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The Urban Land Institute joins the global debate on access to housing launched by the 2022 UIA International Forum

  • The 2022 UIA International Forum “Affordable Housing Activation: Removing Barriers” has signed a partnership agreement with the international Urban Land Institute.
  • The Urban Land Institute will participate in the collaborative framework behind the 2022 UIA International Forum, as well as in its dissemination to its more than 45,000 members worldwide. 
  • The 2022 UIA International Forum “Affordable Housing Activation: Removing Barriers” aims to foster a collaborative and innovative framework that will activate and bring together on its digital platform housing-related content promoted by international stakeholders. The process will conclude with a final global synthesis panel in Madrid, from 18-20 May.

Madrid, 5th of April 2022. The Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España (CSCAE), as the driving force behind the 2022 UIA International Forum “Affordable Housing Activation: Removing Barriers”, has signed a collaboration agreement with the Urban Land Institute, an international not-for-profit education and research organisation, through which it will collaborate in the dissemination of the debate on decent and affordable housing promoted by the Forum among its more than 45,000 members worldwide. 

The agreement between the two institutions also envisages the promotion and organisation of events such as a ULI Megatrend, which will become AHA events, and will be promoted within the collaborative framework that will activate stakeholders at international level from March and will conclude with the holding of the Forum in Madrid, from 18 to 20 May. 

One of the primary objectives of the Forum, says Marta Vall-llossera Ferran, acting President of the CSCAE, is “to raise awareness of the right to decent and adequate housing together with environmental, economic and social sustainability, promoting a collaborative and innovative framework. The participation of the Urban Land Institute in the proposal promoted by the 2022 UIA International Forum and the support for its dissemination among its more than 45,000 global members will foster joint progress in the search for solutions to this challenge”. 

Angela Balldellou, Executive Director of the AHA Forum, added: “We are delighted that such a prestigious organisation as the Urban Land Institute is coming on board this global movement to share knowledge and pool experience of the barriers to housing accessibility. It is an important first step to moving towards real solutions based on experience and success stories, and to highlighting existing shortcomings in order to solve them. Thanks to the ULI we will be able to expand the international impact of a Forum that aims to extend its reach through the activation of strategic alliances like this one”.

A global movement with high impact

The 2022 UIA International Forum will be an event of maximum international impact whose objective is to contribute to improving access to affordable, decent and adequate housing around the world, through the generation of global networks and alliances that promote the sharing of knowledge of exemplary cases and specific visions arising from the analysis of the barriers that hinder access to housing. The initiative seeks to propose solutions and comprehensive views capable of “knitting together” an approach that can overcome the barriers arising from architecture and urban planning. The aim is to involve all those stakeholders with the capacity to mark out long-term plans of action around a future international agreement with the full backing of organisations, governments, entities and institutions that is capable of concentrating and reaching a consensus on the core pillars to habitability hand in hand with sustainability. All this from the knowledge and analysis of the barriers and needs of the inhabitants, so that they can be adapted according to local indicators and parameters in each state or region and, from housing, help to achieve the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals grounded on the premises of information, knowledge and shared data. To achieve this, the event will bring together international experts from the fields of architecture, governance, energy, engineering, economics, urban planning, environment, sociology, design, technology and innovation. 

An event with broad institutional backing

The General Assembly of the International Union of Architects (UIA), held at the Baku Forum on 11 June 2019, approved by a large majority the choice of Madrid to host the 2022 UIA International Forum on Access to Housing. The candidacy was successfully completed thanks to the broad institutional backing of the project, which has the support of the Government of Spain, through the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Community of Madrid and Madrid City Council, as well as the collaboration of UN-Habitat.

The 2022 UIA International Forum will be activated from January onwards, through the promotion of parallel activities around the world, and will culminate in Madrid from 18 to 20 May in an event that will bring together international experts in the fields of architecture, engineering, economics, urban planning, the environment, sociology, design and art. 

The support of the professional structure in Madrid is guaranteed through COAM (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid) and that of the building sector through the CSCAE’s 2030 Observatory, which brings together all the stakeholders involved in the design of cities in Spain.

About the International Union of Architects (UIA)

The UIA emerged as a federation of organizations in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1948. It currently has 104 member sections, representing 115 countries and more than 1,500,000 architects worldwide, thus making it the international organization with the greatest capacity for global influence in terms of Architecture and one of the most influential organizations in urban, design and heritage issues; it connects all its commitments and work with international agendas and sustainability. UIA forums were established to create conferences on the major challenges that the profession has to face and to connect architecture with other disciplines and perspectives in the resolution of shared challenges. For more information www.uia-architectes.org

About Consejo Superior de Colegios de Arquitectos de España (CSCAE)

Created in 1931, the CSCAE brings together all the colleges of architects in Spain for the defence of architecture and the achievement of general common goals. It represents the colleges and the more than 47,000 member professionals who practise architecture in Spain before public and private corporations and international bodies.

For more information www.cscae.com

About the Urban Land Institute

Our mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities around the world. We provide our partners with independent forums for discussion and debate on issues that contribute to the development of cities.

Founded in 1936, the Urban Land Institute is a not-for-profit education and research institute with more than 45,000 members worldwide.

ULI Spain includes two National Councils, (Barcelona and Madrid) with several hundred members from the property sector, urban planning and real estate in general.

The priorities of the ULI’s purpose on which the organisation will focus in the next three years are:

  • Decarbonising the real estate sector and achieving zero emissions;
  • Developing the next generation of diverse real estate leaders;
  • Increasing access to housing in communities around the world.