Madera. Innovation for Social Architecture in Uruguay.

Madera: Building with Timber Competition. Innovation for social architecture.

Madera: Innovation for Social Architecture is an international competition and one of the ten actions of the Roadmap to enhace wooden construction for social housing in Uruguay. The Road Map was presented by the Ministry of Housing and Territorial Planning (MVOT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in May 2022 with the aim of promoting the use of wood for social architecture.

In Uruguay, wooden construction is an incipient sector, with significant growing development potential due to the sustained growth of the forestry sector over the last thirty years. Domestic production is mainly focused on pine and eucalyptus species (Pinus elliottii/taeda and Eucalyptus grandis). These species can be suitable for structural and decorative use. Their specificities are included in the European reference standard for strength classes and the structural feasibility of using GLT (Glue Laminated Timber) from Uruguayan pine and eucalyptus has been demonstrated and the structural suitability of Uruguayan pine for the manufacture of CLT panels for the construction of housing and residential buildings has also been experimentally demonstrated. 

In 2020, the government of Uruguay made it a priority to boost the timber industry and promote the use of the material for both construction and carpentry. In particular, the MVOT has identified in the construction of social housing an opportunity to boost the development of the wood sector and respond to the high housing deficit, estimated at 60,000 units. The competition Madera: Innovation for Social Architecture is presented within the framework of the Roadmap and is a call to innovate low-density wood housing typologies; onestory dwellings that can be paired or isolated, to be built by MEVIR in a demonstrative complex of 20 units in the town of Tranqueras, department of Rivera. In the long term, it is expected that the success of this pilot project will allow scaling up the production of sustainable construction systems in domestic wood, improving the circular economy based on the wood industry, impacting on the reduction of the carbon footprint of the construction sector, storing carbon in buildings and therefore reducing the formation of greenhouse gases, thus contributing to climate change mitigation.

Under these premises, in January 2023 the Ministry of Housing and Territorial Development of Uruguay and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) presented the Madera: Innovation for Social Architecture competition. The call represents an opportunity to develop and build demonstration projects that prioritize wood as the main construction material in Uruguay. The main objective of the competition is to incorporate technological and design innovation, energy efficiency and sustainability inputs in social interest architecture. It is also intended that the success of this competition will serve in the long term to encourage the production of housing built in wood, with the consequent positive impact on the carbon footprint, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation of climate change.

The competition terms and conditions seek to generate synergies between national and international technicians and companies to develop and disseminate sustainable wood construction systems. It also seeks to create new economies based on the wood industry, reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector and address the national housing deficit through innovative architectural solutions of high quality standards.

Three building typologies will be designed and built in Uruguay thanks to this call for proposals:

Low-density housing: The call seeks the design of a set of 20 single-family, one-level, sprawling houses in a peri-urban area surrounded by forestation in the town of Tranqueras, Department of Rivera, northern Uruguay. The houses may be detached or semi-detached and the winning proposal will be built by MEVIR (Uruguay’s public housing system), which is responsible for social housing in rural areas of the country.

Mid-rise housing: The city of Durazno will see the construction of the first mid-rise residential building in Uruguay, a tower with a minimum of six stories and a maximum of nine, accommodating between 24 and 30 apartments. In this case, the National Housing Agency will be the partner in making the housing units a reality, and the winning proposal will build the units in accordance with the agency’s guidelines and allocation of resources.

Health-care center: In Montevideo, a program aimed at improving the living conditions of people residing in informal settlements is under implementation, one of them being Parque Cauceglia. In this case, the winning bidder will build a health facility (polyclinic) with financing from the program and subsequently managed by the Administración de los Servicios de Salud del Estado (ASSE).

Links:

Viviendas en altura de madera en Uruguay: propuestas para innovar en la arquitectura de interés social – Results of the mid-rise Madera competition, Plataforma Arquitectura. September, 20, 2023.

Viviendas sociales de madera en Uruguay: en camino hacia la innovación en la arquitectura de interés social – Results of the low-rise Madera competition, Plataforma Arquitectura. July 31, 2023

Convocatoria para construir una policlínica de salud de madera: Innovando la arquitectura de interés social en Uruguay – Plataforma Arquitectura. June 28, 2023

Earth Day 2023: promoting the use of wood as a sustainable construction material in Uruguay – Veronica Adler, Jeannette Sordi. Inter-american Development Bank Sustainable Cities Urban Development. April 19, 2023

Madera: Low-rise housing competition – Archdaily. April 6, 2023

Madera: Mid-rise housing competition – Archdaily. February 8, 2023