UIA ARES - ARES COMPETITION

The Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG) and the UIA International Work Programme on Architecture and Renewable Energy Sources (ARES) organized an international ideas competition for the period 2006 - 2008 that invited architects to develop new construction methods and practices for efficient shells and settlement units that will satisfy the urgent housing needs engendered by different geographic, topographic, ecological, social, or political crises.

Architects from around the world were invited to submit viable solutions for inhabitants that can be set up quickly and economically, and respect the environment and natural resources.

The goal of the competition was to collect innovative ideas and examples of bioclimatic shelter typologies that utilize renewable energy sources and can be exploited in different locations, climates, and cultures. Propositions should seek to generate, on the short and medium term, a vast urban and social restructuring.

That is a major challenge for the international community in our time, as in the past two decades more than 200 million people are affected every year by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, droughts, wildfires, tropical cyclones and associated storm surges, tsunami and volcanic eruptions, causing the loss of human lives and the destruction of economic and social infrastructures, as also serious damage to natural ecosystems.