The following article was written by Meinhaj Hussain.
8/11/2014 Meinhaj Hussain, m.hussain@grandestrategy.com
“So Gaza has suffered and is suffering massive targeted genocide. Large swathes of Gaza look like Dresden. How can we rebuild with a blockade? Earthbag houses may be one solution. All one needs is earth and readily available bags.
Benefits of earthbag housing:
1. Very fast and easy way to build a house, no expertise needed, even children can build these houses (some of the children that volunteer in my project love it so much they kept coming back to play with earth. Recent studies show that playing with dirt can actually make you happy).
2. Extremely cheap to build, you can build a small cottage for as little as $300 or less.
3. Naturally cool because of the thick insulated walls, saving on electricity (or stress when there is none). This insulation also protects against noise pollution, perfect for Gaza were some children were martyred from fear alone.
4. Bullet proof and shrapnel proof. Built with safety in mind, I believe the heavy metal powder bombs the Israelis use can be made ineffective or reduced in their effectiveness by this building method.
5. If you dig into the ground as you build, you are essentially creating a semi-bunker / trench. Again, far safer than conventional buildings and were you sleep is even safer as you are below the threshold of bombs and gunfire.
6. With the right design, you can keep your earthbag house passively cool without any external supply of electricity. However, you will need to import certain items (such as cheap solar panels from China) to get the best benefit.
7. Earthbag houses were originally developed out of WWII construction methods and are very safe and easy to build. An Iranian engineer took the concept and applied it to housing, which was successfully tested in California. Earthbag houses have been used worldwide to help disaster relief efforts. [Edit]… these may just be what Palestine needs.
Contact me if you need help and are really doing this (no time wasters please).”
Read more: Grand Strategy.com
Sustainable Brunei.com
Related: Earthbag Building is Taking Off in Gaza!
If you disagree with the author, please don’t leave nasty comments here. We often post articles from other sources. We don’t have to agree 100% with everything other people say. Look at the main point — earthbag building is a viable building system for Gaza and could save lives.
For those who don’t know, living roofs are for rainy areas such as the Pacific NW, tropics, etc. Even then they’re tricky to get established, and take a lot of labor.
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