Project jointly designed by
Finot Group / Franor Conseil
Reconstruction of Afghanistan
First village dedicated to Commander Massoud
Definitive city settled in emergency
After natural catastrophes or political events, emergency cities need to be developed. Such cities often become “too definitive” and the victims are left in long-lasting unbearable conditions.
We propose to develop shells which can be installed very quickly, before or after sanitation and fluids networks (water, electricity…). The floors can be added subsequently inside the shells, as well as the facades. Then, this entity can be used as framing for a construction in clay, strengthen with straw (pisé) if necessary.
The city that is slowly created is completed with plantations and street treatment.
The advantage of this process is the rapidity if of the houses settlement, which subsequently and progressively form a definitive, consistent and clean village. The embellishing touch is created afterwards by the inhabitants who put in the clay by themselves.
These cells are made up with different pieces easy to transport, light and easy to settle, only with the hands. This easy settlement allows the inhabitants to be more involved, thus more motivated.
The flexibility of the shape makes it easy to build houses or collective equipment (schools, worship places, administrative buildings, mosques, assembly rooms).
The flexibility of the modules allows a wider range of solutions for the city organization.
These houses must not be more expensive than other emergency houses available in the current market.
1. Advantages and drawbacks
Advantages
Easy settlement:
· Light weight (maximum of 100 kg for each piece)
· Hand-portable
· Quick settlement with few technical elements
· Does not need special foundations
Easy to transport:
· Small dimensions, thus transportable by mail or 40 feet container
· Village built in 2 or 3 times
Inhabitants involvement:
· The users can participate in the building of their village
Multiple possibilities of creation:
· The system allows a great flexibility in the shape and makes it easy to create different buildings (housing, schools, worship places, shops, hospitals)
Longevity:
· The duration of life is above 30 years. The inside of the houses are washable
· The outside of the houses can be repainted (once every 10 years). Afterwards, it is possible to build external walls in clay brick rather than laminated walls.
Good thermal isolation:
· The houses have a significant thermal isolation and inertia thanks to the thickness of the walls.
Good watertightness:
· The stratifié brings by nature a good watertightness on the floor as well as on the roof.
Good seismic resistance:
· The houses have a good seismic resistance thanks to its arch shape. They can bear a certain soil distortion.
Adaptation to different sites and lands:
· The system is fit to settle on various types of lands, including in slope.
· In flooding lands, it is possible to create knolls. In this case, the houses can be built on non-stabilized lands.
Resistance to fire:
· The houses are fire-resistant. M1 walls inside, regular stratified outside.
Drawbacks
Delicate filling of the walls:
· The filling with stabilized clay can be made partly by using a mechanic device, but the packing of the clay between the walls must be done by hand in order to have a good compactness without crushing the shells.
The building of the walls in pisé traditionally requires a lot of carefulness and manpower. This currently slows its development.
Modernity and arch shape:
· The material is modern and industrial, with the advantages linked to it, but contrasts with the traditional habits of the inhabitants and their culture.
· Specific by its shape, this technique involves arch-shaped constructions. These two aspects, modernity and arch shape must be integrated into the local culture and such culture must use materials just as they are, personal contribution is only brought afterwards.
The non porosity of the divisions:
· The walls are completely watertight and the houses must be permanently ventilated. Inside, a division in clay (or in plaster) will naturally regulate the moisture.
The price:
· The price of the elements, not including the settlement, accounts for 900 to 1200 FRF by m², which is low for an industrialized country but generally more expensive than a local construction using traditional materials in a developing country.
Conclusion
The material is suitable for a very quick settlement, especially in a country where production structures are not organized or insufficient.
The lightness of the elements, their easy transportation and their shape make them a suitable mean of integration.
In a second step, the project needs to be culturally integrated and there must be a local handling for the conception, the manufacturing and the settlement. It is undeniable that to start such handicraft system and industrial construction company system, requires time and labor.
Such process, which is as universal as bricks or stones, is relatively easy to adapt to a local production if you want to resolve the price problem.
2. Presentation of the process
The construction system consists in using stratified shells.
The different elements, limited in their shape and size, are assembled together to make rooms, external walls, windows, corridors etc.
They are placed without any tools and they can be used as they are. Then, the clay placed above this wrapper constitutes the very heart of the house. It is a modernization, a quick settlement of an architecture used for thousands of years by men in many continents. Traditionally, many of these clay houses are built with arches, which preserves the forests, and are more resistant to earthquakes.
This process is used to build houses and collective premises.
The passage of fluids is planned through the structure and the whole is linked to the networks.
These shells are optimized to be fire-resistant for the inner walls and UV-resistant for the outer walls.
3. Presentation of a house
The house is made up with three to eight cells, including a sanitary block, with an entrance and a few small windows facing the street, and some rooms organized around an inner courtyard.
The sanitary block includes a kitchen, a closet, a shower room with a washroom, a remaining space used as crossing place and working place for the kitchen, and a technical space. This technical space includes a chimney, ventilation, water and electricity passages and constitutes the core of the sanitary block.
The sanitary block is linked to the network through an individual box accessible from the street.
The external wall is vertical, or made up with arcades constituted by several similar elements.
4. Organization and timing
Platforms of the houses and the districts must be prepared and made horizontal for each house. If the land is liable to flooding, it is necessary to up-lift the districts’ level.
If the land is resistant, the shells of the houses are directly put upon the soil. If the soil is too soft, a plastic shell is placed as a complement to share out the weight on the corners of each cell.
The shells are put on the soil and can be used as they are.
The floor is composed of two parts , which are put on the soil.
Electric circuits go through the cover of each shell and can be linked to the sanitary block, which is then linked to the common network.
In a second phase, the walls are built up along the street and the patio, and you can, in a third phase, fill up with clay the spaces between inner walls and outer wall.
The fourth phase consists in giving the finishing touches to the streets and paving the tunnels if necessary.
5. Collective buildings
This construction system allows to build administrative services, assembly rooms, schools, medical centers, places of worship… However for amphitheaters, it is necessary to make an extension of the process. Currently, the extensions can reach up to 6 meters.
The collective administrative premises or health centers are made up with galleries and work rooms opened on courtyards.
The places of worship or the markets are made up with courtyards and spaces covered by a forest of pillars.
The schools are organized in 6 on 10 meter-rooms, lighten up on one side by a courtyard and accessible if necessary by a corridor.
6. Plan of the district
The houses, with their individual patio, are gathered in blocks which are linked together by streets and small places. The main streets are bordered with arcades on each side, the other streets by one arcade or none.
7. Plan of the city
The city consists in one place and a central core, around which are the mosque, the school, the health center, administrative services, a public assembly room, shops. The place is extended by a large street that goes to the entrance of the city.
In the three other directions, arcade-bordered-streets will lead to the districts.
These avenues and galleries are normally forbidden for cars. The traffic and the car parks will be at the four corners. Everything is done so that the maximum distance to reach a house or a service does not exceed one hundred meters.
One of the angles is reserved to trades and crafts shops. It is extended beyond the street by an industrial and craft area in which are also gathered the purifying station and the power station.
Traffic:
The main road will go from the end of the small branch, with a traffic circle leading to the industrial and craft area. Another street will go around the city and lead to the car parks and the different districts.
8. Common services, water, networks
Each street will include a supply in water, electricity, telecommunications if necessary, and a rainwater draining system.
The whole network, or at least a draft of it, should be made before the installation of the houses. These different networks will end up in an industrial area, where the purifying station, the power station and further the rainwater damming pool will be settled.
At the beginning, the streets can just be tracks for cars and pedestrians.
9. Transport
The different elements are stackable and of a size that can fit in a container or in trucks. A four-room house is made up with:
· 16 items of 80 kg each
· 8 floors of 60 kg each
· 1 sanitary block of about 150 kg
10. Housing prices (in French Francs)
Three-cell building (54m²)
composites – 700 kg arches, floor 27 125
equipment: windows, sanitary installation, electricity 9 500
external walls 18 225
amortization study 10 980
Total 65 820
Five-cell building (89m²)
composites – 700 kg arches, floor 45 200
equipment: windows, sanitary installation, electricity 12 500
external walls 18 225
amortization study 15 185
Total 91 110
Eight-cell building (141m²)
composites – 700 kg arches, floor 72 233
equipment: windows, sanitary installation, electricity 19 700
external walls 21 262
amortization study 22 639
Total 135 834
11. Investments amount
Phase 1
A. Phase of prototype study
- conception, drawing
- calculation
- calls for tender, purchase, building yard follow up, tests 700 000 FRF
B. Phase of prototype manufacturing
- construction of molds 300 000 FRF
- creation of three prototypes 600 000 FRF
- Total of the 1st phase 1 600 000 FRF
Phase 2
C. Adaptation study and formation
- transfer on site, final use
- conception of the different chosen buildings (schools, shops, houses…)
- building, follow up of a village
- formation of three assembling team managers 2 500 000 FRF
D. Investments, production units, 1 500 000 FRF
investments in specific means of production
E. Price of a standard village with VRV from 55 to 85 000 000 FRF
12. Time allowed, manufacturing, assembling and finishing time periods
Phase 1 / Study, call for tenderPrototypes conception
Decision, launching / 2 months
2 months
from 2 to 4 months
Phase 2 / Settlement, mass production
100 to 150 houses / 4 months
after decision of launching a serie
1 month
13. Local fabrication
Phase 3
Transfer of technology
The objective of this operation is eventually to have a local production of the houses, conception of the building, settlement of the cities and their installation.
The original team in France remains at the service of the teams in Afghanistan but the shift from the original team to the new team for the creation and the manufacturing have to be done on site.
The work to be done will be:
· The formation of a team of architects with local application, composed of urban architects for the integration to the site and the organization of the cities, and of conception architects for the creation of housing and public buildings.
· Formation of a local production team and creation of production workshops.
· Formation of assembling teams
14. Philosophy and historical
For 25 years, we have been faced, in countries we work with, to situations of natural catastrophes, mainly earthquakes.
The study and the making of boat shells in stratifié for 30 years, the studies in urbanism and architecture have led us to this concept of houses. So far, our idea did not had the time to take shape and we very busy with the boats, but the repetition of natural catastrophes and wars are urging us on working and promoting such concept.
The evolution of composites, the increase in the production of glass and polyester, their price decrease make it today a logical solution.
Our team, who has currently made most of the sailboats in stratifié in the world and has mastered most of the composite techniques either for the production or for the competition, is motivated to transpose such techniques to a new use, logically and humanly useful.
The logical realization of these houses is to have in stocks shared out in different countries, elements of light houses, transportable, uncorroding.
When needed, all these elements are transported to quickly build emergency villages and, afterwards be transformed into definitive villages.
This system, as any other emergency help, has its limits. The process that can be quickly started has to be followed up on the local, cultural and industrial levels so that these elements and the matching industry fit with the country.