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Re: [Strawbale] Bales for Haiti
On Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:06:58 -0500, Derek Roff <derek@unm...> wrote:
It looks like a team of three people will be heading to Haiti in early
March to build a prototype strawbale building, as part of the relief
efforts. Builders Without Borders is trying to support and collaborate
(with this and other projects). An immediate need is a source of straw
and/or bales. There is rice grown in Haiti, but no evidence of bales,
and unknown quantities of available straw. Hand baling, or rebaling,
may be necessary.
I am ambivalent about the idea of parachuting a team of "foreigners"
heading to Haiti to build them some SB homes.
The "other" side wonders how appropriate SB-walled buildings might be for
that locale/climate and how the instant buildings might fit into the
culture, assuming that the structures are intended to have a long service
life beyond that of emergency shelters.
In Haiti as is the case in most other places, I suspect that it is the
roof that is the more critical component in creating shelter and unless
the Team is building vaulted structures, straw /bales would play a minimal
role in the creation of those roofs.
Those concerns notwithstanding, I also wonder if it might be more helpful
in the long term to send a baling machine rather than just a shipment of
bales, my understanding (from very brief Google-ing in the days following
the destruction) being that Haiti grew more than enough rice to be
self-sufficient.
ie Showing Haitians how to build SB buildings using imported straw and/or
bales won't do them much good once the Team goes home.
On the other hand, if they are provided with a baling machine, then they
can produce bales using whatever locally-available materials exist,
whether it be rice straw or some other cellulosic "waste" material.
The baler would have to be modified slightly perhaps, so that rather than
being hauled around a field by a tractor, it might remain stationary, with
the baling stock being fed into it by a small conveyor, and perhaps the
baler and conveyor being powered by a stationary engine or human or beast
of burden power.
I suspect that the funds to purchase the baler, conveyor, etc. might be
able to be raised from fund-raising initiatives on the SB lists.
--
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c at Y a h o o dot c a >
(manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "Reply")
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