What are we actually doing ?

I've been in Malawi since end of February 2018 to work on ecoLODGy's project in Bvumbwe.

We're building an "eco-lodge" and "sustainability training center" comprising a dormitory, several cottages (double-room ensuite and 2-bedrooms "family cottages"), a vegetarian restaurant which will be fed by the permaculture gardens around, a greenhouse, a reception and office building, an office building for a sister NGO working on renewable energy, staff facilities and a workshop, a large parking area, and the house of the managers.

We intend to build all that using as much as local materials as possible (raw mud and stone), and revamped local techniques. We acquired an Auram 3000 machine to make CSEB.

We would like this campus to be a demonstration center of what can be done in terms of ecological and affordable buildings, as well as agriculture with pesticides and other chemicals... To help the people living in the area taking hold of their living environment again.

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Week 5 : The launch of CSEB making

So, yeah, this week saw the start of the production of our CSEB - Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks, also called "SSB" for Stabilized Soil bricks, or BTC in French, for Blocs de Terre Comprimée (manque un S pour stabilisée mais bref). They are much more eco-friendly than the fired bricks (using a looot of wood to get cooked) or concrete (using a loooot of (imported) cement), as these blocks should count only 5% of cement for the stabilization, and don't need any plaster or paint or any other layer on them at the end to be confortable and beautiful. So some soil has already been extracted and sieved, and kinda analyzed ( a bit too roughly unfortunately), we had a bag of cement ready, some water nearby, a large area for the curing was prepared, the machine was assembled and we were ready to start testing ! We made our first blocks on Monday afternoon, guiding the guys for the dry mixing, the wet mixing, the steps for the compression, the handling on the block...

week 19 - leap forward

Week 20 starting tomorrow ! We now have regular site meetings every Monday with the client and the main contractor, and the works have been steadily progressing since August. We're starting racing a bit so that we really have the roofs in place before the rains come - but for now no sign of it, uuuf ! The Dorm was the occasion for the bricklayers to try a new way of laying stones... with less mortar than what they're used to. And they're managing pretty well ! very few men on this picture... the first Monday after pay day is always a bit difficult... I didn't realize the ground and ring reinforced concrete beams were going to take so much time to cure when the structural engineer n°1 proposed that... it's a bit unnerving to have to count 21 days before being able to do anything... especially since all these curves* make the shuttering all the more complicated ! (*inherited design from design architect) oh and soon we'll have comp...

Starting Week 4

So last week saw another change of plans on site : Tuesday was the last day of the JCB on site, where it only worked for a couple of hours before having to be brought somewhere else, requested by the preparation of the presidential elections... We're getting ready to start making CSEB anyways, I had a closer look to the soil that is being prepared and sent several emails to ask for some advice. We're going to have to go though a test phase anyways, as we're not really sure of the soil we have... it's a good one no doubt, but is it really more sandy / more silty / more clayey ? This is unclear... This is not coffee And the collaboration with the structural engineer is a bit hard as he still didn't really look into what we want to do. Despite all of our discussions, he keeps having in mind that we're using the same type of material that people usually use here, which are hand pressed bricks with 20% cement as a stabilizer... Nope, not the same...

Eco-Archi in Malawi

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