Design Indaba, a design conference taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, is sponsoring ten architects and designers to create a street of new homes in the poor, "informal settlement" of Mitchell's Plain. The Creative Review blog's Patrick Burgoyne was on-site as the first house, designed by Luyanda Mpahlwa with assistance from Kirsty Ronné, was constructed from sandbags. From the CR Blog:
Mpahlwa's two-storey house uses a locally developed system called Ecobeams. Timber beams are linked by galvanized metal zig-zags, the space between which is in-filled with sand bags – a simple process that the house-owners themselves can carry out. The walls are then covered with mesh and plastered. These walls have much better thermal properties than breeze blocks, ensuring that occupants will be kept cool in summer and warm in winter. The system also has excellent sound absorbing properties which helps to provide a measure of privacy in close quarter living, while they are much heavier than brick and therefore wind resistant.
The sand bag construction resists water penetration due to the fact that the sand in the bags is a filter medium – any water penetrating the plaster will simply 'filter' down to the dampcourse and exit the wall to the outside. It's also fire resistant and, pretty important in an area like Freedom Park, bullet-proof.
Furthermore, no electricity is required at the construction site and only minimal amounts of water and cement are required – just two bags for the whole house. This simple system relies mostly on unskilled labour – especially women in the community, who can be taught the basics in a few days. The whole house takes just over a week to build.
