Grow forests to tackle rapid urbanisation: Paraguayan architect

Paraguayan architect Solano Benitez, who recently won the Golden Lion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016, says forests should be used as resources for human rehabilitation as the trend towards urbanisation continues and people migrate from rural areas to cities.

"It is human rehabilitation rather than urban rehabilitation. The thinking should be how we can use materials for the next next city by using forest as resource to support new society," Benitez said here at the first aCharles Correa Annual Memorial Lecture organised by the Ambuja Neotia group.

Benitez's brick and timber arch showcased at the Biennale demonstrated how cheap and readily available materials and unskilled workforce could provide answers to the rapid urbanisation globally.

"To promote sustainability and biodiversity, one only needs knowledge of people to understand the romance between butterfly and the ant and how can you help grow forests," he added.

--IANS

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