[Strawbale] Cob Core Building proposal for Haiti

[asbn]

Dear Max

Have you ever heard about the system of the selfbuilt tow-mixer?
Just a blade of a lawnmower attached on an axle of an old car rotating in a
bottle just by driving around with the car:
Look at this example on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPno5gWBWqE

I like this simple idea, it surely works for cob and other mixings too. They
normally make PaperCrete or PaperAdobe with it...

best wishes
Herbert Gruber
-- 
asbn - austrian strawbale network
Österreichisches Netzwerk für Strohballenbau
3720 Ravelsbach, Baierdorf 6
Email: asbn at baubiologie...
http://www.baubiologie.at

>  Dear all,
> 
> I'm close to done with the cob-core building proposal; my recommendation over
> SB, earthships, superadobe, bamboo huts etc. Please feel free to use it in
> anyway you may see fit if you're involved in relief work. (And I'd appreciate
> suggestions for improvements.)  I'll gradually fill in the blanks in the
> budget, and adjust if I've made any mistakes. Apart from that I'm off Haiti,
> devoting my spring to more local issues...such as finalizing our straw bale
> house and co-facilitating our internships.
> 
> This is the first introduction. Please enjoy the full text with numerous links
> and illustrations on: http://nbnetwork.org/nb/haiticob
> 
> Max Vittrup Jensen
> Director, Events and Marketing
> Natural Building Network
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> NBN is only a network. Our role in this plan has been to connect the people
> with expertise in Natural Building, as well as advice an effective approach in
> view of the local available local material, economy, climate challenges and
> historical/cultural preferences of Haitians. These parameters has eliminated a
> series of more exotic building designs and techniques.
> 
> NBN does not have the funding and resources to proceed with implementation of
> the plan, this is up to whoever wants to make use of it. The plan is written
> in a pro-active tone by Max Vittrup Jensen, (NBN board member), enabling it to
> be downloaded and used for submission. Please do not interpret this as if the
> project is already being implemented. It is important to emphasize that this
> is a plan open for everyone to adapt and use, just make sure you’ll contact
> the relevant experts/sub contractors if you plan to include them in your
> application.
> 
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>>>>>>>> EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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> The aim of this project is to construct 4000 simple 4×5 meter earthquake
> proven (9+) core-shelters out of bamboo re-enforced cob, which residents
> easily can expand into family houses in the future. Our emphasis is to work
> with future residents in design of their community and structures: The process
> is based on training Haitian low-income owner-builder teams, who’ll afterward
> be in charge of small mobile commercial equipment, establishing local skills
> and enterprises. We outline how three sustainable micro-businesses will be
> established as part of the process.
> 
> A central element in organizing the community is a planning process with
> future inhabitants, facilitated by experienced experts in permaculture and
> urban design. This process will result in sustainable neighborhood groups,
> which commits to jointly build a cluster of dwellings; approximately 10-20
> families per group. Key features of the project will be enhancement of
> community facilities, rainwater catchments, local waste-water treatment, and
> garden allotments.
> 
> We will then construct 10′ x 16′ Core homes that are earthquake proven (9+).
> They will be built out of bamboo re-enforced cob (a mixture of earth and
> straw), which residents easily can expand into family houses in the future.
> Building together with both Haitians and international volunteers,  after an
> extensive training and guidance the foreign builders will gradually withdraw
> to an advisory role, while repeating the process for other groups. Our aim is
> to build structures which residents easily can expand into family houses in
> the future. The process is based on importing simple mobile earth and straw
> mixing machines from Czech Republic, in order to expedite the building
> process.
> 
> Image of cob shed in Oregon; thicker walls and different roof. This is without
> bamboo re-enforcement. Click here for quake test of such structure
> 
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>>>>>>> Addressing the Challenge: Cob Core Housing
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> Requirements
> 
> Thanks to extensive networking contacts and reports from Haiti relief
> workers,  along with the recommendation from the Haiti UN housing Cluster, it
> has been concluded that addressing the housing shortage in Haiti for the
> short-term means having a solution that meets the following key requirements:
> 
>     * Feeling of safety and comfort for inhabitants relative to seismic
> activity
>     * Hurricane-ready
>     * Heat and flood management
>     * Durability
>     * High effectiveness in construction; utilize simple tools and trained
> teams of assembly technicians working with untrained local labor
>     * Scalable production
>     * Low cost
>     * Low environmental impact
> 
> The cob-core units presents a solution to all of those challenges, while
> predominantly utilizing local materials, and allowing for future expansion of
> the units.
> 
> The use of Earthen construction allows for inclusion of minimum trained labor
> of all genders and ages. It serve to regulate the interior heat, and is freely
> available.  Apparently Haitians are not very likely to adapt to
> non-traditional shapes of housing, and hence our model is proposed as a simple
> rectangle with a sloped roof: In due time other rooms can be attached and the
> roof become a saddle roof. Earthen construction is usual in Haiti as in the
> wattle and daub technique; Our technique is somewhat the same, however further
> improved for seismic activity and floods: We make a foundation out of old
> chunks of concrete, secure plastic ties under the concrete which gets embedded
> in the walls and are used to tie the light-weight bamboo roof construction to
> the foundation. The four wall sections are made of split bamboo woven into a 6
> inch grid, and with diagonal split bamboo included, in effect making a hexagon
> pattern in the grid. This techniques was developed by J. Becker during relief
> work in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
> 
> The cob machines are specially designed to fast and effectively mix earth with
> long fibers, while remaining of a quite simple and sturdy mobile design. The
> cob mixture is applied from both sides in about 4 inch thickness, while making
> sure that the long fibres (straw or local grasses) are inserted through the
> holes of the bamboo grid into the mixture on the other side. This way the cob
> core in effect becomes a monolithic structure, which (once dry) is virtually
> non-destructible. As bamboo is a grass, and the split pieces treated by
> boiling and kiln dried, they are of no interest to termites.
> 
> Despite the high humidity the cob walls will dry relatively fast due to breeze
> and the high average temperatures. Both the external sides of the structure
> will get a lime plaster, which prevents damage from driving rain. The
> resulting structure is more sturdy than the phase 2 structures proposed by the
> Haiti UN housing Cluster, hence resisting hurricanes better,  yet there is
> very limited possibility of the roof or walls doing any harm to the
> inhabitants, should an extreme magnitude earthquake manage to damage the walls
> or roof.
> The light weight concrete roof tiles represent a much lower degree of embodied
> energy and cost, than the typical corrugated metal roofs, it does not transfer
> heat to the interior in same way as metal, and it dulls the sound of the
> torrential rainfall, while allowing for suitable clean water to be captured
> and reused.
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