Eco Housing
For our constructions, we have to reduce concrete as much as possible even it is a very practical ingredient to use (as it is gazoline for cars...). Indeed, concrete requires too much energy and emit too many CO2 during its production. So, we need to shift our living standards! But how?
Therefore, we made a split between:
-
Our personal necessities : like a sleeping rooms, private bathrooms, small kitchen and modular working spaces,
-
The communal needs : saloon, bigger kitchen, dining place, warehouse, laundry, big workplaces, bar, office, etc.
These are the criteria Bioterra pointed out:
1° We have to be able to build our own houses with easy plans in limited time,
2° We have to use a maximum of local & natural products such as stones, raw earth, straw, wood, wool, hemp, cardboard, paper and so on,
3° We need to live in natural but modern and lasting affordable houses with a maximal autonomy regarding heating, water and electricity supply.
Here below, Bioterra proposes some of the best in class projects filling those criterias:
1. the geodesic's dômes.
The geodesic dômes exists in various sizes, material and shapes. The frequency 2 (F2) or the frequency 3 (F3) are the ones we recommend for keeping a good balance between time of realization and shape. Those structures require few wood and are easy to assemble. Its limitations are to find good connectors, good ways of covering it and making the door and windows in a round environment.
Two frequency 3 dômes (F3) assembled and hooked in a tree. This is an example of the lightness of those structures.
Insulation with hemp blocks and a shield of water repellent coating.
F3 wooden structure made for a room of about 12 m2 in the mountain
F3 glasshouse assembled with aluminium frames
Large wooden structure of a F3 (diameter of 7m and a height of 4,5m for a room of 55m2)
Partly burried F3 dôme for a house of 40 m2
F3 dômes covered with 20cm raw earth and 2cm water repellent coating
Example of interior design of a 55m2 dôme
Multiple examples of other possibilities of realization
2. The vaulted houses
Vaulted houses are very easy to build yourself and made with inexpensive materials like straw or bamboo that grow in a year time. There are multiple possibilities of size and shapes as well solar heating optimalisation.
Example of a 60m2 vaulted house with a solar heated system
20m2 vaulted house made covered with rammed hearth
Technic of a provisional vaulted house for moroccan refugees
Plan of a 80m2 vaulted house and a modular solar heated system
PDF plans : how to built a provisional vaulted house of 20m2 for 450€
3. "Earthship" houses
The "Earthships" houses are specifically made to optimize solar heating, recycling and the recovery of water (rain or grey water) for toilets & plantation. Its costs are reasonnable but not that simple to realize.
4. "Adobe" houses
The "Adobe" houses are made with plastics bags in the shape of tubes filled with sand or earth. It means very few investments but need more time for its realization.
5. "Kerterre" houses
The construction of "Kerterre" houses consists of making light structure of knotted branches covered by a mixture of hemp and lime. Quite inexpensive, it requires more time for its construction.