November_1967 — Page 24

Report on Afro-Asian Housing Congress

THE

HE contribution that the building industry can make to low cost housing in the Afro-Asian countries and to housing generally came in for much useful discussion at the Second Afro-Asian Housing Congress which has just concluded an eight-day ses- sion (Oct. 7-15) at Singapore's im- posing S$4 million Conference Hall building. Delegates from 21 nations, who submitted 24 working papers, participated in the deliberations.

Significantly the congress turned to the question of how fabrication can reduce housing costs and pro- posed that steps should be taken "to obtain detailed data on natural or fabricated building materials available in each of the Afro-Asian member countries, with a view to further cir- culating the data and facilitate ex- ..changing building materials, which will eventually lead to low costs of housing projects."

Shortage of Planners

that

While on the subject of building Arterials, the congress felt schemes of housing and development should be synchronised with schemes of building materials production to avoid bottlenecks during execution.

Another kind of bottleneck was the shortage of planners, architects and experts in building materials in cer- tain Afro-Asian countries.

To meet this problem, the con- ference recommended that the Afro- Asian Housing Organisation under- take a survey of available technical skills in different fields "with a view to circulating them among the Afro- Asian member countries" to help in housing projects.

Touching on a number of other widely different subjects under the head of building industry, the con- gress reaffirmed the recommendation adopted in the first congress calling for the expansion in housing projects as part of development planning schemes to serve productive purposes and not merely as exclusive services.

"This will eventually lead to the expansion of the building materials industry, thus creating more oppor- tunities for employment," it said.

The congress recommended that before the adoption of any pre- fabrication system of construction, it should be fully studied, “taking into consideration the local circumstances

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50

LOW COST HOUSING – A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE

and the experiences achieved in de-

with veloped countries,

a further analysis of results to devote efforts to of gradually mechanising methods traditional building.'

37

As a means of maintaining and increasing the national housing stock, the congress proposed that govern- ments should encourage the private sector to repair old residential build- ings, and increase the number of storeys of existing buildings permis- sible within the prevailing building regulations.

In its resolutions and recommenda- tions, the congress stressed that the size and scope of housing problems varied from one Afro-Asian country to another. "Nevertheless, the pro- blems and challenges of housing of the Afro-Asian countries remain, in broad line, quite similar and uni- versal," it said.

Its recommendations were made to meet this challenge.

Deliberating on the subject of housing principles, the conference's first thoughts were again on low cost housing. As Singapore's Minister for Culture and Social Affairs, Inche Othman Wok, observed when he ad- dressed the congress at the closing ceremony: "Housing or the lack of it is a matter of political importance in Afro-Asia."

Thus, the congress "notes with deep concern the inadequacy of housing and all forms of shelter in the vast majority of the urban and rural areas of the Afro-Asian coun- tries, and especially among the lowest income group, and urges the govern- ments to view with utmost serious- ness, as speedily as possible, this primary condition of Afro-Asian humanity, doing all in their power to solve it.

"Vigorous efforts in all private, co-operative and especially

especially public sectors must be channelled to cope with this serious shortage of low cost housing."

Population Explosion

The population explosion and its effect on housing was another ques- tion which exercised the minds of the delegates.

"The congress believes that the enormous birth rate, causing a demographic explosion, as well as the uncontrolled influx of population

by Chia Poteik

from the rural areas

to the large cities, are two very serious causes aggravating the housing problem." said the conference.

"This being the case, it is advocat- ed that definitive housing policies should be formulated by the govern- ments concerned, and that such hous- ing policies should be integrated to overall national policies.

"Housing must not be construed in the limited sense of merely build- ing physical shelter but should be approached comprehensively by utilising the expertise and experience. covering all ramified aspects of the housing field.

"New housing development, slum clearance and urban renewal, being indivisible parts of the dynamic city region, must receive deep study within the overall process of compre- hensive city and regional planning.

"The social, economic, geographic factors, as well as many indigenous ones, of any country concerned must be the determinants of the method of housing solution adopted."

The congress went on to deal with an aspect of housing which most closely affects the tenants.

Socia! Livability

"Housing schemes," it said, “must be viewed as the habitation places of human beings and must be so design- ed and developed to optimise their social livability, their aesthetic out- look as well as their functional rela- tionship to city and landscape.

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"Slum clearance and urban renew- al should not be embarked upon without careful consideration of the social and economic consequence of the people affected, and should only be carried out when there is already an adequate supply of new housing."

The congress is aware that there is an inadequacy of funds to cope with the problems of the very poor for years to come, and recommended that priority in the use of available public housing funds should given to the improvement of the "worst housing settlements to benefit the greatest number of people."

be

The congress was emphatic that principles, concepts and practices of planning and housing for the Afro- Asian must not be arbitrarily import- ed, "but should emanate organically from the prevailing factors and iden-

Far East Architect & Builder November, 1967