Finalists of the 2015-16 World Habitat Awards

The World Habitat Awards were established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) promote good design practices for the habitats of disadvantaged and homeless people. Here are the ten finalists of the 2015-16 awards.



The 10 finalists of the 2015-16 World Habitat Awards have been announced; the award is presented by the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) in partnership with the United Nations Humans Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat), emphasising the importance of house and haven in the lives of people.  





From sustainable design solutions for communal living in Colombia and the UK to projects focusing on community-driven betterment of the quality of life and economic progress, like the one in Malawi, this year includes a multitude of innovative practices and ideas.





The World Habitat Awards also encourage sharing and transferring experience and knowledge through international peer exchanges and community exchange events.
The ten finalists are: 
Comprehensive Community Development for Poverty Alleviation – Bhutan, run by the Tarayana Foundation to develop skills and encourage a self-help ethos that has successfully helped the for the nomadic community of the Olep who settled in villages, to recover and prosper; 
Back to Rio – Brazil, a project to transform a favela through community wall art; 
TECHO - Development of Habitat – Chile, for upgrading precarious settlements; 
Improvement without Barriers – Colombia that adapts the urban context for disabled people, making them more independent;
Nashira, A Song of Love, A Women-led Project – Colombia, an eco-village built for and by women who have suffered domestic violence and/or displacement caused by the 50-year civil war;
Empowering the Poor: Building the 
Capacity of Urban and Rural Communities – Malawi, a community-driven project to improve the living conditions in urban areas; 
Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust - Puerto Rico transforming an informal settlement into a sustainable community; 
LILAC (Low Impact Living Affordable Community) - United Kingdom, a self-planned and managed community in Leeds for affordable housing; 
Rent to Buy Scheme - United Kingdom, an initiative that enables low income families in the remote Scottish highlands to buy their own home; 
Self-help Housing in the North of England - United Kingdom Canopy and Giroscope work in cities in the North of England   to train homeless and vulnerable people to renovate abandoned properties and bring them back into use.
The two winners will be revealed in February, details will be made available on the World Habitat Awards website  at www.worldhabitatawards.org and the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) website at www.bshf.org

Christiane Bürklein

World Habitat Awards 2015-16, http://www.worldhabitatawards.org/
Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF), http://www.bshf.org/
Immagini: Courtesy of World Habitat Awards