Natural building in Haiti

In the two or so months I have been here, I certainly have seen or heard about a lot of natural building projects, from earth ships to compressed earth blocks to straw bale to super adobe (earthbag), and that's before we dabble in light clay/straw (planned for later this month). I thought I'd try to summarise all of these methods here.

Over the past couple of days, I have been helping out here at Grassroots United with a superadobe washroom facility. Super adobe involves using long plastic tubes, which you then fill with soil (can be stabilised with cement if you desire). You can build round or square, and in this case, we went round. Luke, Tim & Spud are here from New Leaf Initiatives (actually, Luke & Tim flew back yesterday, and Ben will be coming on Tuesday to continue with the project). New Leaf sounds like a really interesting organisation, from what Spud was telling me last night: http://newleafinitiative.org/community/meet-the-allies/#all. Essentially, if you have an idea to pitch to them, something you're passionate about, they will try to mentor you and hook you up with people who are experienced in that realm. So, Tim & Luke wanted to build with earth bags, Spud hooked them up with folks who are knowledgeable in the field, and voila, here they are in Haiti.

Luke & Tim experienced what most newcomers to Haiti experience, and that is frustration in the delays of materials arriving on time, and plans being changed last minute, but they also appreciated a deep, rich connection with a couple of Haitian volunteers who joined them. I haven't ever worked with earth tubes, so thought I would pitch in- that, and the fact that these guys are taking off, and I felt like someone needed to be able to take the torch and move the project along. They hadn't really thought about plaster types, so I will work with Ben when he gets here to share recipes, and figure out the best plaster for the exposed roof. The building will be a dome, with three flush toilets in it, taking greywater from the showers. Originally it was to be compost toilets, so with this last minute change, I hope I'm hoping that the appropriate leaching pits and pipes are all in plac

These bags came in a large roll. We cut them to 35' long, and then they get filled with soil (it is quite a heavy soil they have). They wanted to combine crushed rubble in the bags, but there isn't currently a lot of rubble on site. A run of barbed wire goes onto each course (sometimes two runs) to help the subsequent layer from slipping.

Filling these bags is pretty labour intensive, but once you get going, you streamline the process. We pushed as much of the bag as possible onto the bucket with a hole in it, and then we have two shovellers. Another person then pushes these shovels of soil along to the  eventual spot it will live, and yet one more person evens that out to make sure it is dense & tight up against the previous load. (Easier to do than explain!).

We made it to 7 rows high before the boys had to leave. I think we'll recommence either on Tues. or on Wed., once Ben is here.

In the meantime, I am continuing with little projects here at the Ti Kay Pay. There is an interior triangle above the bamboo ceiling that needs whitewashing, so I've done coat. In addition, Jean Louis & I are going to do the finish coat of earthen plaster on the floor. I'll do a couple of different recipes & test patches today, to see how it fares. We weren't sure what to do to seal the floor, since linseed isn't locally available (at least, not to our knowledge), but have been toying with the idea of trying coconut oil. Jean Louis said he can get some from a local market, so we'll try. I'm not sure if we'll heat it, or add any citrus thinner to it...it's kind of open ended at this point. The straw house has come a long way...from the earth bag foundation to the load bearing walls, to using the rubble crusher for some of the plaster (although we didn't find it successful) to the final plaster coats.

Andy, putting together trusses with sheet metal gussets.

The rubble crusher- an awesome rig, simple to operate, but labour intensive to make a lot of sand. Haiti has a lot of labour, however, considering the incredible unemployment.

Jean Louis & Annio, attaching hurricane X bracing to rebar.

Bamboo reinforcement goes down over the foundation, and up to the top plate. It is stitched through the wall. Compression bands starting to be tweaked in this load bearing building.

The inside is quite inviting. The bamboo separation wall isn't quite complete, as we are still waiting for more bamboo to arrive. Building with bamboo & bales in a rural setting would make it easier to obtain materials.

It is getting a lot of positive reviews- in part, it is still 'conventional' looking enough to fit the bill here, and in part, it is just plain beautiful. I love the simplicity of it- the size is quite adequate for one person! I am camped out inside the house right now (using tent to keep mosquitoes at bay), and the sound insulation has had a tremendous effect on getting a quiet's night sleep. Or, at least, quietER.  To date, the moisture meter readings (there are 29 probes in the walls) have had readings in the safe range, so I hope this trend continues. The bigger question is, how will the building handle intense rain in the rainy or hurricane season. We painted two coats of a glue wash onto the exterior walls to help protect them, given that siloxane doesn't seem to be readily available here, nor did we have time to experiment and make some on our own with local materials.

Ti Kay Pay, view from the rooftop at GRU- thanks, Andy, for the photo!

Protecting an earthen plaster  is a tough thing, because traditionally, people would remud or limewash their houses regularly, but as things move forward, people are looking for maintenance-free homes. That, and in a place like Haiti, where I often see regular maintenance lacking of either homes, machines, etc. (people have to focus on food and water moreso than on making the house look pretty- but homes are swept and cleaned quite regularly), it would be good to find a more durable solution. In a country with so few trees, we don't want to encourage the burning of fuels, which is what lime production would entail. Once upon a time, there were lots of lime kilns in the country. 

Some of the older wattle & daub homes in Haiti have been 'limewashed' with what they call 'carbure'- a by-product of welding. It looks like putty, and indeed, when we added water and lime juice to it, it made a decent looking limewash. The only problem is, without knowing its chemical properties, we were hesitant to use in on the interior of a building. However, perhaps it is a good solution for the exterior. And indeed, it is on the exterior that we have seen this finish in Haiti.

I was told this limewash was made with carbure. I have no idea how long it has been on- on some buildings, it was intact where it was protected by the overhang, and had eroded everywhere else (makes sense), so regular coating is necessary. The team in Deslandes suggested in areas where it is well protected, it can last as long as 5 years, and otherwise, one or two years. I'm not sure how readily available this 'waste' material is, either- that has to be researched as well.

The earthship, right next to the straw bale home, was started last year by Michael Reynolds and team. who worked with Haitian volunteers.

 Their team returned in January of this year to expand and complete the buildings, including water catchment and a self contained blackwater system. The mass in the walls definitely keep the interior cooler than outside, and it's a pretty funky looking building. It may take a bit longer to get Haitians to buy into this style of building, only because I noticed that if a level is sitting around on a jobsite, any visitors pick it up instantly to see how straight the walls are. I noticed this moreso at the earth block building, and those walls are pretty darned straight...but I think if the earthships are built in pods for communities, people will definitely appreciate them- you just have to change the mindset of having to have perfectly straight walls. We tried quite hard to get our walls straight, especially outside corners, and we succeeded in straightening them up considerably, but they aren't perfect, that's for sure. 

I thought I would also recap the compressed earth block building that has been going on in Deslandes. Tierra y Cal have partnered up with Centre d'Intervention Jeunesse, a Haitian organisation, and they began the first of three schools built out of compressed earth blocks. They are essentially operating as a natural building school, in which participants get training by working on the school. Before receiving a certificate, they have to go back to their own community, with some of the other students (and with supervision!) to build a new house for a family in need. I love their model, in that participants have to put their newly acquired skills into practise, and in so doing, expose their community to a new and accessible form of construction.  I am working with them to help plaster, develop their crew, and to develop curriculum, as they are interested in including other natural building methods. (And a reminder that we are collecting tools for the school- there is a shipping crate leaving Toronto at the end of April). They have a limited selection of tools at the school. 

Mixing cement for the poured floors happens entirely by hand in Deslandes, as does all of the plaster mixes. They sweep off this area of the courtyard, and mix everything there. Hard work in the heat of the day!

Most Haitian masons/plasterers I have met are more comfortable 'throwing' or harling mud onto the wall using a brick mason's pointed trowel, and then using a wooden float. This crew was also quite messy with this process, so I had to remind them of cleaning the thrown mud from the freshly plastered walls! They were using Jeff's fancy Italian finishing trowel as both a hawk, and also to scrape floors...yikes! Some of them eventually caught on to using the steel trowl to apply mud.

Not the earth block scaffolding frame...

Building one, of three, for the open air school in Deslandes

The larger question in reconstruction in Haiti, is what does it cost. We have preliminary numbers in for the straw house, and they're pretty high, but of course, this is a prototype, and there was problem solving involved, a lot more consultation time, and also, perhaps overpayment on materials given that we were new to Port au Prince. New buildings need to be sustainable, durable, and certainly, affordable, or they won't fly here.


When I go back to Deslandes, Ian Thomson (friend, firefighter fellow Canadian, and building whiz all bundled into one!) and I are going to build an 8 stall composting toilet facility (Lucci from an organisation called Give Love will come and teach the community how to build the actual toilets, and how to maintain them, and how to maintain the compost piles- education, and maintenance, are critical parts of introducing composting toilets to households or to a community), and we are going to use a light clay straw wall system, with larson trusses. Hopefully we'll use local bamboo for the roof trusses, and we are planning on fabricating larson trusses out of old wood pallets. There is an abundance of straw on the Artibonite Valley, and clay is readily accessible as well, so I'm hoping we can build an inexpensive building, and also, try another method of natural building here in Haiti. We have been consulting with some of our Canadian engineers, Tim Krahn and Kenny Cryer, about techniques and loads, etc., for this project. 


And in the meantime, these kinds of images remind us of why it is critical to have people here assisting with rebuilding. 

Walking into the camp, where Über Shelter have built their house. These tents are incredibly densely packed in, with little (or no!) privacy for people.

While plywood houses may not be ideal, or as permanent as some are claiming they are, they are raising people up off the ground, they're slightly larger than most tents, and they will keep out the rain. 

We visited a camp recently that houses 30,000 people, if you can imagine!  One section of tents are set in a bowl- the lowest point on that property, and when it rains, those people get completely flooded out of their tents. This camp is organised into 8 sectors, and each sector has a president to oversee that area, to raise concerns of the people, and to problem solve for the future. The presidents then get together once a week to discuss items of importance. One topic that remains at the top of the list is what will happen in the future- this land is partially government-owned, partially private, and there isn't any security in terms of knowing how long people will be allowed to stay there. They are working hard to ensure that people don't get booted out from there to....nowhere. 


There are a couple of fellows here at Grassroots who have come up with a really cool design for temporary shelter, especially appropriate for camps.

This shelter has a second storey, with a sheltered outdoor space underneath. It feels pretty well ventilated.

The jacks are great on these houses- it allows you to move in and get a structure up quickly, without necessarily levelling the ground, but rather, levelling each foot.

 They aren't claiming this is a permanent solution, nor are these shelters built for hurricane resistance. They are called Über Shelters, and I went along with Raphael the other day to see the first one that has been built in Haiti. (You can find a youtube flick of them building here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4tg_wudimw). It is in the aforementioned camp, and Genesis and his family are now living in it. These shelters are cool, in that they are modular, and can be built in many different configurations, depending on the available space. The entire packages packs up into a 4'x8' pile, about 2.5 feet high- quite compact. There is a light aluminum frame, corrugated cardboard walls, and plywood flooring. Remember, they're not built to withstand hurricane gales, but rather, to provide immediate temporary shelter. They have jacks on them to raise them up off the ground and keep residents dry (the legs or jacks are the base of stop signs- very clever). I'm going to go with Raphael and Armand later this week to put the steel roof on their second project in Haiti.


And in other natural building news, Bruce King from EBNet have won an international competition for the best new housing idea in Haiti. They are going to use bamboo, earthen plasters, and compressed earth block, and plastic bottles in Port au Prince: check this out: http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/images/stories/ebnet_pdfs/%20%20ebnet%20haiti%20appeal.pdf. Looking forward to seeing that project move forward!


And so, amidst the rubble, the tents, the plywood houses, and the conflicting reports about NGO's not doing anything, there is a very active natural building world here in Haiti. Haitians are quite happy to see building projects that use local materials, and are built by Haitians, or at least, with some Haitian hands. Most builders I know who are here are aiming to train Haitian workers to be able to continue building using more sustainable and earthquake-resistant building methods.