[Cob] cob in Haiti (Henry Raduazo, Nisla)

[Monica Proulx]

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>   Re: cob in Haiti (Henry Raduazo, Dulane)
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I am repeating myself, but I would strongly urge anyone interested in cob
for Haiti to investigate "*quincha*", earth quake resistant, *earth* based
building technique (basically cob over lattice, or if you will, "wattle and
daub") dating about a couple thousand years back in Central America
(excellent archeological evidence preserved under volcanic ash in "Ceren
Site" in El Salvador, discovered 1976 by Payson Sheets).

Plain cob may be inappropriate (not earthquake proof enough?), earth bag may
be more suitable but my question is has it been tested?  (haven't researched
that ? yet, but have done quite a bit of research for a soils class paper on
possibility of quincha in Haiti.  By no means exhaustive resource, but one
place to start, can email copy to interested parties).

Quincha was revived 2 decades ago in Peru by *Practical Action* (British
NGO, (formerly known as ITDG) following devastating series of earthquakes
starting in 1990  - and has stood the test of subsequent earthquakes.

Go here to read *Practical Action* technological brief, btw, *PA* is
resource you will want to mine, for sure.  They didn't have current plans
for Haiti last time I checked but they are generous with methods and
technical advice.:
http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=135
Also here's a paper from American Society of Civil Engineers (u may need
university library access to read?):
http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=PPSCFX000010000001000056000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes:


Sadly the island is majorly deforested, but there may be some trees that can
be used for framework (coppicing would work well, but take time to
establish, but Hatians need to be taught coppicing if they don't already
practice it).  Bamboo is a resource of choice, and shows quite a bit of
promise (if treated beforehand for decay, etc).  *USAID* has done some good
recent work in Haiti helping farmers establish bamboo crops, so it looks
like some of the necessary elements are in place already. (stuff on net
about this topic too.) There is tons of concrete rubble (urbanite) which
might serve as foundation, etc.

Practical Action by the way, is excellent, well run group, they teach people
how to help themselves, aren't there to take over, but work on empowerment
model.  They have various other like projects worldwide.


Good luck!

Research topics: quincha, bahareque, bajareque, tapial, Ceren Site,
Practical Action
There some stuff written in Spanish also.



       I was wondering: Are there any cobbers on this list in Haiti? I have

> been talking to a non-cob person who has been there. I am trying to
> get a picture of what is going on. It sounds to me like they need to
> train a team of Creole speaking people that know cob building, Lorna
> stove construction, Humanure, Rainwater Harvesting, permaculture
> skills and retaining wall building skills. There is plenty of
> Urbanite to work with and there appears to be plenty of clay and
> grass or hay.
>        It is hard to imagine a peasant culture that can't build their own
> homes or grow their own food, but that is what seems to exist in Haiti.
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> Ed
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