Bamboo houses win RICS competition

CUBO – a project to build low-cost and environmentally friendly housing units – will now receive the GBP 50,000 prize (app. PLN 240,000) money to start work next year.

Manila is one of the fastest growing cities in East Asia, with a population of 12 mln. An additional 2.5 mln ware expected to move into the city over the next three years to work on the government’s infrastructure programme, but already around 4 mln people live in abject slums.

Earl has designed a new type of modular housing to house the incoming worker population in the short term.

The bamboo housing is both affordable (at just EUR 67 per sqm) and quick to build (four hours per unit).

Earl will work with the RICS and industry professionals to begin work on the project next year, utilising RICS standards and best practice to ensure that it is delivered quickly to change the lives of the population of Manila. Earl has already identified a suitable plot of land to begin construction, with the hope that it will be used in other cities facing similar crises.

“This is a huge step forward to helping the people of Manila. The state of housing in the city is at crisis point, and will undoubtedly get worse with this new influx of workers,” he stated.