Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Estructuras y Materiales (CIDEM), Cuba

The Centro de Investigacion y Desarrollo de Estructuras y Materiales (CIDEM) in Cuba is awarded for blazing a new trail in low cost, low-energy, eco-friendly building materials. The centre is a research and development institute attached to the Faculty of Construction at the Universidad Central de Las Villas. Started in 1992 as a research project, it promotes the establishment of small workshops for local communities where ordinary people can learn their trade and produce their own building materials cheaply. There are over 50 such workshops in Cuba, and a further 16 around the world including Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Tens of thousands of affordable, environmentally friendly homes have been built in these countries using the CIDEM system to provide flooring, roofing, tiles, and walls made of local materials using low energy production. It has also helped create new job opportunities, and in some cases, as in Bangladesh, it has provided microcredit facilities and helped build factories for construction materials.