On June 24, 2016 the climate change resilient pilot house was inaugurated at Bicol College for Applied Science and Technology (BISCAST) in Naga City, representing an alternative to conventional construction for affordable, social housing. It consists of the application of a lowcost housing technology including climate-adapted and energy-efficient devices.

Without the cost for finishing work (tiling, flooring, plastering, painting, etc.) the m2 price can be lowered to PHP 5,500/m2 (116.75 U$) leaving the finishing works to be done by the owners in order to make it affordable for even lower income groups.

Moreover, it employs environmentally friendly construction technologies (prefabricated beams and hollow blocks) without wooden formwork. It can be built in a short span of time thus further reducing the costs.

The specific advantages of the technology are as follows:
• Modular architectural system reduces the number of different building parts, leading to a reduction in different types of formwork
• Reduction of waste material and waste water on site by up to 30 percent
• Approximately 50 percent reduction of mortar due to the hollow concrete blocks (HCB) concept of “closed bottom”
• Reduction of 40 percent of concrete and 30 percent of steel works for slab construction due to HCB-slab system
• 30 percent increase in the use of cement for HCB in order to achieve the required strength for load bearing walls
• Natural ventilation (cross ventilation throughout the building)
• Natural illumination, window/wall ratio 40 percent and roof lights
• Energy efficient devices (LED lights and occupancy sensor)
• Reduction of electricity consumption by more than 25 percent through photovoltaic system
• Water conservation via rainwater harvesting
• Re-use of clarified waste water as fertilizer for urban gardening.

The Climate Change Resilient Pilot House was built on the premises of BISCAST, which is a very committed and ideal partner for the dissemination of innovative technologies considering the Nexus approach.

The Urban Nexus is supporting BISCAST through a competent development worker and a short-term expert from Ethiopia specialised in low-cost housing technologies, thus promoting the South-South Dialogue.

Young engineers and architects trained at BISCAST are the best target group to create a change in mindset. This is achieved by training them on-the-job together with their instructors on the basis of concrete projects accompanied by contractors from the private sector.

In line with the slogan “seeing is believing”, the inauguration event proved quite an eye opener for the Mayor of Naga who-during the course of the eventordered his city engineers to study the technology and introduce it into the engineering department of the city for already scheduled further housing programmes.

The representatives of the Science and Technology Commission of BICOL Region declared their full backing for a broader spread of this innovative technology as a teaching subject in other colleges and as a technology to be disseminated by private contractors. It helps to reduce the construction costs and improves the stability and hence the safety of the building. This is particularly important in the Philippines given its increasingly frequent exposure to such natural disasters as hurricanes, earthquakes and flooding where resilient and cost efficient housing is the most urgent need. With 10 percent of the population of 100 million living below the poverty line, social housing becomes even more relevant.

BISCAST’s President Dr. Richard Cordial declared: “BISCAST will become the leading institution in the Philippines and maybe even in South East Asia for the introduction of affordable, resilient housing and other innovative technologies on the basis of the Nexus approach”.

This best practice example shows that it is not only cities that play an important role as key drivers of change. Academe is another relevant partner for transformative action reaching out to the young generation as the future of our planet.