The basic construction materials industry and today’s vast housing shortage

• Main Authors: J. Salas, I. Oteiza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas 2008-12-01
• Series: Materiales de Construccion
• Subjects: need for materials; cement production; “informal” sector; impact of the cost of materials; third world
• Online Access: http://materconstrucc.revistas.csic.es/index.php/materconstrucc/article/view/121

This paper documents some of the aspects of the major challenge facing world-wide building: humanity's daunting shortage of basic housing, monographically focusing on what this means for the basic building materials industry. These needs have created the greatest demand ever for ex-novo solutions and an exponential increase in slum rehabilitation and improvement, translated here into the need for construction materials and more specifically, cement, as the emblematic component of buildings.