This is is the website of Jan Bredenoord.
Dr. Jan Bredenoord is an urban planner and researcher in social housing. In the first half of his career he worked in the Netherlands: at the province of Utrecht, the city of Utrecht and in the private advisory practice. He obtained his PhD at TU Delft on management instruments for urban development. For more than ten years he was a visiting researcher at International Development Studies, Geographical Faculty of Utrecht University. He started as a development adviser in 1988 for the city bond between Utrecht with the city of León in Nicaragua; a contact that continued into 2018. He carried out assignments and research for other international aid organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Uganda, Uruguay, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. He focused on sustainable urban planning and affordable housing for low-income households. In his research work, he drew attention to the social context in which households had to work hard for years to build a safe and sustainable home. The main themes covered in this collection are incremental self-help housing, land-for-housing programs, housing cooperatives with mutual aid, affordable sustainable housing and building materials. All these topics are related to self-construction and technical support for self-build (social) housing.
Current research: “Bamboo as a sustainable building material; innovations and housing types for low-cost housing in the tropics”
Bamboo is used as a building material in low-cost individual housing in tropical and subtropical countries. This happens especially in rural areas where bamboo occurs naturally and the families are used to using the material. Bamboo does not always have a positive image, because it is often seen by users as ‘the building material of the poor’. Nevertheless, bamboo can be a suitable building material in the tropical areas. Its application in residential construction is only sustainable and safe if measures are taken regarding earthquake or storm resistance. Recommendations for good application in construction are mainly: use the right type of bamboo, make the material more durable, apply the requirements for earthquake- or storm-resistant construction, and use reliable fastening materials for the (corner) connections. Bamboo is a suitable material as a substitute for timber, but it is also used together with timber and other building materials. Local communities can be involved in the extraction and processing of bamboo, after which the houses can be built with technical assistance. Relevant examples are shown of realized housing construction in which new bamboo techniques were applied. It also indicates which innovations this has led to.
| Affiliations | |
| Advisor of: | ARC-PEACE Peru, and International. |
| Research fellow (rt) at: | Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Faculty of Geo-Sciences, International Development Studies. |
| Member of: | IFHP International Federation of Housing and Planning |
| Friend of: | ISOCARP International Society of City and Regional Planners. |
| Ambassador of: | PUM Netherlands Senior Experts, The Hague |
| Researcher with: | We Effect, Latin America (Swedish Cooperative Center) 2016-2018, 2022 |
| Consultant at: | The World Bank Group, Washington, DC, USA. 2015-2017 |
| Adviser of: | Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research TISTR. For ASEAN Conference, Bangkok. March 2019 |