“19 architect students, 5 weeks in Southern Africa, a school building in 12 days
Students from the Bergen School of Architecture in Norway have built a school building in a Mozambique village using sand bags, bottles and grass. The building consists of an enclosed room for computers and a more flexible space with grass doors for English lessons, divided by a large sliding door. A reinforced-concrete frame was filled in with sand bags and glass bottles were embedded in one wall.”
Your designs are created to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes and the design would be easily adaptable to most cultures. What are some other advantages?
Other advantages are explained throughout our sites (over 1,000 pages of free info online). Advantages include: no need for expensive concrete foundations (gravel bags on rubble trench foundations works great – this can save you thousands of dollars on this one thing alone); ease of creating almost any shape you want – roundhouses, domes, free form designs, you name it; ability to build underground or with earth sheltering or earth berming; no need for wood if wood is scarce or expensive; bags can be filled with insulation (lava rock, etc.) in cold climates, or insulation can be added to the exterior; owner-builder friendly – virtually anyone can build this way using very few tools and little or no special training.
HelpX Facebook Contact Fabrice: “fabbonin@wapda.com”
“Use this free online strategic planning tool to help plan for your earthbag (superadobe) dome. This calculator will generate a row-by-row estimation of the required materials to build your dome.” Source: Terra Form Related: How Many Bags Does it Take?
Another earthbag roundhouse, this one in Chile. Reader submission: “This was made in Llaillay, Chile about 3 years ago. This was our super adobe construction in región of aconcagua. (V region in Chile)” Laura Facebook
Source: Flickrhivemind More excellent designs at Arquitectura en Equilibrio’s photostream