MADERA: Building with timber. Innovation for social architecture in Uruguay is an international call for the design and construction of a mid-rise social housing timber building. The competition is organized by the Ministerio de Vivienda y Ordenamiento Territorial (MVOT, Ministry of Housing and Territorial Planning) of Uruguay, the Agencia Nacional de Vivienda (ANV, National Housing Agency), with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the participation of the Municipality of Durazno.
The Madera competition call is one of the actions of the Road map presented by the government of Uruguay in May 2022 to foster wooden construction for social housing and infrastructure. In Uruguay, wood construction is a developing sector with significant potential due to the sustained growth of the forestry industry over the last thirty years. The national production is centered mainly on the species of pine and eucalyptus (Pinus elliottii/taeda and Eucalyptus grandis), which are suitable for structural and non-structural construction components. The main objective of this competition is to grow the use of timber in the construction industry and innovate the design and construction of social architecture. The long-term goals are to scale the production of sustainable construction systems based on wood technologies, create new economies based on the wood industry, reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector, and reduce the housing deficit at the national level, estimated to be in the order of 60,000 housing units.
