BUILD + KNOWLEDGE 01: ISD Knowledge Sharing, Networking & Fundraising Event 

Integrated Sustainable Development Through Collective Action

Affiliated event with the ETH Zurich Sustainable Built Environment Conference (SBE25), titled “Shaping Tomorrow: Systems Thinking in the Built Environment,” ETH Hönggerberg, June 25-27, 2025.

We live in times of far-reaching transformations, including changing climates, ecosystems, societies, and economies. Rapid population growth and increasing environmental degradation predominantly impact people living in the Global South, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. This creates both enormous challenges as well as opportunities to intervene with care, steering these transformations towards more just and sustainable futures.

How can we address the estimated 3 billion people living in informal housing by 2030?

What is needed to build integrated neighborhoods that are socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable in these contexts?

How does ISD, a Swiss organization, contribute effectively to solutions that impact these challenges on a systemic level?

BUILD + KNOWLEDGE 01

Through collective action, Integrated Sustainable Development (ISD)contributes to systemic change in under-resourced places by building integrated neighborhoods that are ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable.

In each project, we work with multidisciplinary partners, including the local government and community, planners and designers, academic institutions, implementation experts, as well as funders and investors, which fosters collaboration, shared learning, and greater impact.

BUILD + KNOWLEDGE 01 is ISD’s first event, bringing together a group of like-minded actors engaged in sustainable development and construction. The event offers a platform to discuss innovative and place-based solutions to some of the pressing challenges of our time, providing insights into practical applied work and real experiences.

It features:

• 2 x 15-minute talks by guest speakers
• moderated panel discussion with ISD consortium experts from Africa, Asia, and Europe;
• exhibition of built and in-development projects from ISD, consortium partners, and guests;
• networking opportunities with a community of people interested in real built solutions;
• private guided tour through the Masoala Hall;
• apéro riche

Talks

A moderated discussion and presentations in the Nature Conservation Center, with speakers from South Africa, India, and Europe, who are working together through the ISD platform, and invited mission-aligned guests, will share firsthand experiences from their practice and research.

Exhibition

An exhibition of ongoing and planned projects by ISD, consortium partners, and invited guests will be shown. The selected, high-impact projects demonstrate how pressing challenges can be effectively addressed through innovative design and collaboration.

Venue

The Masoala Rainforest at Zoo Zurich is an innovative structure and building technology that encompasses a rainforest ecosystem, native to Madagascar, where the Zoo is committed to its largest-ever conservation project. The BUILD + KNOWLEDGE 01 event overlooks this unique scenery. An optional guided tour through the Masoala Hall will be offered prior to the event.

Fundraising

The evening provides an opportunity for contributions to enable the planning and design of one of ISD’s core projects, the extension of the Lukhanyo Hub model at a second township site in Cape Town, South Africa. The beginning of implementation is planned for the second half of 2026, working with a globally acclaimed land development organization, government partners, African and European universities, and the ISD Consortium.

We are looking forward to an interesting, informative, and impactful evening.

This is an invite-only event. Please get in touch if you wish to participate.

Partners