Edition #20, May 2006
New structure in the EcoSur website
Starting today, what we used to call “updates” or “news” in the website, becomes EcoSur e-magazine. The design of the web site will change to give space to this new structure and dynamics, with the publishing of short-breaking news
This on-line magazine will be published bi-monthly and will have articles and notes related to the EcoSur network projects and its local partners, the EcoMaterials technologies, its development and impacts, as well as scientific articles and technical sheets. The EcoSur e-magazine will also be available to be downloaded, printed and distributed.
We invite you to check our website often to see these changes.
Malacatoya, Nicaragua: technical sheet
This document shows how the regional government and two local organizations gave an immediate, flexible and integrative response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua. Integration of all the actors of the process allowed to multiply resources and became a synergy that built more than was originally planned.
A participative methodology was set up, and then, the future home owners decided the style, green areas and the distribution of the houses in the land.
You can download this document from our Publications section
Research in improving fired clay bricks
In the small town of Chambo, 220 km south from Ecuador’s capital city, Quito, the Cuban consultant of the EcoSur Network, Arch. Dania Betancourt is working in a research concerning adding of catalyzers in the earth and water mixture that is the raw material for fired clay bricks. This research is aimed to reduce the burning time and at the same time, improve the strength of the bricks.
The town of Chambo produces almost all the bricks used in the region, in open top artisanals kilns that consumes big quantities of wood.
This consultancy from Arch. Betancourt, that includes 15,000 catalyzer-added bricks, shows very promising results.
When all the data collected has been processed, the adding of catalyzers will be implemented in the over 200 brick kilns in the area, reducing the deforestation rate in a great way, due to the reduction of wood consumption.
Arch. Betancourt is a teacher of UCLV in Santa Clara, Cuba, and this research is part of hers pre-PhD work.
Post-Tsunami cleverness
To take the vibrated mortar from the vibrating table to the mould in the MCR production, you need a plastic film. This plastic sheet must be kept clean, and once in a while it has to be washed.
Drying of the sheets often cause some difficulties: hangers that fall down, sheets damaged by winds, you have to use rocks or heavy objects to keep them in place…
Orlando Espinosa, consultant and trainer of the EcoSur Network is actually in Sumatra for the post-tsunami reconstruction, giving technology transfer for MCR workshops.
A very clever suggestion from Eng. Espinosa in the Sumatra workshops, is to hang the plastic sheets between two wires to safely get dryed.
Little details like this sometimes are underestimated and can disturb operators and supervisors. Little clever solutions given by EcoSur consultants and specialists make life easier in MCR workshops.
First course in Campus EcoSur
The virtual environment “Campus EcoSur” is now coaching the first virtual on-line course “Introduction to the science and technologies of Earth Construction”.
Following the path about ecology and economy of the EcoSur network, this first course covers a wide range of themes, from the ecological footprint that is left on the planet, through economics in earth construction, to exercises of design and practical applications with earth.
Students have had a high level of participation and discussion in the forums, and very interesting and motivating results have been achieved for future on-line courses.
The course counts with 225 inscriptions from all over America, Europe and Africa. People attending virtual classes come from very different backgrounds, some related to the construction (architects, civil engineers, restorators) and people who only want to know something else about Earth Construction technologies.
