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| Building earth foundations at Njewa |
I live in a country where people make more money buying and
selling money on the streets then working a full day in construction as a
skilled builder! Where G4S security sell cheap (black-market) petrol to tuck tucks
down the non-tarmac slip off road around the back of my house. There are so
many alternative ways to make money for clever people with initiative (looking
at the needs) that their main job is often a better life because of their many
other money sources around it. Anyone coming to Malawi must remind themselves
about human rights in their home countries and ensure people they will get paid
over the minimum wage as the minimum wage does not even cover costs. People are
often seen as lazy in their main jobs as people don’t understand the amount of
other tasks being done to satisfy their daily wage.
I’m in a country where whats app takes 45 minutes to
download after 15 times of failure. Western ideas and technology is not always
an appropriate solution.
I live in a place where termites live in more developed
better homes (climate responsive) than people as people believe their status is
much higher if they have iron sheets or burned bricks for builds. From living
here for 2 and a half years I know money and efficient architectural design
definitely does not go hand in hand.
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| A hot house |
It is so important to understand the environment, to
understand the people and activities. What people are paid gives people the
urge to be self-sufficient…85% of Malawi's population live in the rural areas (http://www.mw.undp.org/content/malawi/en/home/countryinfo.html, UNDP Malawi statistics) and manage agriculture practice to
obtain subsitence food all year round. The culture of the main crop
maize is present everywhere, so it is important to research to find knowledge
of best crop practice and best co existing plants to improve the dietary
requirements within the maize crop.
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| Co habitation |
Some people believe money is everything: the people that
have the money! The people that look up to the people with money humiliate
themselves but these are the people that know how to live with the land. These
people are efficient in their movements and understand the importance for
things to move in a circle. I promote a life with money as an object and always
explain if you have a good head then you can design a life with beautiful local
technologies and materials. These are sometimes cheaper options although things
have surprised me living here. The more research and knowledge about the
materials and methods of builds, the better I can design appropriate durable
housing solutions.
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| Weaved palm leaves roofing |
In the UK a main topic at master’s level was studying about
water collection, storage, filtration and usage but the reality in Malawi is
large water storage holders are expensive to build and cannot provide a family
with the amount of water they need for the 9 months of hot dry climate.
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| Water borehole |
The
inexpensive solution would be for the land to be designed and managed in a way
that it can naturally collect water and channel the water back into the ground
within that location only so the water table for that location can rise and
provide life to the land. This is not well known within the rural areas.
The focus on water reuse is something people know about
especially in the rural areas. Water filtration is more culturally sensitive as
the lack of education brings people into disbelief.
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| Women at work |
What is the reason for the huge divide from rural to urban?
What is the reason for the low confidence and initiative in the rural regions
that accumulates poverty: Education.
Once a teacher has graduated they often don’t want to live
in rural school with no electricity or facilities for the students. I know of
schools with 1000 students to 7 teachers it’s no wonder people drop out then
thrive for learning and education in the real world. 82% of people are pining
to learn skills and need them.
The natural building sector is the target that can be
intertwined with confidence and education. For this an education center is
vital in which an environmental café will be the hub. This is in my future 10
year plan in Malawi.
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| Add caption |
The Landirani Trust are my passion and community approach of
whom I work for as the architect of a best practice eco training village
designing and constructing rammed earth and adobe builds.
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| Landirani team building Sam's Village: environmental eco village |
As for now, I have partnered with a construction firm and
have a branch for eco design called Grassroots
eco-build.
Grassroots is a
word meaning popular, looking at the masses of people and how they have
developed using local materials and found solutions to shelter from the local
climate. The test of time of natural building still remains after billions of
years QUOTE. Grassroots can also mean
from the bottom explaining how people with specific knowledge of the
environment (in which they have learned to live resourcefully) are the people
in the rural regions. These can provide the foundations to then improve
buildings and systems from our knowledge and education to create better
lives.
Ecology is a word
translated as environmental science. It is the understanding of how the climate
and holistic natural system works and any factors within this system. Only with
this information can people begin to obtain critical thinking and results for
efficient design and build projects.
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| Zomba plateau |
Build I am here
after studying architecture up to a master’s degree in the UK and having
researched about social architecture and natural building I moved to Malawi. This
country needs energy and strength for people to be proud of their rural
expertise and create knowledge and best practice for people to improve their
design and built environment using natural materials. Everyone needs good
quality builds shelter and knowledge.
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| Rammed earth corner |
The Malawi team work efficiently. There is no reason why
natural building methods and training communities about low tech solutions
cannot be a systematic building process well known and used throughout all of
Malawi.
How many of the millenium development goals can natural building help to achieve directly or indirectly:
- promote gender equality and empower women
- reduce child mortality
- combat malaria disease
- ensure environmental sustainability
- global partnership for development
Designing and building is for everyone, let's do it...
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| Grassroots Eco-build with Neverending food |
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| Community rammed earth build |
