The 6^th International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction will be hosted by the American University in Cairo from April 4 to 6, 2019. The LafargeHolcim Forum is dedicated to the topic of “Re-materializing Construction”. Keynote speeches, workshops and site visits will focus on strategies to reduce consumption throughout the material cycle from extraction to processing, transport, installation, maintenance, and removal.

The Forum pursues the question of how the building and construction industry can adapt to be leaner: with a smaller ecological footprint and not driven by the pretense of infinitely available raw materials. Hence, the Forum seeks to suggest radical solutions in the use of building materials.

Keynote speakers include Christine Binswanger (Senior Partner, Herzog & de Meuron, Switzerland), Lord Norman Foster (Chairman & Founder, Foster + Partners, United Kingdom), Laila Iskandar (former Minister of Urban Renewal & Informal Settlements, Egypt), Mitchell Joachim (Co-Founder, Terreform ONE, USA), Francis Kéré (Principal, Kéré Architecture, Germany), Anne Lacaton (Principal, Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, France), and Rt Hon Simon Upton (Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, New Zealand).

Concurrent workshops

Four workshops will foster interdisciplinary dialogue, bring forward new ideas, and examine potential solutions. Each workshop will be moderated by renowned experts and include input-presentations by more than 60 specialists from all regions of the world. Contemporary material use in construction will be scrutinized, and strategies will be identified to promote fundamentally sustainable practices.

• Changing paradigms: Materials for a world not yet built
  A sustainable built environment that is fully recyclable and constructed from renewable materials
• Shifting the flows, pulling the strings: Stocks, flows, and their dynamics
  Exploring interrelated temporal dynamics of materials, life cycles, lifestyles and urban evolution
• From manual to digital and vice-versa: Digitalization, labor, and construction
  From best practices in manual and digital fabrication: consequential, collaborative solutions
• Catch 22: Material needs versus material impact
  The right material, the best material, and minimizing material use

More information on the Forum:

• Introduction
• Speakers
• Workshops