SUDU: Sustainable Urban Dwelling Unit
This research is driven by a series of key prototypes and the development, design, and construction of double-story, sustainable, low-cost urban dwelling units, based on the current urban conditions and needs of Ethiopia. These will be used as showcases for integrative discipline thinking and an experimental laboratory to convince politicians, urban planners and also architects to rethink traditional building methods and social space requirements, in order to find new ways to build a town or even a city.
The prototypes, designed and built by the BLOCK Research Group, are tile vaulted structures using only local materials, built with minimal formwork, resulting in housing not dependent on imported materials for their construction and with a minimal carbon footprint.
