This book deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries, providing the main results of the BECOMe research project of the Politecnico di Milano. Sustainable, affordable housing in developing countries is increasingly important for African and international stakeholders, with massive urbanization processes involving many countries consuming large territories and natural resources minus any strategy of sustainability and social equality and without consideration of the long-term effects on the environment and subsequent generations. While the issue of affordable housing requires approaches adapted to the many specific African contexts, the case of Somalia seems representative of a fragile context characterized by the uncertainty of the social, political, and economic situations and the lack of common shared legislative references and strategies. The book aims to provide knowledge and propose a methodological framework developed from this particular situation that canserve as a template. On the basis of this main objective, the book deals with approaches and problems related to the creation of sustainable housing ecosystems, activating and boosting local enterprises and stimulating foreign investors to revamp the national AEC sector and related manufacturing industries, models for modular settlements, and business models and assessment methodologies useful for evaluating a set of appropriate technological solutions.Chapters 03 and 07 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries, providing the main results of the BECOMe research project of the Politecnico di Milano. Sustainable, affordable housing in developing countries is increasingly important for African and international stakeholders, with massive urbanization processes involving many countries consuming large territories and natural resources minus any strategy of sustainability and social equality and without consideration of the long-term effects on the environment and subsequent generations. While the issue of affordable housing requires approaches adapted to the many specific African contexts, the case of Somalia seems representative of a fragile context characterized by the uncertainty of the social, political, and economic situations and the lack of common shared legislative references and strategies. The book aims to provide knowledge and propose a methodological framework developed from this particular situation that canserve as a template. On the basis of this main objective, the book deals with approaches and problems related to the creation of sustainable housing ecosystems, activating and boosting local enterprises and stimulating foreign investors to revamp the national AEC sector and related manufacturing industries, models for modular settlements, and business models and assessment methodologies useful for evaluating a set of appropriate technological solutions.

Chapters 03 and 07 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Forward.- introduction.- PART I - East Africa context.- Chapter 1 – Housing contexts in East Africa.- Chapter 2 – Ecosystem perspective for sustainable settlements in East Africa.- PART II - Mogadishu as a representative case.- Chapter 3 – The dynamic and fragile context of Mogadishu as a representative case.- Chapter 4 – Climate responsive design and energy performance goals.- Chapter 5 – The fragmented and heterogeneous nature of manufacturing and construction sectors in Mogadishu.- PART III - Proposals for sustainable and affordable housing in Mogadishu.- Chapter 6 - Settlement strategy towards new business ecosystems.- Chapter 7 – Construction technologies and materials for sustainable affordable housing.- Chapter 8 – Estimation of construction costs: from technological solutions to the settlement scale.- Chapter 9 – Appropriate tools for decision-makers: proposal of a Decisional Support System (DSS).- Conclusions.