NATIONAL COOPERATION
The CONICET and the Ministry of Interior and Transport will work on the Administration of Environment
Together with the Experimental Centre for Economic Housing (CEVE), the institutions signed a Framework Agreement to foster the construction of sustainable housing
The president of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Dr. Roberto Salvarezza, and the secretary of Municipal Affairs of the Ministry of Interior and Transportation, Ignacio Lamothe, signed a Framework Agreement with the Association of Economic Housing (AVE, Asociación de Vivienda Económica) to conduct the Support Programme for Local Management of Housing (Programa de Apoyo para la Gestión Local de Hábitat).
The president of the CONICET highlighted that the concept of housing does not only refer to the environment but also to other significant issues such as materials, energy and waste. “When we talk about environment, it implies having a multidisciplinary approach and regarding this, the Support Programme for Local Management of Housing will regulate it”, he indicated.
Likewise, during the meeting Salvarezza commented that “at CONICET we are very excited about this agreement because the State will be able to use our knowledge to focus on areas of high social impact”. Furthermore, he added that “the CEVE is a key institution in CONICET due to the fact that it deals with environmental issues and it provides smart solutions regarding the strategic issue of housing shortage”.
For his part, Lamothe emphasised the fact that the aim of the agreement is to promote public policies to provide immediate answers to the demands of the municipalities in terms of housing. He added that during the second phase the aim is for municipalities to finance their own works on sustainability.
The Support Programme for Local Management of Housing seeks to provide local governments with the necessary tools to address local management of habitat from a comprehensive point of view in order to respond to the needs of their regions.
The text of the Framework Agreement will be valid for five years and includes studies and survey workshops, training in integrated management of environment, visits to municipalities involved in the programme, and the preparation of a status report accompanied by a possible proposal for each place.
The event was attended by the director of Agreements and Projects of the administration Scientific and Technological Development of the CONICET, Patricia Maccagno, and Gustavo Duarte, executive director and architect Laura Basso from AVE.
About the Ceve
The Experimental Centre for Economic Housing (Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Económica, CEVE), has conducted research, technological development, transference and training on the housing area since 1967. It is an implementation unit of the CONICET and the AVE with its headquarters in Córdoba.
Some of its objectives are to promote scientific and technological research in the field of housing from a comprehensive point of view, including labour issues and general social context in which these conflicts are imbedded. To this end this centre developed, for instance, a series of sustainable building materials such as bricks made of PET and plates made of peanut shells to be used on ceilings and structural housing construction.