Foundation 23 - Re-materializing Construction

6 Host city Cairo The solution is the problem Huge cities are being built in the desert all around Cairo – in what amounts to a massive battle of material. That’s why there is no better place than here for a forum on “Re-materializing construction.” Cairo impressively shows the urgent need for new approaches to resource management. Cairo manifests many of the great challenges facing the global community today, and it does so on a colossal scale. One of these challenges is population growth. 20 to 23 million people live in the metropolitan area; 50 years ago there were only half as many. The reasons for this growth are on one hand the rural exodus and on the other the high birth rate, which also leads to a very young society. Urbanization, which is progressing rapidly especially in Africa and Asia, has led to the fact that today – for the first time in history – more people live in cities than in rural areas.