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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
NGO proposes low-cost domes for housing woes
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
IMAGINE living in a house that resists fires, quakes and typhoons but is made of sugarcane waste, mud and barbed wire.
MyShelter Foundation, a nongovernment organization, has declared it has found a solution to the problem of homelessness.
It is introducing dome-shaped houses made of sugarcane wastes mixed with lime, mud, barbed wire and concrete.
MyShelter Foundation executive director Illac Diaz said a two-story house that has a floor area of 55 square meters costs only about P150,000 to build but is expected to last for 50 years.
Diaz said the earthen houses will not only provide affordable houses for the poor, but also prevent the cutting of more trees for wood.
An earthen house is also designed in a way that it allows optimal ventilation, which reduces power consumption by 75 percent, said Diaz.
The foundation is constructing 50 units in Escalante City in Negros Occidental, where sugarcane wastes abound.
Diaz, who is the youngest recipient of the Asian Institute of Management Honors and Prestige Award in 2003, said the alternative technology is already being used in India and the United States, where he traveled to look for ideas.
He said the technology can also be used in building classrooms, fishponds and even large, water-proof rice containers.
“These will be ancient structures with a modern twist,” Diaz said.
At present, the foundation is looking for funds to make prototypes of machines that will make the construction of earthen houses more efficient.
Diaz believes the use of the machines will shorten the construction period to 10 days.
An earthen house is built by digging a round trench of two rice bags deep. Rice sacks filled with a mixture of earth and cement are used to fill the trench.
Instead of steel rods, barbed wire is placed between layers of the soil-cement mixture to strengthen the structure.
The walls of the house may be plastered with soil to make it waterproof and to give it an even finish.
Diaz said the structures, like pottery, should be heated from the inside to make them stronger.
(January 19, 2005 issue)
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