Cal Earth Creating Different Housing

ClosedLoop writes " Yesterday was the 14th anniversary of the Cal Earth Institute. I found myself in southern California's high desert listening to Iranian-born writer, award-winning-architect, and Cal Earth Institute founder Nader Khalili present his vision of affordable housing that the world's people can build for themselves. Judging from his research structures (and EcoDome), he's not far from his goal. He also works with NASA on ideas for structures that can be built from local Lunar or Martian materials. "

Comments

common misconception

[poptones]

part of the "Superadobe" construction is a proiper external shell. Plastering the house with a proper lime based mix will help make it reasonably waterproof. Replacing this as it's washed away is not something that can be neglected for decades on end, but it's not something that needs to be done every year either.

People often have the same notions about cob homes. If the walls are made from mud, then enough rain would cause them to weaken. In cob structures this is taken care of by proper foundation (ie a foot or so of rock along the ground before placing mud) a roof with good overhang, and proper plastering of outside walls. There are cob homes all over France and Germany and England that have stood hundreds of years.

With these structures the earth is contained in bags and interlocked with barb wire. You would want to make sure the house had a proper foundation for the walls, but the bags would help stabilize things much better than plain cob, which is already quite strong. I'm not sure if it's still online but I once read a report from a fellow who was demolishing one of these to make room for new construction, and it was pretty incredibly strong. He took a hose and shovel and had the entire dome standing on just three narrow "legs." It took quite a lot of deliberate undermining the foundation to cause the dome to finally collapse.

What I find really amazing is the concept of using solar energy to heat the soil to magma, then guiding its flow to form ceramic dwellings. I've read accounts of people filling these structures with wood and firing them in order to make ceramic domes, but the notion of directing magma flows is pretty... "ambitious."

Re:Adobe?

[gobbo]

Ever seen what happens to the traditional adobe house when an earthquake hits?

I don't know about adobe bricks, but a similar material, cob, has curved walls and fibrous material for integrity, and generally withstand earthquakes well.

Obstacles to alternative housing also

[Sai Babu]

encourage huge residential structures.

1)Property tax is generally based on number of square feet so municipalities have minimum square foot requirements in zoning.

2)Mortgage valuation is heavily weighted by the number of square feet. Cost per square foot goes down as total area goes up encouraging huge houses.

3)Zoning prohibits alternative materials. In Hawaii, where we now live most of the time, it's entirely practical to build a house using split, woven, bamboo walls in single wall construction over a timber (steel, wood, bamboo, or concrete) frame. It makes for very comfortable tropical housing, the walls are typically replaced avery 10 years or so. There is no need to paint. But, try getting a permit for something like this! Also in the tropics, outbuildings for kitchen (much safer from a fire hazard POV) and WC/bath (keeps dampness from main house in tropical climate) are impossible to get through zoning.

4)Alternative construction is foreign to most architects and builders and ends up costing a LOT more. I've been researching a concrete house for some property I own on the East Coast. Finding someone affordable who is familiar with modern concrete construction (foam forms, polished aggregate flooring, embedded radiant heat, etc) is an exercise in futility. Few people do enough of this sort of work that you either pay for someone to learn or pay the premium of someone who's experience is in short supply.

5)Then there are the damn neighbors who don't want anything that doesn't look like the mail order Sears Roebuck craftsman style houses that are already in the neighborhood but for some stange reason have no problem adding square feet (2nd floor) to their houses as long as it has the right 'look'.