EBUK - Earth Building UK Conference and AGM 2012, January 13th, York

Earth Building UK Conference and AGM 2012, January 13^th, York.

The conference will explore the use of earth and clay plasters with leading experts. The use of earth and clay plasters has increased in recent years, with interest groups concerned with the conservation of historic buildings, ecologically sensitive new construction, alongside a growing interest from industry in innovative materials. 

The conference is a brilliant opportunity to meet fellow EBUK member and exchange ideas.

Find out more on the website by following this link: http://www.ebuk.uk.com/index.php/?p=317

Conference Location: The Ron Cooke Hub at the University of York, Heslington, York. YO10 5GE. http://www.york.ac.uk/hub/facilities/

Conference fee: The conference fee for EBUK members is £42.00. This includes refreshments and lunch. If you are not already an EBUK member the conference fee is £63.00 (this includes a full year’s membership of EBUK).

Post conference tour: Saturday January 14^th 2012. A tour of York House, Malton to view the historic building and get an expert introduction to the earth mortars and plasters investigated and conserved in the recent conservation project. This tour will be with Nigel Copsey (Earth, Stone and Lime company) and Ben Gourley (University of York).

Showcasing your work: Space will be available for display of materials and products.If you offer services or products, the conference is a great place to showcase your work and support EBUK at the same time. You can promote your project or business at very reasonable rates throughout the conference. For example, for £160 you can put up a display next to the main conference room or for £60 put brochures into every delegate's conference pack. For more details about sponsorship email lu_ebuk@btinternet.com or telephone 01944 728441.

Students: Fancy a free conference? Load your images of earth buildings in the UK to our EBUK Flickr  stream.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthbuildinguk/

The EBUK directors will decide on a winning image and the winning image will be announced on the day.  We will reimburse the conference fees for one student. The winning image will be announced on the day.

Spread the word: Please spread the word of the Earth Building UK conference to your colleagues and friends – EBUK is a network fostering the understanding, appreciation and development of building with earth.

www.ebuk.uk.com

Hello from Pokuase, Ghana

 After a short stop in Lisbon...

...I arrived in Accra. The photos below are from Pokuase, where the workshop is taking place.

European Network of Earth Building

Source: http://earthbuildingeurope.wordpress.com/

In the meeting on 6th May 2011 in Marseilles it was decided to launch a European Network of Earth Building.

In the first phase this will be an informal knowledge network, using electronic (email and website) methods to communicate. In the early stage of development membership of the email list is free.

This will use the existing national networks and organisations already identified through the Terra Incognita project.



Lors de la rencontre du 06 mai 2011 à Marseille, il a été décidé de lancer un réseau européen des acteurs de la construction en terre.

Dans un premier temps, soit les prochains mois ou pour sa première année d’existence, on parlera d’un réseau informel de connaissance, utilisant des moyens électroniques de communication (site internet et courriels).

Il s’organisera sur base des réseaux nationaux existants et des organisations déjà identifiées au travers du Projet Terra Incognita.

Ready to go!

Now I am finally ready to take off towards Ghana and Angola. After having picked up the Angolan visa yesterday, there is really nothing left to worry about – except of course the usual little things, like hoping the plane trip goes free of problems and so on...

To those planning to travel to Angola in the future, know that it is not the sort of trip that you decide to go in one day and get on a plane the week afterwards... Believe it or not, it took me roughly one year to prepare the trip to Angola. OK, maybe it was a bit too much, but I did have a few problems along the way that forced me to postpone the trip by a few months. Nevertheless, the whole process involves taking various – as in MANY - vaccines, apply for a visa (which sometimes requires an invitation letter), sorting out accommodation (really difficult to get something if, like me, you have a low budget), booking plane tickets, etc. In my case this also involved planning the whole fieldwork - methodology, data collection techniques, etc. -, which in itself was quite a challenge...

For now, and since before going to Angola, I will attend the ASF-UK workshop in Ghana, the focus is on getting mentally prepared for this. The organisation has sent the participants a few interesting texts on the main subject of the workshop - African Architecture in the African City by D.V Tassel and The African House Today, by A.Folkers. They have already arrived in Ghana and are preparing everything for the participants’ arrival, as they explain in the Local Vs Global blog - http://localvsglobal.wordpress.com/. By the way, apparently they will be posting in this same blog throughout the workshop, so if you are interested to read about what we will be doing there, save this URL and check back regularly for updates. I am really excited about the workshop and looking forward to start!

As for Angola, I anticipate that the experience will be immensely rich at every level. I was asked today if I could go to the local university and talk to the students and lecturers while I am in Luanda carrying out my fieldwork. It should be interesting to get the students’ perspective and opinions on certain issues such as the urban growth and the quality of the built environment in the country. Look forward to it... I was wondering, as I my research looks specifically at earthen construction it might be interesting to prepare something about the use of this construction technology in the European context... Still have to think about that...

A few months in Africa

With only two weeks to go before I embark on my trip to Ghana and Angola, I feel that I still have a million things to prepare before leaving! Not a very good feeling, I have to say...

The trip to Ghana was organised by ASF-UK as part of the workshop  "Local Vs Global – Sustainable Development Workshop".  Just a few days ago, the organisation has announced that we would also take part in the symposium "Local Vs Global: Strategies for Sustainability in the face of rapid development, UN-Habitat and Architecture sans Frontiers Day Symposium" while we're there. It sounds very exciting and I am looking forward to it.

As far as the trip to Angola is concerned, the preparation and organisation started about a year ago. It has been quite a challenge but, apart from minor things, I can now say that it's all been sorted. Along the way, I was fortunate to have had the help and support of wonderful people in Angola, to whom I will be eternally grateful. Hopefully the fieldwork will go well and I will be able to collect sufficient and relevant data for my research. Fingers crossed!!

projeto research-Terra: novos recursos

Caros amigos e colegas,

Desde o seu início, em Março de 2010, o projeto Research-terra tem crescido consideravelmente. Temos agora um novo URL URL - http://www.research-terra.com/ - e um novo email - email@research-terra.com.

O projeto research-Terra começou por ser uma simples página de internet que continha apenas alguns títulos de teses desenvolvidas sobre a construção com terra, restringindo-se a alguns países da Europa. Hoje, graças à participação de muitos leitores que nos enviaram amavelmente informação, contamos com uma lista de trabalhos realizados em 16 países espalhados do mundo. Adicionalmente, o research-Terra encontra-se em fase de expansão para incorporar outros aspetos relacionados com a construção em terra no mundo.

No futuro, esperamos funcionar numa plataforma que, para além de ligações, possa também alojar os mais variados documentos e bibliografia para que o conhecimento seja diretamente acessível a todos.

A equipa do projeto research-Terra está de momento a trabalhar para tornar esta plataforma NA ferramenta de referência para todos os interessados e envolvidos na temática da construção em terra. Como tal, mesmo sendo ainda um trabalho em progresso, incluímos já novas funcionalidades e recursos na nossa página – nomeadamente perfis de profissionais ligados à terra e imagens de construção em terra pelo mundo. O objetivo é facilitar o encontro de pessoas e especialidades nesta área.

Caso desejo ter o seu perfil adicionado à página do research-Terra, assim como enviar fotografias, poderá fazê-lo seguindo as instruções presentes no website.

Como sempre, contamos consigo para tornar possível o objetivo de unir a investigação com a prática profissional da terra num só sítio. Tudo o que precisa fazer é enviar-nos a informação que gostaria de ver online, seguindo as instruções disponíveis no site.

Acreditamos que, com a sua colaboração, este pode ser o começo de algo muito interessante!

De seguida encontra-se uma breve descrição de características da research-Terra:

Novos recursos

IMAGES - IMAGENS - edifícios de terra em imagens:

Sabe-se que existem diversas formas de usar a terra como material de construção. Deste modo, esta página tem a intenção de criar álbuns de fotografias divididos por países. Pretendemos expor exemplos de construções em terra espalhadas pelo mundo, no qual poderá participar enviando as suas fotos!

PROFILES – PERFIS - Perfis curtos de pessoas envolvidas na construção em terra:

A fim de complementar a secção já existente de grupos de investigação, adicionámos os perfis contendo um resumo das atividades levadas a cabo por pessoas relacionadas com a construção em terra (profissionais, de caráter académico, etc.). Se assim o desejar, poderá ter seu nome adicionado à lista de perfis - ver como na página de perfis.

Apesar de acreditarmos que o seu perfil em Inglês seria compreendido por um público mais alrgado, poderá enviar-nos o perfil na língua que entender ser a mais apropriada.

Recursos existentes

RESEARCH – INVESTIGAÇÃO: Um dos objetivos principais do research-Terra é ainda o de promover e divulgar a pesquisa sobre a construção em terra feita pelo mundo. Por este motivo, a sua contribuição continua a ser fundamental. Caso tenha levado a cabo investigação de caráter académico sobre a construção em terra, pode adicionar o título da mesma à base de dados do research-Terra, usando as instruções disponíveis no website. O mesmo se aplica às restantes páginas – RESEARCH GROUPS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, EVENTS e LINKS.

A equipa do research-Terra deseja agradecer a sua colaboração!



research-Terra - new features!!

Fellow readers,

Since it was first created, the Project research-terra has been growing considerably. We now have a new logo, a new URL - http://www.research-terra.com/ - and a new webmail - email@research-terra.com!

Research-Terra started has a simple website containing some titles of thesis on the various aspects of earthen construction developed by researchers in European countries. Today, research-Terra has not only expanded to include research from all over the world, but is also embracing all sorts of fronts in this field.

The research-terra project team is currently working towards making the webpage THE reference tool for all of those involved in earthen construction throughout the world. Therefore, we have included new features - namely profiles and photos - which will provide a bigger picture of what is taking place within the earthen building community worldwide.

As before, we are counting on you to make this possible! All you have to do is send us the information you would like to see online, by following the instructions available on the website.

It is still a work in progress, however, we believe that, with your help, this can be the start of something interesting!

Here is a short description of research-Terra’s features:

New features

IMAGES - Earthen buildings in pictures:

It is known that there are many forms of using earth as a building material. Following that, this page intends to create photo albums divided by countries to show examples of earthen buildings throughout the world. You can participate by sending your photos!

PROFILES - Short profiles of people involved in earthen construction:

In order to complement the already existing section of research groups we have added profiles with a summary of people’s activities related to earthen construction. You can have your name added to the list as well – see how on the profiles page.

Although we believe that your profile in English would be comprehended by a larger audience, you are free to send us your profile in your native language.

Existing features

RESEARCH: One of research-Terra’s main goal is still to promote and disseminate the research on earthen construction, for this reason, the RESEARCH page still requires your contribution. If you have done academic research on earthen construction, access this page to see how you can add this information to the website. The same goes for the other pages - RESEARCH GROUPS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, EVENTS, and LINKS.

We look forward to receiving your input.

The research-Terra team wishes to thank you for your cooperation!

Update on Research.Terra



Just to let you know that the website Research.Terra has been updated with lots of new thesis on earthen construction. We now have roughly 120 titles from 14 different countries! Moreover, the bibliography list is getting longer and longer by the day.

As usual, if you are aware of any publication (thesis/book/paper, etc.) that is not yet on the website, please just let us know via research.terra@gmail.com.

LA TIERRA COMO MATERIAL: Inclusión del barro en el imaginario del diseño actual

Thesis available online:

LA TIERRA COMO MATERIAL: Inclusión del barro en el imaginario del diseño actual

EARTH AS MATERIAL: Inclusion of mud in the imaginary of the current design

 Nuñez, Silvia and Cuiñas, Carolina (2010) Tesis de Diseño Indutrial - Facultad de Diseño - Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Tesis de Diseño Indutrial - Facultad de Diseño - Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Resumen:La cantidad de recursos y materiales naturales que existen en el entorno hacen posible, que las personas puedan mejorar su calidad de vida y al mismo tiempo no dañen el medio ambiente donde se desarrollan. A pesar de que la construcción natural tiene una antigüedad de más de 10.000 años, en la actualidad se la considera un símbolo de precariedad y marginalidad relacionado con los sistemas modernos imperantes. La problemática que se presenta dentro del marco de esta tesina es la de incluir a este material dentro del imaginario del diseño en la actualidad. La investigación comienza analizando las posibilidades técnicas y simbólicas de la tierra como material en la producción de objetos de diseño industrial. De ésta forma, se recopila información desde la arquitectura, siendo éste el campo donde se ha desarrollado con mayor profundidad. Al ser un material explorado desde realidades artesanales y no tanto así desde procesos sistematizados, creemos que el diseño puede aportar nuevas posibilidades para el mismo en la actualidad. Como objetivo fundamental se plantea explorar nuevas formas productivas,identificando y aprovechando recursos y potencialidades endógenas de una comunidad y las tecnologías disponibles en ella. Asimismo, se busca dar una solución real a un objeto contenido dentro de un contexto particular y definido, mediante un producto, sus moldes y desarrollo productivo.


Abstract: The amount of natural resources and materials that can be found in the environment enable people to improve their life quality without harming it. Even though the natural construction dates 10.000 years ago, nowadays it is considered a symbol of precariousness and marginality if compared to the prevailing modern systems. The topic of this thesis is to include the earth as a material within the current design imaginary. The starting point of this investigation is the technical and symbolic possibilities of rammed earth in the production of objects in industrial design. Thus, data is collected from the architecture field, as this is the field where it has been developed most. Since this material has been explored more in handicraft than in series productions, we believe that design can provide new possibilities for it nowadays. The aim is not only to look into new productive processes, identifying and taking advantage of endogenous resources and potentialities as well as the available technologies, but also to look for a real solution to an object contained within a particular and definite context, through a product, its casts and productive development.

Sample pages from the thesis. Credits: Nuñez, Silvia and Cuiñas, Carolina (2010)

Diving in communities - a blog to follow

Another interesting blog to follow...


Ricardo, a portuguese environmental engineer and researcher, has initiated what is expected to be a great journey. He is on his way to Buthan - The Dragon Kingdom, where he will stay for 3 months doing voluntary work for UNDP with local communities.
Ricardo is no stranger to voluntary work with communities, he has recently spent a month in Mozambique where he, along with other voluntaries, helped building a school.
He is one of those very enthusiastic and inspiring people, always ready to get himself involved himself in interesting projects. Surely this journey will be no exception.


Fortunately, he has created a journal-like web blog, where he will describe the day-to-day life during these 3 months of hard, nonetheless exciting, work. I will certainly be a faithful follower!


Here it is: Diving in communities

I wish you the best of luck Ricardo!

rammed earth - BREEAM A+ material.

via:  Ram Cast

'The Building Research Establishment have pioneered their Environmental Assessment Method over a number of years. This is the first time an earthen building material has been included on this internationally recognised system of assessment for building materials. They compare and rate every part of a construction process and materials to set a datum for choosing materials for a project. Each element, walls, roof, openings etc. are then added together to reach a final rating for a building.
Rammed earth can now be rated as a building material both in the UK and by users internationally.'

Further info: Here 

Masters' course - Sustainable construction and rehabilitation, Portugal

Information: http://www.civil.uminho.pt/mcrs.htm
Deadline for applications - 7/9/2010: http://alunos.uminho.pt/candidaturasPG

Investigating the intelligence of the low-tech earth architecture of the Sahara: A feasibility study from the western desert of Egypt

Investigating the intelligence of the low-tech earth architecture of the Sahara: A feasibility study from the western desert of Egypt  

(article here)

ABSTRACT

Traditional building techniques such as earth construction have withstood the test of time. Its effectiveness and intelligence in responding to the socio-cultural and climatic context of many regions across the world have been well demonstrated. This article is concerned with the technical and social factors that led to the decline of this intelligent-architecture approach in the Sahara desert. The article investigates the potential and constraints of reintroducing earth construction architecture in four of the six western desert oases as case studies. These oases form the New Valley Governorate of Egypt: Baharia, Farafra, Al-Dakhla and Al-Kharja. Two field studies were undertaken. The first took place during a research trip that included Cairo, Giza, the four oases and Luxor, while the second was conducted in Al-Dakhla only. The results suggest a strong possibility for reusing earth architecture in the four oases from the environmental point of view. However, a number of limitations were identified - durability, buildability and the attractiveness of the mud architecture to the locals. Validation of the results and addressing those constraints are the focus of future work to assess the thermal performance of vernacular and modern case studies in the oases under investigation.

Computer modeling to build better mud bricks

O texto que se segue foi obtido a  partir da secção de notícias do website Physorg.com e refere a criação de um software que se espera poder contribuir para a melhoria da construção em terra.

Notícia de 29 de Junho de 2010
Para ler o original, clique AQUI

"Rammed earth and stabilized mud block or brick are cheap, easy to make, usually durable materials widely used for building homes and low-level structures, especially in developing countries. Despite their widespread use and long history, the structural properties of these materials are not well understood, so how they could be manufactured to better withstand destructive natural forces, such as earthquakes and weathering, remains a goal.

Craig Foster, assistant professor of civil and materials engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, hopes a specially tailored set of computer models he is developing may provide the necessary answers. He has just won a three-year, $243,000 National Science Foundation grant to conduct the work.

Foster will use what is called the finite element method of computer modeling to focus on the shear behavior of these materials in response to wind and earthquakes.

"We want to look at strength and ductility under varying conditions," he said. "The ultimate goal is to design safer and more efficient structures."

The computer models Foster is developing will help predict fracture patterns that run through the brick and mortar of these structures, leading to better insights into the structural behavior that may suggest ways to make them better.

Foster said the ultimate goal is a set of building codes for earth-based materials that will be simple to follow, and that will insure the materials are safe to use and economical to make.

Adam Tennant, one of Foster's Ph.D. students, initiated the idea for the project as part of a Fulbright grant he received to do research in India. Tennant worked with B.V. Venkatarama Reddy at the India Institute of Sciences in Bangalore, who has tested the strength of different mud-block samples under various conditions.

Foster has special interests in sustainability and the needs of developing nations. He saw how his expertise in numerical modeling could help advance the state of knowledge about these materials -- to the mutual benefit of both interests.

David Weed, another of Foster's Ph.D. students, will help develop and test the numerical models.

Working with Reddy's research team in India, Foster and his UIC students will take test data gathered in Bangalore and apply it to his computer models to see if it simulates what they see in the Indian laboratory experiments.

"Hopefully, that will give us more insights into the structural behavior," Foster said. "You see certain things in lab experiments, but when you run a model you can get a better sense of what's going on in a lot of ways," such as analyzing where are the greatest stress points and where dangerous cracks are likely to form.

While developing countries are the target beneficiaries of new insights into building better stabilized mud blocks and rammed earth structures, the sustainable nature of the materials has boosted their attractiveness in developed countries as well, especially in warm, arid regions such as the American Southwest.

Mud block and rammed earth walls require little energy to create, unlike material such as steel, which is very energy-intensive to produce. Bricks, blocks and walls can be cured outdoors in dry regions with a lot of sunlight. Energy production costs are essentially free.

There are other environmentally friendly advantages as well, Foster said.

"It has good thermal properties to help regulate inside temperatures over the course of a day. And it's made from mostly locally available materials, on site or from nearby. Soil is everywhere."

Provided by University of Illinois at Chicago (news : web) "

Shelter Conference 2010

Sei que é tarde para enviar trabalhos para a Shelter Conference 2010, de qualquer forma, fica aqui a divulgação para quem considere comparecer. 

Data: 16, 17 de Setembro de 2010
Local: Oxford Brookes University - Oxford, Reino Unido 
Custo: 75 libras



Shelter Conference 2010 - Link

Improving learning and practice in the humanitarian shelter sector. Two day conference hosted by the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP) & CARE International UK. Funded by ELRHA (Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance). 16-17 September 2010

Conference announcement
While very few humanitarian organisations list post-disaster shelter reconstruction as one of their main activities, many often become instrumental in the delivery of large-scale shelter projects.

Yet, as the recent Haiti earthquake and previous large disasters such as the Asian Tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake demonstrate, shelter after disaster is complex, spanning immediate relief needs of security and comfort to longer term developmental issues of land, ownership, funding, community engagement and political control.

To tackle these tasks, humanitarian workers must collaborate with actors from all sectors with varying agendas, seek to engage in coordination for better effectiveness, while navigating situations which by definition have been overwhelmed by catastrophe.

What then works well? What are the lessons that are emerging from practice, and as a sector what can be learnt to improve effectiveness?

Invitation for presenters
The objective of this two day conference is to learn from and share lessons from the practical experience of shelter after disaster. To these ends the conference will comprise invited speakers, plenary and smaller seminar optional sessions. Presentations (case studies, papers, reflective pieces) are therefore invited from researchers and in particular from practitioners from NGOs, agencies and donors under one or more of the following three themes:
Coordination, collaboration and partnerships: risks and benefits of working with other NGOs, UN bodies, private sector and governmental authorities
Community engagement: working with affected communities in community ownership, donor and owner driven approaches etc.
Innovation in shelter approaches: developing and using transitional shelter, working with shelter providers, new approaches to shelter.

Outlines for possible presentations should be no more than 150-200 words and should be submitted to the conference organisers no later than 30 June 2010.
Registration and costs

The conference fee is £75. To register please email jburnell@brookes.ac.uk

For further information, registration and submission of outlines please contact Jeni Burnell, conference organiser at: jburnell@brookes.ac.uk. t. +44 (0)1865 483966 or +44 (0)1865 484086

"Huff as hard as you like - you can’t blow a straw house down"

Segue um artigo muito interessante publicado hoje no Times relativo a investigação sobre casas com paredes de fardos de palha. 

Créditos imagens : ModCell

Fonte:
Times Online, 20 de Maio 2010

Autor: Ben Webster, Environmental Editor

"Scientists have ruined the plot of a children’s fairytale by proving that straw houses do not necessarily blow down, even when subjected to an awful lot of huffing and puffing.
The first straw housing estate is being planned after tests showed that walls built of straw bales can be made strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds. A two-storey straw house constructed at the University of Bath moved only 4mm (0.16in) when subjected to a force exceeding four tonnes, equivalent to 120mph winds.
Researchers pushed hydraulic jacks against the walls to simulate the wind speed. They concluded that even a three-storey straw house would be strong enough to survive the worst storms Britain is likely to experience. The house in the tests was made from prefabricated panels that consisted of wooden frames filled with straw bales and covered with lime render.
The heating bills for this type of straw house, which has walls almost half a metre thick, are 80 per cent lower than for modern homes made from bricks and breeze blocks. The carbon footprint from the construction and materials is also far lower because straw locks in carbon as it grows.

Pete Walker, director of the university’s Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, said there could be a net carbon reduction if transport emissions were avoided by purchasing straw from local farms. “We hope the data will help strengthen the case for the mainstream building industry switching to using more sustainable building materials like straw,” he said.

“It can be difficult to get a loan for a straw house because of the perception among some building societies that they are not as strong. But we have shown that the BaleHaus design is robust and suitable for the windiest places, though that doesn’t quite include building one on top of Snowdon as a replacement restaurant.”

Professor Walker said that the house had also passed fire tests, with the lime render preventing flames from reaching the straw for one and a half hours, well over the 30-minute minimum under safety regulations. The greatest risk to straw houses is from moisture, which can cause the straw to decay. The university is planning to test how the panels would cope with a flood this summer.

Professor Walker said that lime render was breathable and this should allow any moisture to escape. “If you get an inundation we don’t yet know if the straw dries out quickly enough before it starts decaying,” he said. “But even in the worst-case scenario, the straw could be replaced in a panel for only a few hundred pounds.”

He added that the homes should last more than 100 years if they remained occupied and any leaks were quickly repaired. In Nebraska there are several straw bale buildings dating from the early 20th century.
The BaleHaus design used by the university requires eight panels for each storey. Once the concrete foundations are in place, it can be assembled in four days, compared with a minimum of four weeks for a conventional home.
An affordable housing co-operative in Leeds is planning to submit an application within three months for 20 straw homes in the Kirkstall area of the city. A single-storey apartment will cost £60,000 and a four-bedroom terrace home £160,000.
The homes will have slightly smaller rooms than conventional houses of similar overall dimensions. The straw bales are 490mm thick, compared with 300-350mm walls in a new brick home.
Professor Walker said: “This is an issue for developers that want to pack as many houses as they can into a space.” But he added that developers using straw would find it much easier to meet the Government’s target to make all new homes “zero carbon” from 2016. "

Artigo online

Use of Stabilised Earth in the Construction of Low Cost Sustainable Housing in Africa: An Energy Solution in the Era of Climate Changes

Abstract

"Stabilised earth is an alternative building material which is significantly cheaper than using conventional brick and concrete, and is also environmentally sustainable. Earth has been used as a construction material in every continent and in every age. It is one of the oldest building materials. The use of earth on site as a building material saves manufacturing cost, time, energy, environmental pollution and transportation cost. Most African countries do not have any well structured and effective program to address the global agenda of sustainability through the use of appropriate construction materials. In order to demonstrate stabilized earth as a sustainable appropriate construction material, the experiences and practices of using earth construction can be studied and harnessed from other subcontinents to demonstrate the dynamism of this material suitable for low cost house construction in the African subcontinent. This paper aims to identify and highlight potentiality of stabilized earth construction in the solution of low cost housing crisis in Africa and justify the use of this appropriate construction material is an energy solution in the era of climate change."

Fonte:
Zami, Mohammad Sharif and Lee, Angela. "Use of Stabilized Earth in the Construction of Low Cost Sustainable Housing in Africa: An Energy Solution in the Era of Climate Changes," in ArchNet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 3, issue 2 (2009).

Publicação - Can CEB be a viable building material for affordable housing?

Fonte da imagem

Can compressed earth blocks be a viable building material for affordable housing?

"The 2005 UN Habitat report, Global Report on Human Settlements, estimated that over the next 25 years more than 2 billion people will be added to the global demand for housing.This, the report concludes, translates into completing 96,150 housing units per day. With much of this demand coming from countries where poverty remains an acute problem, the funding of this demand for housing presents challenges, particularly in relation to the costs of building materials. This research project, by a team led by Joseph Arumala at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA, explored the possibility of using soils for making compressed earth blocks for constructing affordable residential buildings, using relatively cheap and locally available technology. What he found was blocks made using this approach satisfied code requirements for compressed earth block one-storey housing construction. What his work also showed was that using small amounts of additives, such as agricultural fibre – readily available in many developing countries – could also make a significant and positive impact to the performance of the blocks."

Arumala J. O.,  Gondal T. (2008) Can compresses earth blocks be a viable building material for affordable housing? in Fibre Series: findings in built and rural environments. RICS


Artigo completo AQUI

População Mundial - Relatório de 2006 (United Nations)

Para os que gostam de saber os números da população mundial, aqui ficam alguns excertos do relatório de 2006 das Nações Unidas (texto completo disponível AQUI).

"...the world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion over the next 43 years, passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the size that the world population had in 1950 and it will be absorbed mostly by the less developed regions, whose population is projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050. In contrast, the population of the more developed regions is expected to remain largely unchanged at 1.2 billion and would have declined were it not for the projected net migration from developing to developed countries, which is expected to average 2.3 million persons a year after 2010."

"Underlying these varied patterns of growth and changes in the age structure are distinct trends in fertility and mortality. Below-replacement fertility prevails in the more developed regions and is expected to continue to 2050. Fertility is still high in most of the least developed countries and, although it is expected to decline, it will remain higher than in the rest of the world. In the rest of the developing countries, fertility has declined markedly since the late 1960s and is expected to reach below-replacement levels by 2050 in the majority of them."

"Future population growth is highly dependent on the path that future fertility takes.In the medium variant, fertility of the world declines from 2.55 children per woman today to slightly over 2 children per woman in 2050. If fertility were to remain about half a child above the levels projected in the medium variant, world population would reach 10.8 billion by 2050. A fertility path half a child below the medium variant would lead to a population of 7.8 billion by mid-century. That is, at the world level, continued population growth until 2050 is inevitable even if the decline in fertility accelerates."

Fonte: World Population Prospects The 2006 Revision: Executive Summary - United Nations (2007)

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