“Designed by the owners, a doctor and nurse from Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Built by local Belizean builder, Jorge Rosales, this organic home emanates a sense of place at the junction of Parrot’s Cove and Forest Hill Drive in our Belize Eco Village. A sublime design.”
Earthbag Building
Open Source Disaster Resistant Earthbag Homes for Nepal
From the archives — I realized yesterday that this open source disaster resistant earthbag house could be easily adapted to Nepal.
Add a roof of recycled wood and metal roofing and for very little money (under $1,000) you’d have a safe, decent home in short order. This design is 25 sq.m (270 sq.ft or about 16’x16’ interior) It’s extremely simple and easily to build.
Shelter Craft Project
This workshop is over. You might want to keep an eye on their site if you live in the area. Maybe drop them an email or call if you’re interested in more earthbag workshops. Earthbag workshops are now available all over the world. Check out our Workshop page at Earthbag Building.com.
Earthquake Resistant Earthbag Building Guidelines PDF
Earthen buildings are strong in compression, but need help against tension or bending stresses. The barbed wire and vertical rebar in earthbag add important tensile strength.
More than 50 earthbag buildings in Nepal have recently survived 0.5- >0.7g of earthquake motion. This same motion destroyed poorly reinforced and unreinforced masonry buildings around them, mud block and brick alike.
Earthbag Shelter for Street Children, Nepal
I just found this earthbag shelter for street children in Boudha, Nepal. That’s pretty much all I know about this project. Maybe one of our readers can fill us in on the details.
Summary of Earthquake Resistant Earthbag Building Methods
We’ve posted quite a few blog posts over the years about how to reinforce earthbag buildings. Due to the earthquake in Nepal, we’re getting lots of questions about reinforced earthbag methods for earthquake regions. The following list will save people lots of time searching our blog and websites. Watch for more news on this topic in the future.