[Cob] Haiti ideas

[Joseph Kennedy]

Hi all,
 
Can't help but plug in here.  These are my ideas for Haiti:
 
Design for drainage (raised platforms built with rubble, swales, french drains etc.)
 
Urbanite or rubble foundations (maybe rubble-bag) but the bags degrade quickly in sunlight, and I don't trust the capacity for plastering sufficiently.
 
Flexible wall system.  quincha sounds good - the trick is the lack of available tensile members: ideas: bamboo, scabbed together pieces of wood, old rebar, bundled small sticks, reeds, etc. (using poly twine).  Infill: straw-wattle, cob, etc. (or something lighter for visual privacy for the time being - it is a tropical climate after all)
 
Roof:  This is to me the biggest issue.  A good roof sans walls is much better than the reverse:  Pallet trusses, micro-concrete tile production, domes? (my gut says no), recycled sheet metal tiles.  Small rooms with minimal spans.
 
I would avoid: straw-bale, unreinforced masonry, anarchic-misunderstanding-dogoodery

All-earthbag walls could work, but to me are overkill, and the plastering issue is major.
 
Gernot Minke has some good ideas.  Check also the work of Development Workshop.
 
I dealt with some of these issues in my book Building Without Borders as well (New Society)
 
Those are my thoughts.
 
Best,
 
Joe Kennedy
 
 
> Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:26:45 -0700
> From: mon.pro at gmail.com
> To: coblist at deatech.com
> Subject: Re: [Cob] cob in Haiti (Henry Raduazo, Nisla)
> 
> >
> >
> > Re: cob in Haiti (Henry Raduazo, Dulane)
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> 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.
> >
> > Ed
> >
> >
> >
> >
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