Sustainable "period" building - Ethiopian style

[FamilyWiggs]

Have just got back from some work in rural southern Ethiopia. Life-changing, but that's another story.

Here are some pictures of typical Ethiopia houses - seen all over the country. Thought you might all be interested to see sustainable building materials and techniques - including dung/clay walls.

The neatest application of "technology" is not to have a chimney. The smoke exits through the thatch, thereby fumigating it and eliminating termites, etc.



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[FamilyWiggs]

2 more.

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[middi]

Recession, boom & bust, meltdown of the world economic climate, mortgages, negative equity, energy costs, etc..., etc... , what do they know.

( We are the LUCKY BAS***DS !!!!!!, they could have been living in 12 million of those houses in the London aerea alone :wink: )

 

[CHRIS]

They still have not mastered the Palm tree type cell phone mast that we have!!!!!!

We could have all still been living in timber houses in London if it was not for that stupid bakers maid!

 

[Penners]

That internal umbrella-like roof structure is wonderful. But I wonder what the atmosphere is like inside with a fire burning and the smoke just filtering out through the thatch. :x

So will the local authority in Flintshire be receiving planning and building regs applications?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

They're reasonably tall inside in many cases, and apparently the smoke escapes before the whole hut is filled. It all works rather well - mind you with a life expectancy of just 49 years, not many will develop long term illness from smoke inhalation... indeed a significant risk appears to be hyena attack - saw a couple of badly damaged kids in the local hospital.

Would love to build one in the garden (indeed, could open Wales' first Ethiopian restaurant!) - however suspect that the 100mph winds and horizontal sleet that rages up the valley may prove to be a challenege to such a structure.

I'm sure planning and building regs would be easy - sustainable materials, and low carbon energy-efficient heating (your livestock); not sure that Mrs FamilyWiggs would approve though. :shock:

 

[DaveBrigg]

Remarkably similar to the Iron age and Saxon round houses of this country. The top picture shows power lines in the background; did these houses have access to the mains?

 

[FamilyWiggs]

I thought they looked remarkably like iron-age huts and Saxon round-houses too.

Power - in general, no. These huts tend to be rural houses without power/water. In towns, they are more shack/shanty like. Often these had some power - usally feeding a couple of 15w bulbs. Driving at night was eerie - almost completely dark.

In one of the towns I visited - pop'n c50k according to Google, water coverage was about 44% (and had been off for three days when we arrived as the pumping station had flooded!). In rural areas it was mainly village stand-pipes.

 

[Penners]

Remarkably similar to the Iron age and Saxon round houses of this country.

And African kraals, and - I suspect - early man's dwellings pretty well throughout the world, allowing for a change of materials to whatever is locally available.