News from Southern Africa

[goshawk at gnat.net]

> 
>  I live pretty close to a squatter camp and all these 
> beautiful natural people from the rural areas are coming in and living 
> in plastic baghouses and losing their connection with the earth and 
> wanting mercedes Benzes and swimming pools. I'm looking forward to 
> what can grow out of  building a "mudhouse" in the middle of suburbia!
>

I agreed very much with you post. I did have a question though
What is a baghouse?
My wife and I are using Nader Khalili's superadobe aka sandbag  
technique. Actually the sandbags endup working like forms. 
Our house will be a series of domes connected. The big advantage for 
us is that you can even build in the rain (only if you really had to 
of course)
We won't be building until the end of April.
I do plan on building some more "standard mud cottages" in the future 
We were exploring this route because it allows the use of domed 
 earth structures (which I know is not unique to this technique).

Take care  and keep us posted.

oh yea in line with your thoughts.
I think building with your own hands not only helps give life to the 
building it helps build respect for the building and the land. We too 
often in industrial/modern living loose our connection to the earth 
and in turn loose our repsect for it.
Very often you can see when people are given houses/boxes by the 
government that they become run down and all that slum kind of stuff.
I feel this is a direct result of the people living in the homes not 
having any involvement in the building and design of the living 
quarters.


Oops  I guess I went off again.

Take care
Patrick and Carroll Newberry
Mauk, Georgia  (USA)
"If you don't have enouph madness in you, go and rehabilitate yourself" - Rumi