The Winning Entry : Aceh Tsunami House Design Competition: Desember 2007

Kamis, 06 Desember 2007

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The Dancing House

An Alternative Housing System with a Humane Face.

What is it?

Tony Sargeant is the man behind the conception of “The Dancing House”.

It began after the devastating tsunami in Aceh and subsequent serious earthquake in Yogyakarta, both of which destroyed countless thousands of houses and lives as a result of the powerful effects of Nature.

“We need to figure a more sensible housing system to cope with these disasters. It goes way beyond just what happened in Aceh and Yogya but needs to be prepared to be ready to cope with reducing the negative effects on Global Warming that current building processes cause as these will most certainly contribute to more natural disasters in the future being triggered”.

The Frame

For the wall panels, Tony has used what he calls a “3^rd generational bamboo-crete panel system”. BAMBOO USED AS REINFORCING is cleverly mixed with the art of the traditional woven bamboo partitions. Foam capped with a fishnet web and guarantees an all round secondary reinforcement. The final surfaces are sprayed with a small hand held compressed air driven gun. This spray crete is co polymerized super thin flexible cement. This spraying technique gives great strength attractive finish , combined with flexibility for disasters. AND CAN BE SPRAYED IN SITU.

This has a secondary effect of helping to make the transition from a bamboo house to a contemporary rendered masonry looking house which is especially desirable for rich or poor people.

The wonderful aspect of this, as Tony has said, is that “It can be done by the Women! This system will enable them to build, or rebuild, HOMES and not just HOUSING structures!” Generally, women have not been big participants in the worlds building trades NOW THE HOME MAKERS CAN SOON BECOME THE HOME BUILDERS.

The Walls

The DANCING HOUSE is a constructive way of helping us to help ourselves, irrespective of our social status or financial ability, as Governments will be able to afford and encourage the usage of this process to help people to help not only themselves but the planet as a whole!

· Then will be the WALLs/ PARTITION that seems often the other most needed invention to all these earthquake resistance houses.

· What can substitue the brick house to be cheaper, faster built, and yet also not “dangerous” to break and just fall into pieces on children and the elderly? Tony called it the 3^rd generation bambu cret panels. Learning from the traditional / indigenous Balinese / javanese and literature, Tony has briliantly mix the state of the art of Woven bamboo partition , the fishnet as reinforcement (an idea from where he lives among the fishermen) , stirofoam as insulation , and special

· Transition from a bamboo house to a “plaster brick looking house”.

mix concrete and rice husk. It then become a flexible light weight partition that actually looks like BRICK!!!! What people likes.

A side note: The Partition

as it innovation can actually be designed as a “HINGED WALL” , in case of a TSUNAMI , it can just let the water pass and so act as a MOSQUE that has proven to save lives in Aceh. The same principles then copied: Lesson Learned.

· The wonder is , as Tony mentioned: It can be done by the Women! This whole system should be able to be build by the Women. “It is to build HOMES beyond just HOUSES”!

· Beyond that it is so build also “COMMUNITY INDUSTRY” even at the Village Level. A means also as a “Poverty Alleviation” industry.

What Next?

What next for the future?

Tony envisages that this system could become an industry, mixing both FORMAL Business and “Community Business” principles. Somewhat prophetically he calls it an integrated “mutually symbiotic system” as the producers and the users can become one system.

Training can easily be given and the frames and roof sections can be delivered in kit form with the panels and flooring being manufactured locally.

It is also foreseeable to link this business to a “CARBON TRADING” scheme as one hectare of Bamboo, for example, can absorb 4 times more carbon dioxide than one hectare of normal trees.

By using this natural product in a building process, where nothing is wasted, users will have made not only a positive contribution to the environment during growing but also will have erected a safer and more energy efficient house which will be easily affordable.

Many others have already realized this and the system that Tony has designed answers many problems.

Tony sees the real growth potential of this multi faceted approach when it can be set into a real business context whilst still having a “Social and Environmentally Responsible “ tag.

“We must not just think in a narrow minded way as we have done is the past. GLOBAL WARMING and the future of mankind are at stake”.

It is said that there is only a 10 year window in which the human race can save our home, Planet Earth, so therefore we are morally obliged to do this for our children, our grandchildren and subsequent generations.

The Winning Entry : Aceh Tsunami House Design Competition

Kamis, 06 Desember 2007

1

(i) The Roof

Arsip Blog

The Bamboo-cret Skin:

The Frame: Scafold Technology

The Frame

The Walls

(1) The Dancing House ,

"Do the materials last?"

Author

The Group

What is the "Barefoot Architect"?

The Slums and Squatters

What Next?