Post on 14-Apr-2018
Complex DomesKelly and Rosana Hart's ear
thbag/pa
per
crete hom
e
com
pleted in
2000. T
his
1250 sq.f
t. hom
e was m
ade with the earth
bag
s f
illed with socria (crushed volcan
ic
stone) and covered with papercrete plaster. T
he passiv
e solar design perf
orm
s well
at over 8,000 f
t. in the Colorado mou
ntains.
La Casa Vergara
was designed by José Andrés Valle
jo and built in
Bogotá, Colombia in just 5 mon
th
s, early in 2011. T
h
e design ex
plores the
potential of
seism
ic resistance with superadobe as the construction
techn
ology
and contemprary
design. T
h
e cost per m
2 is estimated at $300
USD (about $28/sq.f
t.), making
it a robust altern
ativ
e f
or h
ousing with
low
cost an
d high bioclim
atic perf
ormance.
T
his Ear
thbag Clinic
in the Philippines was coordinated by Illac Diaz
, the
young
Phillipin
e vision
ary who has spearheaded man
y such
earth
bag
pro
jects in
the area, including
several schools. T
here is no text describing
the process of
bu
ilding, bu
t the many
photos tell most of
the story
. You
will notice that th
e bag
material was rem
oved af
ter the f
ill had set u
p an
d bef
ore th
e build
in
g was
plastered.
Featured are the Ea
rthbag Domes of
Akio Inoue
of
T
en
ri University
, Japan. He
assisted building these on the university campus, at an
earth
quake site near Jamn
agar,
India, and
in Entebe, Uganda. T
hese domes are bein
g con
sidered f
or use as ref
u
gee
shelters in
the reg
ion, because they provide good
protection f
rom bullets, f
ire, wind,
an
d rain
.
Using a techn
ique developed by
Cal Earth
in Calif
orn
ia, architect Nader Kahlili
worked with
th
e Pegasus Children's Project
to build a sm
all sustainable villag
e
of
ov
er 40 "super adobe domes"
to provide perm
anen
t shelter. T
his project
accomm
odates 80 children, 10 staf
f
, an
d a small sch
ool near Kath
m
andu, Nepal,
in
th
e Himalaya Mou
ntain
s - the f
irst of
its kind f
or the region
.
Hootenanny in Baja
T
ogether with the earth
, sun
, and sea, we will craf
t
an
abode of
beauty, sim
plicity and com
f
ort. Workin
g together, we'll
ex
pand our horizons - h
ow to build a saf
e and
beau
tif
ul home f
or a sm
all
cost. I m
ade the pro
ject under tim
e, a little over budget, and am signif
icantly
happier with the result than I h
ad envision
ed. So, I'm
a happy m
an.
Uganda Ecovillage
. In 2008 Sunn
y T
sai volu
nteered to assist a team of
two architects and eight prof
essors, under the direction of
Akio In
oue of
T
en
ri University
, Japan, to construct an ecovillage by
Lake Victoria,
Ug
anda, East Af
rica. T
his ecovillage was designed by architect Kikum
a
Watan
abe of
the Kochi Univ
ersity of
T
echn
ology
.
Jorg
e Dominguez
h
as been hel
ping his f
riend
Mark Hanson
build the f
irst Code
Permitted Haw
aiian Dome Home
. T
his is a copy of
a desert earthbag dome
ad
apted to su
per heavy rain. It took Mark like a year to get his perm
it. Lots of
patience requ
ired
. T
his d
om
e is going to be sold to a retired couple. It is not
mean
t f
or a f
amil
y with kids.
T
he J
oshua
Tr
ee Home
is the eventual residen
ce of
Mark R
eppert. It is a dou
ble
eco dome desig
ned by Cal-Earth. San Bernardino County gave Mark a perm
it to
build
the h
ouse. The bu
ilding reg
u
lations there are some of
the toug
hest in the
coun
try
. We were an international crew of
builders. T
h
ere were 5 core builders
with extra volun
teers on occasion
.
T
he W
arsaw
Dome
pro
ject was built in Polan
d as a dem
onstration of
in
expensive,
sustainable building
techniques that oth
ers m
igh
t em
ploy. T
his is on
e of
m
any such
pro
jects initiated by the Earth, Han
ds, and Houses organization f
ounded by Paulina
Wo
jciechowska, au
thor of
Building with Earth: A Guide to Flexible-F
orm
Earthbag Construction
.
T
wo retain
in
g
walls and the beginning of
an earth
bag
tube dom
e hom
e in Midpines
,
Calif
ornia. "Michele an
d Sara-Ann
standing nex
t to ou
r f
irst window f
orm
. We're f
ast
approaching 3000 f
eet as of
April 5, 2007."
Hom
eG
rown HideAway
s, a natu
ral bu
ilding sch
ool in
Kentucky helped John
Capillo build h
is Kentucky Dome Home
wh
ile running a workshop to teach
people the f
undamentals of
earthbag building. T
he code of
f
icials were incredibly
open to new things and gav
e John
his perm
it withou
t hassle. His design has a 16
f
oot dome with a larger circle coming of
f
the dom
e that has a wooden roof
.
Krpasu
ndarananda is a Meditation teacher with Ananda Marga and
h
as been a
Mon
k sin
ce 1991. The Eco-Dome in Ananda Naga
r, India
is a sh
owpiece to
inspire oth
er m
embers an
d teach
ers and he hopes one or two of
the laborers or
v
isiting v
illag
ers get th
e id
ea and will want to learn more. He'll be happy
to help
them
to build in their own villages.
Building
the Double Dome in Mong
olia
was f
u
n and again I learn
ed a lot. I
thou
ght I cam
e to teach, bu
t then f
ou
nd that I h
ave hardly any experience how to
work with a bun
ch of
unrul
y teenage boys and girls, wh
at to say...I didn't even
speak the language! The kids are v
ery proud of
their work and
the dom
e will be
used f
or teenage programs.
Mickey Mouse in Morelia, Mexico
We should get spon
sorsh
ip f
rom
Disn
ey Land... Mickey
Mou
se is easy to recog
nise. Oops, they may
charge
us royalties.
The Sandbag Shelters of
Na
der
K
halili
I will show y
ou what to me, is an
exellen
t
way to made architecture, how we can m
ake, with
f
ew and natural resou
rces, great
space design, and at th
e same time, solve dif
f
erents social problem
s, one of
the
princi
pal motives and preocupation
s of
m
odern architecture.
Tim Hall's Earthbag Home in Ha
w
aii
sh
ows, m
ostly in pictures, how a
CalEarth-style Su
peradobe hom
e was built, usin
g cemen
t-stabiliz
ed tubu
lar bags
that were then burned away
bef
ore the building was plastered.
Just east of
Bisbee, Arizona this Ransom Ranch Dome
pro
ject was com
pleted
af
ter stu
dying an
d adm
iring Nader Khalili's altern
ative building
work since 1985. I
f
in
ally apprenticed with h
im
at Cal-Earth in Nov
ember 2007.
T
h
is Dom
e Experiment w
ith Lar
ge Window
s
has a 24' in
side diameter at
the base, risin
g
on a 'catenary
' curv
ature to sloping truncation around 16'
above grade. T
h
is was attempted as a f
airly aggressive exploration
of
structural
potential with this sy
stem
in several capacities, an
d qu
ite cog
niz
antly
surrend
ered to the tests of
time. I can only stand beh
ind
this as an artist of
sorts, as it is beyon
d most established
protocol of
construction.
T
his Com
munity Center in
Haiti
will be f
or th
e Mango Grower's Association
, an
d
the village of
Barriere Jeud
y, as well as a hurricane and f
lood sh
elter as the rainy
season picks u
p. T
h
e buildin
g of
the center is also f
unction
ing as a buildin
g
workshop, or a skill-share to introdu
ce local builders and resid
ents to th
e super
ad
obe buildin
g techniqu
e.
Monique's House in
Haiti
Moniqu
e was th
e woman
who had g
iven birth
to a
baby girl during the bu
ilding of
the above community center an
d we wanted
to
build h
er a hou
se. We sen
t word to h
er and h
er extend
ed f
amily that we would
be returning an
d asking
if
indeed she would like to live in a house of
the style we
are creating. T
h
e answer cam
e back af
f
irmative.