An international Course on Economic Construction and Local Building Materials was held in Grenoble from 7June – 16 July, 1993.  Organised under the auspices of UNCHS/Habitat and UNIDO, the objectives of this first BASIN-course were to develop strategies and instruments for the promotion and use of local building materials in developing countries.

There were twelve participants in the course.  Scholarships could not be found for the other eight selected applicants.  The participants were mainly architects, engineers, building material engineers and system managers.  Their international origin confirms the universality of the interest in the subject. The following countries were represented: Belgium, Cameroon, Colombia, Kenya, Madagascar (2), Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Switzerland and Tanzania. (2). The course was divided into six weekly units articulated through a range of activities including lectures, group work, plenary sessions and demonstrations.  The participants were involved in an active process of information exchange.  The lectures provided information on the subject matter, which was analysed on the basis of the participants own project experiences in their respective countries.  The first unit was designed to understand the aim and methodology of the course, the activities and problems of the professional groups as well as the general design considerations of economic building construction and the use of locally produced building materials.  This was followed by four technical units, conceived to present a general knowledge about different local building materials, techniques and components related to their methods of utilisation, their appropriate application, trends and perspectives, as well as various case studies. The following subjects were dealt with; earth construction technologies, wall construction, roofing, cements and binders. The sixth unit included sessions designed to develop and formulate strategies for the promotion of economic construction and the local building materials industry.

During the first week the possibilities for the participants to influence different aspects of economic construction with local building materials were weighed. From this exercise four factors emerged, all in relation to appropriate building technologies and local resources: quality, production (equipment etc.), training and technology transfer and dissemination.  Other identified factors like energy input, design criteria, environment, market for local materials, were rated low in importance.  During the last week, the participants developed appropriate “tool boxes” which contained instruments for assisting them in decision taking, use of planning matrices, methods, checklists, guidelines for solving problems in relation to appropriate building technologies.  The participants were also provided with a number of relevant technical documents, published by the different BASIN-partners, as well as a complete set of course handouts and notes.  Such a compact technical package on this subject does not exist anywhere else.  The needs analysis conducted at the beginning of each subject week led to a very flexible programme.  The BASIN-partners who were personally involved as lecturers in the course were able to develop a unique curriculum accompanied by a very specific and adapting teaching method based on a careful mix of classic learning, presentation and analysis of case studies, group work, hands-on sessions, demonstrations, visits and moderation.

The meeting of professionals coming from different countries gave way to several exchanges of information on different levels.  Well-known professionals in the field of economic construction and local building materials who were invited for the closing session of the course, congratulated participants and course organizers for the results achieved in a six-week period of close collaboration.  They also expressed their willingness to support future activities of BASIN, and more precisely, the next course on economic construction and local building materials.

At the end of the course, an evaluation was done by the BASIN-representatives and the participants.  The result of this evaluation has confirmed the need for courses on a regular basis, such as:
- 2 to 3 weeks on ABT for decision makers
- 5 to 6 weeks courses on ABT for architects, planners, engineers, entrepreneurs, etc.
- a set of intensive courses on specific subjects, like burnt clay bricks and tiles, manufacture of lime, FCR/MCR production, production and use of compressed earth blocks, etc.

The role of BASIN has to be seen in this context as that of “enabling” and “facilitating” through advice and training.  This will mobilise the full potential and resources of the actors involved in the shelter production and improvement process.  The participants formed a network for keeping up contacts and exchanging experiences.  The newsletter of the BASIN network, BASIN News, will be used as an information vehicle for this new network. Finally, the term A.B.T. (for “Appropriate Building Technologies”) was created by the participants as an “umbrella” for this course.  It was decided to use this terms for similar courses.

Based on a detailed report by
CRATerre, Ecole d’ Architecture, des Grenoble, France.