Makindye Ssabagabo
The goal of Green Community Cities is to develop affordable, sustainable net-zero housing within the context of an integrated solution addressing these objectives on both the individual building scale as well as the neighbourhood scale. Through a shared approach Green Community Cities will deliver a demonstration adapted to the needs of the local community, while simultaneously being scalable for wider economic and sustainability impacts.
Green Community Cities is composed by: IBSF, Impulser, Marula Proteen, Urban Planning Constelation, EcoBrixs and CLC Global.
Isabel Wetzel, Program Officer at UN-Habitat, met with Eckardt Dauck, Founder of Impact Building Solutions Foundation and Lead of the Green Communities Cities Team, to get to know more about this winning solution.
I.W: Can you describe your team’s proposed solution to the challenge defined by Makindye Ssabagabo?
E.D: The Green Community Cities team’s proposed solution is still in early stages of development and will be a synthesis of the next few months of working with the municipality and a diverse set of stakeholders. Our vision is to develop a scalable demonstration project that is culturally appropriate to the neighborhood context and market, by providing an advanced building system and operating model that allows the mixed used housing cluster and its residents to achieve a form of self sufficiency and net-zero carbon footprint.
I.W: Can you tell us about the team you’ve put together?
E.D: We put together a really good team that has the ability to plan and design and build and operate a demonstration project – everyone is very excited. Let’s start with Urban Planning Constellation a US based experienced urban planning organization, who have developed for instance the Kigali master plan; Eco Brix from Uganda specializes in plastic waste collection and recycling, and manufactures building materials from this waste; Marula Proteen also based in Uganda and the Netherlands collects and processes organic waste, and will design a waste disposal system for the project. We have another US company, CLC Global and they produce interlocking light weight blocks, and will do that locally in Uganda; Impulser from Sweden specializes in water saving technologies like low flush toilets and last but not the least Impact Building Solutions Foundation, we will act as design and build developer. Together with the municipality we think that we can address the issues of climate change through solving waste management, reduced energy and water utilization, and create more affordable solutions while improving the quality of life of the local residents.
I.W: How has the team creation phase opened up new opportunities for collaboration with the city
E.D: During the team creation phase, we engaged with the municipalities and a number of local stakeholders to make great connections. A number of our members are based in Uganda – some 20 minutes away from the municipality so we could actually go there and interact, and that helped us a lot. We are now in the early stages of data gathering and discovery phase where we hope to engage more with the local officials, community organizations and institutions and very important with potential future residents. A very important part of the next phase is to engage the public, to have targeted focus group interviews, to fully understand the culture, vision, ambitions and needs, and that is critical for us to develop a sustainable solution.
I.W: What excites you about the work that will be done over the next few months?
E.D: We are all looking forward to working together as a team and learning from each other. We are so diverse and have so much expertise that needs to come together. Everyone is looking forward to meeting together in Uganda with the municipality. As a team we are planning to have a 1-week workshop where we really make good progress and everyone can focus on their expertise but also come together in a team and exchange ideas.
The most exciting aspect for us going forward is to work with the local community and to engage with them and together define a realistic program that can be co-developed and is an affordable model that will actually be implemented and not just end up as a piece of paper in a drawer. We have everything it takes to do that, and we have already received very positive feedback from the community. We are also very excited to have neighborhood clusters become more self-sufficient both on the environmental level as well as socioeconomic level through creating local jobs and establishing ecosystems.
