Symposium on social housing in Brazil and the Netherlands

The purpose of the symposium is an exchange of knowledge and experience by Brazilian and Dutch specialists on this subject. By lectures, workshops, movies, excursions and an exposition we hope to shed a light on various aspects of social and low-cost housing in both countries.

The symposium will be organized by Design & Build Brazil, an educational project of the department of Architecture of the School of Technology of the HvA. D&BB aims to accumulate knowledge and experience about improvement of living conditions in slums. The number of people living in cities is increasing rapidly worldwide. In many parts of the world a large proportion of the increasing urban population lives in slums. Brazil is ahead of this trend: by now about eighty percent of the population are citizens, many of them living in slums.

Design & Build Brazil aims to study this increase in slums as well as possible solutions to improve living conditions. D&BB is organized in four phases: Research, Design, Building and Evaluation. In each fasenew teams of students work on a graduation assignment, using the results of previous student teams. The project aims to achieve technical innovation and cooperation with building companies.

During the symposium D&BB will present its past achievements and its plans for the future. Besides, there will be an exhibition of the graduation projects by HvA student teams who made designs for a small social housing complex near favela Mangueira in Rio de Janeiro. A jury will examine the designs from various points of view, discuss their considerations in public and choose the most successful project.

The symposium is meant for architects, urban planners, engineers, and other professionals involved in social and low-cost housing as well as for students in these fields. Further information about the D&BB project is available at www.designandbuildbrazil.net.