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Chile Update – Permaculture: Designing a Healthy Building with Principles in Mind

Editor’s Note: Below, Grifen Hope gives us an excellent update on progress since my recent trip to Chile to profile and promote the fantastic work under way there.

It’s the shortest day of the year in Chile and the rain is coming down. It is cold and wet. As we celebrate the new year and the return of the sun, thousands of people in the surrounding region are living in government supplied shacks… affectionately termed "Mediagua" or half water. Most of them are leaking with the rain, and the wind is coming in. You can find photos here.

The government has not yet started the reconstruction effort. We imagine they are trying to get through the winter with temporary emergency housing, and to begin construction in the spring, when the dust settles a little. Here in El Manzano we are doing our best to inject common sense into the debate. Many are listening. Small strategic actions can have wide repercussions, and though we cannot take the credit for the actions of others, we can be sure that our voice has resounded widely in Chile and many are following the lead.

What would you choose? A cement and treated pine box, designed and built by someone you have never met, squeezed as tight as possible with the neighbours, with very little outdoor private space? Or would you choose a beautiful home with natural materials, designed and constructed by you and your family, with plenty of space, and your own food to boot? One might assume that common sense would prevail. What’s missing? Choice? 

So then it becomes a matter of pragmatism, as the so called planner, shapes attention, and counters misinformation as best they can.  

Design with Principles

El Manzano has embarked on a mission to provide alternatives for Chileno people; to show people how they can create their own permanent, earthquake-proof housing made with local materials, local labour, at an affordable price. 

The original project was in usual permaculture style, a strategic and multifunctional intention to affect as many people as possible, to be a catalytic learning event. With the support of the Artists Project Earth (relief, recovery and resilience… we speak the same language) and the Permaculture Research Institute (now in Chile) a project was developed to assist people to meet their own immediate housing needs, to design their own resilient housing and settlements, to quickly recover from the devastating Earthquake of February 2010, and to build long-term resilience to future disaster and disruption. Having raised only a small portion of the required funding, we set out to maximise available resources, to catch and store the energy required and deliver the most bang for buck. 

When we design with principles, people and ecology in mind, our solutions are often distinct to those discovered by the logic of the mainstream system. When we design for haste and minimum cost we compromise on things like quality and materials efficiency, well being and long term security. We tend to forget about talking to local people and fitting in with the place. Permaculture design on the other hand, enables us to create low cost solutions that are much more resilient, because we see the problem and we have a long term perception. A permaculture designer sees opportunities and local resources, knowledge and skills. Coming from a systems perspective they link elements together, investing in the health of the system. Combined, work can be more efficient, we can reduce materials costs by seeing available free materials. If we put our heads together we can save time and money. Sometimes a small change will have big effects.   

Design & Construction  

The design was made as participatory as possible, with the community an integral part of the design and decision making team. A participatory approach takes time, and will often lead us in unexpected directions, but in the end a better solution can be found. You can read about the design stages here. And here about the El Manzano in Transition process here. 

Construction started in the first week of May. You can read about the first stage here by Craig Mackintosh. Using local materials, unmilled timber cut directly from surrounding forests with a chainsaw, straw harvested nearby, recycled adobe from the earthquake collapses, and the soil beneath our feet we trained a local team in the use of roundpole and earth construction techniques. The community has awakened to a new possibility for their own homes in the future, and is learning together, that many hands make light work.

The superadobe technique has been modified a little, using sand from the site (a resource we have in abundance) to fill sacks, mixed with 10% cement and laid as a foundation wall. This same technique was used to make the floor, with a thin layer of cement and very little steel on top. We have tried to minimise the use of cement and steel at every step, but have been hindered by the locals who won’t imagine standing on anything made of clay in the next earthquake, and the need to get the house habitable as soon as possible.

The roof went up quickly with a 22 cm layer of light clay straw compacted into the cavity between roof joists. We have heard of this technique being used locally without clay with 60+ years of life. If it stays dry we are hopeful it will provide insulation for a long time to come… another research project. 

The walls are up, two non-load bearing layers of 2×2 pine (we could have used small diameter pseudo acacia and eucalyptus cut from the forest to reduce costs) with a 25 cm sandwich of light clay straw in between. With all the rain our primary concern is the drying time of the straw. Based on the experience of friends with the same technique in Chile, we are concerned about fungus growing in the straw and affecting the timber. Oh for a dry season. Chile is well known for its dry sunny winter periods… we have our fingers crossed and are exploring other options for drying the walls efficiently. 

Budget

The final budget for materials and labour is 2 million pesos or $US3700, around US$125 per square metre. This is an affordable house. The main cost has been the roofing, the cement for the floor and labour. We haven’t managed to stretch the budget to pay the professional services of the design team, but intend that the house is a model that can be improved and replicated, a product we can offer in coming months.

The gains have outweighed the cost, and we don’t need a cost:benefit analysis to tell us. A community team has developed itself as a competent unit able to deliver on time and under budget. The house is beautiful. It will last a few good 8 point earthquakes yet. Wanna bet?           

Learning

Many small mistakes have been made, reviewed and redesigned for the next house. This has been a continuous learning event for the community and the team. In coming weeks the team moves its focus to begin construction of a second house. We feel more prepared and more experienced for a spring and summer construction process ahead, with tested materials and techniques in the construction of a living university campus. You can be involved in this catalytic learning event. Stay tuned. Happy new year.

2 Comments

  1. I applaud the work you are doing, but I can’t help but wonder at the continued use of post and beam type house construction in earthquake zones.
    Cal-earth has a number of superadobe unstabilised earth domes that have stood in California since the mid-90s, through many earthquakes (they are very close to the San Andreas fault). They have also exceeded the requirements of the Building Code, and, in fact, the testing equipment failed before the buildings showed any deflection at all.
    Further info is available through the website https://www.calearth.org

  2. Hi Don, thanks for the feedback! Our experience shows that post and beam, with bracing, stands up very well in big quakes. A lot of vernacular architecture here of post and beam has weathered 2 or more big quakes, we think it works. We would love to do a few domes, but here in el manzano we dont have any earth…just volcanic sand. We also have to remember that everything is relative and we need to apply contextual solutions…here at least people are not quite ready for domes. Love from Chile, Grifen

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