Buildings collapsing under the effect of erosion, a barely completed building collapsing… Building a sustainable habitat in Africa is a real headache. The question was at the center of the congress of the National Order of Architects of Chad which ended on Saturday, May 7, in Ndjamena, a meeting attended by members of the conference of the Orders of Architects of Central Africa, a region where all the inhabitants have the same housing problems.
With our correspondent in Ndjamena, Madjiasra Nako
How can the poorest be able to find good housing? You don’t necessarily need concrete, says Adamou Souley, secretary general of the African federation of French-speaking architects: ” For sustainable housing, we mean housing which is adapted to the environment for which it is designed, which is accessible to as many people as possible from the cost point of view, and which nevertheless has a certain lifespan because we do not not built so that tomorrow it flies away “.
Local solutions
Local solutions exist, adds, for her part, Hayatte Abdérahim Ndiaye, the president of the National Order of Architects of Chad: “ There are a lot of solutions apart from the earth, of course, which is the material par excellence. There is wood, there is straw that we know and there is stone “.
We must go in this direction so that Africans build at a lower cost, adds Antoine Bokolojoue, president of the conference of architects of central Africa: “ How to innovate in what already exists ? You know that importing is very expensive. The bag of cement in Chad is very expensive. You see, there are many things we can do so that we have buildings that allow us to live well in our countries. “.
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African architects invite politicians to favor local skills. They live here and can therefore better understand the problems, they plead.
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