A Filipino Engineer became another pride of the country for bagging the top prize at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Cities for our Future competition. 23-year-old Earl Patrick Forlales is an engineer from Manila who brought home the top prize amounting to £50,000 or equivalent to Php3.3M for the low-cost housing design he made and can be constructed in 4 hours.
The “CUBO” design of the housing units are made from bamboo. They can be done in just a few hours and can be gathered together easily. The units cost Php3,000.00 only. So light on the budget, right? Fortales said that the units were designed to be a functional home and to turn the waste of the neighborhood into energy and other important resources.
The engineer further explained that he chose bamboo for the project because it releases oxygen more than 35% compared to trees. Bamboos can also be harvested without resulting in soil degradation. The bamboos are also laminated to keep the quality ten times compared to ordinary wood. He also said that his design will be the answer to the increasing rate of informal settlers in Metro Manila.
Another thing, the government’s program; Build, Build, Build will bring jobs to the construction workers. He said that they wanted to give the makers of high-rise buildings to have their own decent houses. He plans to use the prize for the model house he will present to investors. Fortales also plans to construct ten thousand units by 2023.
The engineer’s design is very timely with the ongoing environmental changes that are being conducted all over the world to fight off the effects of climate change. This will also help a lot of the informal settlers in the country so they will have a house to call their own.