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30 Jul 2001
By Anton Ferreira
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The Superadobe technique can be learnt in
a few days.
Photo: California Institute of Earth
Art and Architecture |
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Senior U.N. officials plan to
test a building method using sandbags and barbed wire they say could
revolutionise the way emergency housing is provided after natural
disasters such as floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.
The officials told Reuters that the method, known as "Superadobe"
and developed in Hesperia, California, by Iranian-born architect
Nader Khalili, could provide durable, cheap shelter very quickly
after calamities like the Gujarat earthquake earlier this year in
India.
"I thought it was amazing. It is a hidden treasure," said Omar
Bakhet, director of the Emergency Response Division at the U.N.
Development Program.
Bakhet and his program adviser Lorenzo Jimenez de Luis visited
Khalili's California research site earlier this month and said they
immediately realised the potential of his building method.
"The technology is fascinating," Bakhet said. "It's a technique
one can learn in a few days."
The Superadobe method involves filling empty sacks with earth dug
from the building site and piling them in layers with strands of
barbed wire acting like Velcro to provide added stability.
The simplest design is a circular room tapering toward the top to
form a dome that sheds snow or rain. Several examples of the
beehive-like structures have been built in Hesperia and elsewhere,
and they have passed seismic testing required under California's
strict earthquake-zone building codes.
Building with Superadobe requires no special skills, and rooms
can be added.
Khalili has spent most of his career designing affordable housing
for the homeless, but until now his work has had little attention
from disaster relief professionals.
"I don't think there's any risk, it's a proven technology," said
Bakhet. "It's cost effective, you need very little building
material, just what nature gives you."
Bakhet and Jimenez de Luis said the only problem they foresaw was
persuading governments to try the new technology.
"If these structures had the shape of a conventional house, it
would be much easier," said Jimenez de Luis. "A government is going
to be reluctant to accept a hemispherical thing."
He said Superadobe represented a far better option than the tents
or plastic sheets and corrugated iron that are used now to provide
emergency shelter for refugees from natural disasters or wars.
ABSOLUTELY PERFECT
"The (Khalili) initiative is very suitable because it covers
the permanent character of the structure and the dignity aspect of
the people who are going to benefit from the shelter - to live in
one of these houses is absolutely perfect. To live in a tent is not
so dignified in the long run."
Jimenez de Luis said Superadobe structures would also be better
able to withstand future earthquakes or floods. This was important
in regions like Central America or the subcontinent that experienced
recurrent disasters.
"The (concept) is extraordinarily positive and definitely worth
testing," he said. "It's just a matter of trying it once or twice
for this thing to fly solo."
The U.N. officials said they were determined to launch a pilot
project, possibly in Gujarat where some 1 million homes are needed,
if the backing of local authorities could be obtained.
"Here you have a technology that's so simple, so effective and
can be used by everybody, you are cutting the time for addressing
housing needs by I don't know how many percent," Bakhet said.
"But like all new approaches, how many people would be readily
prepared to embrace it? We are all afraid of anything new... So this
where the challenge is."
Khalili said in a telephone interview from Hesperia that he
dreamed of building an entire city in India.
"I showed them the plans I have for houses, clusters from 1,000
to 5,000 to 10,000, all the way to a million-person town that will
be totally sustainable...
"Imagine, if they gave me 1,000 soldiers and a couple of hundred
students, I could build a whole town for them... If you can cut
through the bureaucracy, I have the design," he said.
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