The thirteenth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 17 to 22 May 2026. The theme of WUF13 is: Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities.
How can circular construction deliver housing that reduces resource use while strengthening climate resilience globally? This session explores the connections between innovative design, material circularity, and resilience thinking to practical housing solutions for cities facing climate and resource pressures. The result of a global architectural competition, House of No Waste (HØW), UNU-FLORES presents a compendium of ideas that challenge the existing boundaries of circularity in buildings and construction and reimagine them. The session highlights innovative housing concepts from the initiative that tap into local waste streams, while reducing primary material use and embodied carbon across the building lifecycle. In dialogue with UN-Habitat's Urban Resilience Hub, the session connects circularity with resilience, showing how housing can be designed to adapt to climate impacts, support inclusive recovery, and strengthen urban systems. Insights from the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GlobalABC), a global multi-stakeholder alliance advancing decarbonisation across the buildings and construction sector, brings in the global perspective, with UNU-FLORES leading a priority action under the Buildings Breakthrough agenda to strengthen the link between research, policy, and implementation. Short impulses on the HØW initiative, the Urban Resilience Hub, and the GlobalABC will be followed by the screening of "Les Matérialistes," a short film by Architecture Without Borders Quebec, Dark Matter Labs, and other partners, which provokes participants to imagine circular urban futures. A guided dialogue then brings together representatives from the three initiatives and partners to share their unique perspectives and practical insights. The conversations will focus on different tensions such as innovation vs. affordability, global solutions vs. local realities, speed of action vs. quality of resilience. To round off the session, specific stakeholders, such as a sustainability assessment expert, a city leader, or a next-generation architect representing youth, will share their reflections on the discussions. The session highlights how coordinated UN action connects science, policy, and implementation, and how stakeholders can mutually benefit from these networks. An outcome of the session is paving the way for future synergies between UNU and UN-Habitat to advance the global mandate of the New Urban Agenda. Facilitator: Jessica Jones-Langley Partners: United Nations University (Germany) UN-Habitat City Resilience Global Programme (Spain) Panelists: Ms. Edeltraud Guenther, Director, United Nations University - Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources UNU-FLORES (Germany) Mr. Esteban Leon, Head of City Resilience Global Programme, UN-Habitat City Resilience Global Programme (Spain) Ms. Atiqah Fairuz Salleh, Advisor, Strategic Initiatives, United Nations University - Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources UNU-FLORES (Germany) Ms. Gulnara Roll, Head, GlobalABC Secretariat & Cities Unit Mitigation Branch Climate Change Division UNEP (France) Mr. Bruno Demers, Executive Director, Architecture Without Borders Quebec (Canada)
