Context

Forecasts indicate that more than half of global population growth until 2050 will occur in Africa, and it will be followed by the expansion of housing and building needs. This expansion must be based on sustainable and energy efficiency principles to mitigate global warming. New buildings should be designed following concepts that will make them robust against expected climatic changes during their lifetime. But unfortunately, the manifestation of globalisation trends in building design resulted in the adoption of inadequate design solutions for warm climate regions, which performs poorly energy-wise.

©United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) | Kenya

Our mission!

© Moufia Lecture Theatre | La Reunion

In this context, it is urgent to study the best sustainable designs for warm climate zones to unleash their market and research potential, thus popularising these concepts to a broader audience. These designs involve bioclimatic approach, low-energy cooling techniques and the use of local construction materials, some of which already exist in Africa and only need to be identified and adapted. Combining these next-generation approaches with the best bioclimatic solutions will be the hallmark of the ABC 21 project.

Objectives

Identify, report and strengthen Bioclimatic designs and local materials in Africa and Europe.
Promote the exchange between Africa and Europe to enhance policy and regulations for low-cost and effective Bioclimatic designs.
Support the development of certified sustainable and cost-effective building local materials and its supply chain.
Analyse the applicability of state-of-the-art of surface finishing’s and future weather files in innovative bioclimatic solutions.

Stakeholders

Policy Makers: to inspire policy changes in order to facilitate and promote the use of low-energy-embedded local materials and energy-efficient design concepts in the construction and building sector.

Education Sector: to disseminate within the education and research areas techniques and concepts regarding the bioclimatic approach, local materials and low-energy cooling.

Public Sector: by understanding these concepts and techniques, the public sector can be a facilitating agent by supporting bioclimatic and energy-efficient designs.

Development Agencies: to inspire actions by international and national development agencies to facilitate the access to investment for projects that meet good energy and comfort quality specifications and the potential of the bioclimatic approach as a cost-effective and sustainable method.

Financing Institutions: To disseminate these building and construction concepts to international financing institutions, so that they can understand the importance of these methods and hopefully develop specific lines of credit to finance these projects.

© Niama Residential Building | La Reunion: Façade

Project timeline

Allies

ABC 21 contributing allies will allow conducting liaison activities with key actors, targeted stakeholders, associations, communities and research programs in the different countries, stimulating activities based on cross-comparisons Africa-EU and Africa-Africa. During the project, the allies will be important sources and channels for collecting relevant information in raw data and existing analysis/reports for the different tasks. The allies will also help exploit and disseminate the results, covering a large space in physical and cultural terms.

1. ADEME (Agence de la transition écologique, previously Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie) – France

2. Comune di Milano – Italy

3. Construction 21 – France

4. eceee (European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy) – Europe

5. MTES-Fr (Ministère de la Transition écologique et solidaire) – France

6. MEAE-Fr (Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères) – France

7. Global ABC (Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction) – France

8. AFD (Agence Française de Développement) – France

9. Kyoto Club – Italy

10. Paris Habitat – France

11. ECREEE (ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency) – ECOWAS states

12. Arch. Dominique Gauzin-Müller – Germany

13. BPIE (Building Performance Institute Europe) – Belgium

14. FIABCI (Fédération Internationale des Administrateurs de Biens Conseils et Agents Immobiliers) – Nigeria

15. World Green Building Council MENA – Middle East and North Africa