This book deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries, providing the main results of the BECOMe research project of the Politecnico di Milano. Sustainable, affordable housing in developing countries is increasingly important for African and international stakeholders, with massive urbanization processes involving many countries consuming large territories and natural resources minus any strategy of sustainability and social equality and without consideration of the long-term effects on the environment and subsequent generations. While the issue of affordable housing requires approaches adapted to the many specific African contexts, the case of Somalia seems representative of a fragile context characterized by the uncertainty of the social, political, and economic situations and the lack of common shared legislative references and strategies. The book aims to provide knowledge and propose a methodological framework developed from this particular situation that can serve as a template. On the basis of this main objective, the book deals with approaches and problems related to the creation of sustainable housing ecosystems, activating and boosting local enterprises and stimulating foreign investors to revamp the national AEC sector and related manufacturing industries, models for modular settlements, and business models and assessment methodologies useful for evaluating a set of appropriate technological solutions.
Chapters [Chapter-No.] and [Chapter-No.] are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Oscar Eugenio Bellini, architect and PhD. in “Technical innovation and design in architecture”, is Associate Professor of Architectural Technology in the School of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. He teaches at the Bachelor and Master of AUIC School, and he carries out his research at the Department of Architecture, Built Environments and Construction Engineering. He is the author of a number of scientific articles, papers and books resulting from his academy research, and he has been an invited speaker at various conferences and seminars in Italy and abroad.
Andrea Campioli, architect and Ph.D. in Architectural Technology, has, since 2005, been a full professor of Architectural Technology at the Politecnico di Milano, where he carries out research activity in the Department of Architecture, Built Environments and Construction Engineering, as well as teaching both the bachelor course in “Architectural design”” and the master course in “Architecture” at the school of Architecture, Urban Planning and Construction Engineering. He also serves as the school’s board president of the bachelor course in the Sciences of Architecture.
Claudio Del Pero graduated cum laude in Environmental Engineering, subsequently earning a PhD. in building physics and technology. Starting in 2006, he has been engaged in research and advisory activities related to energy efficiency of the built environment and the exploitation of renewable energy sources, with particular reference to the topics of PV technology and distributed energy generation. Over the years, he has been involved in various national and international research projects related to renewable energy, energy efficiency in the built environment and energy management.
Cinzia Maria Luisa Talamo earned a PhD. in “Technical innovation and design in architecture” at the Politecnico di Milano with a dissertation titled “Project culture and new tools”, dealing with the tools that support projects in the maintenance phase (1994). She also has a Master’s Degree (five-year program) in Architecture from Milan (degree with honors). Starting in 2003, she served as Associate Professor (confirmed in 2006) at the school’s Department of Architecture, Built Environments and Construction Engineering, scientific sector ICAR/12 Tecnologia dell’Architettura (Architecture technology). Today, she is a Full Professor of Architectural Technology.
Davide Chiaroni, Engineer, Full Professor of Strategy & Marketing at Politecnico di Milano, where he obtained cum laude his Master of Science in Management Engineering in 2002 and later in 2007 his Ph.D. in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering. His research interest is in the management of innovation, with a particular focus on energy, sustainability and smart ecosystems (grid, buildings, communities, cities). He is also among the most cited author in the field of Circular Economy, where he studies the implications of the adoption of circular business models. He is co-founder of Energy & Strategy, a research group of the School of Management that publishes every year several research reports in the abovementioned fields that actively promote the debate in the industry and among policy makers.
Stefani Guidarini, Architect. He worked in the Studios of the architects Giancarlo De Carlo (1982-86), Gino Pollini (1986) and BBPR-Belgiojoso (1987- 90). Since 1990 he is practicing design research on public and private architecture, mostly related to the city and social housing. In 2011 he founded the post-graduate Master’s Degree in Social Housing at the Politecnico di Milano. He is Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Politecnico di Milano, where he teaches Architectural Design. He published the books Ignazio Gardella nell’architettura italiana (2002), Precisazioni sull’Housing Sociale in Italia (2017), New Urban Housing (2018). He won the 1996 In/Arch-Domus Architecture Prize and the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture of the Milan Triennale (2006). In 2010 he was invited to exhibit in the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Camillo Magni, teaches Architectural Design as Adjunct Professor at Politecnico of Milan and is Director of the Master “Design for development in the Global South”. In 2004 he has been participating in the international research program “Casapartes” to build low-cost houses in Latin America. He is author of more than 90 scientific papers, two books and co-editor for Casabella. In 2007 he founded “Operastudio” a design office in Milan. In its first years, Operastudio has been focussing on both private and public sectors, soon achieving notoriety and awards in international competitions. Operastudio's work has been exhibited in the Lisbon Architectural Triennale, in the Milan Triennale and in the Venice Biennale (2014). He leads the NGO Architetti senza frontiere Italia, working in several countries around the word and winning in 2015 the honourable medal of “Medaglia d’oro all’architettura italiana” and Silver medal “Fassa Bortolo” for the school project in Cambodia.
