climate commitments of more than 7,100 cities from 119 countries and six continents. According to a statement from the European Commission, together they represent more than 600 million inhabitants or over 8 per cent of the world’s population.

“The EU Covenant of Mayors shows that when mayors share a vision of a low-carbon future and roll up their sleeves, things get done,” said European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič. “Never before have so many cities joined forces, eager to inspire each other and committed to collectively taking the path to a low-carbon, resilient society.”

The new initiative will allow for greater collaboration between cities around the world by bridging gaps, building connections and increasing funding to support cities in taking action on sustainable energy and climate change.

The former EU Covenant platform and the platforms supporting the Compact of Mayors will share their data on cities’ energy and climate actions and make them publicly available through a new website to be launched in January 2017. This will make it easier to compare cities’ achievements to other cities and towns around the world.  

The Swiss cities of Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Nyon and Zurich are a part of this new global initiative through their current membership in the Compact of Mayors....

The Urban Future Competition is inviting start-ups to present their transformative business solutions in one of two categories: smart cities and smart grids. The first category includes urban infrastructure and resiliency, transportation and transit, the Internet of Things, sensor networks, analytics and more, according to a statement from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, which launched the competition. The second category includes renewable energy, grid modernisation, distributed generation, microgrids and the like.

The Urban Future Lab is located at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in New York City. It is home to many programmes such as the business incubator ACRE, which is one of the cluster partners of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA). The Swiss business association swisscleantech is a founding member of the global network of cleantech companies GCCA, and its chairperson Christian Häuselmann is responsible for innovation and export at swisscleantech.

The winners of the Urban Future Competition will receive a prize of up to USD 25,000 and will also join the ACRE incubator where they will meet with mentors who can help them with their ideas and further develop the start-ups and their innovations.

The application deadline is 14 August. Finalists will pitch their ideas to their jury on 12 September and the winners will be announced two weeks later on 27 September....

Mining city Kiruna, which has 20,000 inhabitants, is ugly. It is a bleak place 145 kilometres north of the polar circle. Kiruna’s true value lies under the earth’s surface. At a depth of 1,365 metres is the largest underground ore mine in the world. By 2019, Kiruna will migrate east to make way for iron ore mining.

Because holes and crevices can cause the earth to sag, the city must be torn down and rebuilt a few kilometres away. State mining company Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB) shared the news with the municipality in a letter at the end of 2003. If the residents hadn’t agreed, the pit would have had to close to avoid any protest or argument.  

Without the ore, which has been extracted since 1900, Kiruna would not exist. There is nothing around it. 116 years ago, nobody could have known that in the future, the city would lie too close to the edge of the pit. Thanks to the mine, Kiruna has no unemployment today.  

The whole centre – including 3,000 single-family homes and everything else that makes up a city – will now be razed. Only the old church and a few other historic buildings will be relocated to the new city centre. “We don’t know what it will all cost,” said architect Mikael Stenqvist. “But the mining company has the money for it. It makes up 2 per cent of Sweden’s total gross domestic product.”

Stenqvist’s architecture office White won the tender, because it promised to make the new Kiruna more attractive and sustainable. “The new Kiruna will offer more leisure activities: cinemas, shops, culture, swimming pools, football fields. Access to nature and skiing will be easier,” commented Stenqvist....

When completed, Astana Expo City 2017 will be one of the most sustainably built developments in the world, writes Architect magazine in an article containing construction photos and design sketches from the architecture firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG).

Expo 2017 will run from 10 June to 10 September 2017, at which time the 174-hectare development will be converted into an office and innovation park with additional residential developments. The buildings are designed in a manner that they can be easily converted into usable spaces – museums, office buildings, educational facilities – after the three-month expo is over, said Adrian Smith.

Given the theme “Future Energy”, the entire development has been designed to minimise the site’s energy use while maximising its energy efficiency and energy-harvesting potential, according to the article. The buildings are designed to operate as power plants that harness energy from the sun and wind. They will use the power directly and supply any excess power to the district-wide smart grid for storage or use, said Gordon Gill.

High-performance glazing will maximise solar heat gain in winter while providing shading in summer. Energy piles will reduce energy demand, while exposed thermal mass will provide temperature modulation within the buildings during both summer and winter. In addition, 90 per cent of the waste generated on-site will be diverted from a landfill thanks to recycling or composting, while rainwater will be harvested to save resources.

“What was important to us in this project was working toward a higher standard for urban development and architectural design, one that serves the needs of a 21st-century community,” said Robert Forest, a partner at AS+GG. “Our philosophy was to design a community that can be used for the Expo, not an Expo that has to be retrofitted into a community.”...