With: Natural Building Lab TU Berlin

In the current context of rapid urbanisation, affordability of housing — not only in money terms, but also in terms of the environmental impact — is a growing concern. The tug-of-war between the environment and development means that spatial exclusion and social segregation are emerging as universal phenomena, affecting even developed countries. Design helps to achieve more with significantly less: better use of “human” resources (intelligence, knowledge, time) can prevent depletion and deterioration of other natural resources. The key to building an affordable future is surely education; and not only increasing access to formal education, but prioritising lifestyle issues and consumption patterns. We have to learn to discriminate between the necessary and the superfluous, so that cities not only survive, but thrive. Anupama Kundoo’s architectural projects over the last 25 years have centred around both developing knowledge about building in this context, and building knowledge across the community: craftspeople, engineers, designers, students, manufacturers, users, etc. Knowledge is empowerment. Architecture is the result of building knowledge and building processes. Projects of the future need to be environmentally sensitive, as well as socio-economically beneficial.