Creating Connections.

Creating Connections.

As many of you know, Marcin Kolakowski one of the Abundant Earth Community founder members has been trying very hard to give much exposure to this project and show how he has been collaborating with other groups to get a web of connectivity between us all. His aim is much like our own, to see sharing be the way in which we all benefit from research and knowledge. I admire Marcin very much for this charismatic and charming way he has about himself, and the way in which he has fought to bring many ideologies to a place of significant cooperation.

Last Wednesday he invited Angela and myself to give a presentation alongside the architectural students that have been working with us on our A.E.C. project, and also topical speakers including the E.M.E.S.S. organisation, whom were set up in the 90's to look after preservation of old and ancient earth structure buildings. (Particularly those in Lincolnshire) The East Midlands Earth Structure Society, had been invited by Marcin to see what work his students in particular had been researching and working towards developing. And to provide a context for this work, Angela and I gave a 6 minute Pechakucha presentation. Pechakucha is a series of 20 slides from a projector delivered with dialogue, 20 seconds per slide. It gives a brief yet informative overview of the Abundant Earth Community, our aims and objectives. We spoke first and were followed by Mahmud, who gave a presentation on Light Clay. 

This is an alternative building method using equal amounts of weights of straw and clay mixed together and then poured into a shuttered container to create a wall. (See diagram) After a few hours the shutters are taken away and the wall smoothed and rendered with more clay before being left to dry. The clay is often sourced from the same site of construction, a few centimetres beneath the top soil of the ground.

Adam came along to talk to the audience about Rammed Earth. This method also uses locally sourced materials, a shutter is created and earth is rammed into place and compacted with machines or by hand tools if appropriate. This method is as close to CO2 neutral, it is a thermal mass collection device and can also be structural (load bearing) depending on certain criteria.

Jack was able to talk to us about Super Adobe. This is basically using locally sourced earth from the direct earth where the structure would be built and fed into long narrow sacks. A building made from bagged soil/earth. The bags are relatively inexpensive, vary in size and length and can also be biodegradable. Once filled they are laid on top of one another in a continuous loop, with barbed steel wire inserted between bags to help fix them and avoid slippage. It can support a huge amount of its own weight and even one person working alone can build this type of structure. Being so cheap and using local earth it could be easily providing shelter to the poor and to areas suffering climatic destructions. (It is even possible to use this method on the moon) Calearth.org

Ciaran gave us a very informative demonstration of Walter Segal's constructions. Walter, a British architect born at the beginning of the 20^th century once built a home in 1963 for approximately £800. It uses mainly a timber frame and panel type infill, much like old style Japanese houses, and is set only upon a slab concrete base. It needs almost no specific skill set to build them and is easily mounted in almost all environments. They can incorporate green roof technology like many other eco-build houses as well as rainwater harvesting.

Suman came up to give the conference a view of how they had incorporated many of our design brief ideas and their own ingenuity into their proposed eco-site plans and drawings. It was amazing to see just how far they have come in little more than three months. Nicknamed the 'Abundant Earth Architects', they have put together an impressive catalogue of ideas and research and data to be used in the future of sustainable design for modern buildings. Together with Dan and Fernanda, once our 'magnificent seven', they were joined by newer students joining the course from Brazil, Caio, Fernando and Isabela, and have set about creating sustainable designs for the environment to house our project criteria. We hope to build and farm following Permaculture principles, in a city environment. Create workspace for shared multi group usage and grow our own food and materials to be used in many of these workshops and project aims.

Marcin, a true visionary pioneer of sustainable architecture and design has been involved with A.E.C. from the beginning and is always keen to support the aims of the community, as is evident in his direction of these fine young architects.

Another former student Emily gave an interesting demonstration of Vernacular Architecture. Vernacular means, 'Built by the people for the people'. She described how many current buildings are not really fit for purpose, badly designed and not including enough consideration of the health or well-being of the people who would occupy them. She was able to talk a little about traditional buildings of the U.K. and how they had been designed clearly around a specific community value, single street layouts and village greens particularly. She highlighted a recently finished project in Leeds, the L.I.L.A.C. Angela and myself had previously met Paul Chatterton from that project in Bramley, Leeds at a CommunityLand Trust conference, and he personally invited us to a go see at their site. (We are hoping to arrange a visit in the very near future, so please express your interest to come with us by email)

DianeStarkey from an organisation called Longhurst Group talked briefly about Sustainable Homes and the many problems associated with passive type housing, mechanical forced air ventilation systems. A building designed to be low energy usage was observed and the people living there questioned about the pluses and minuses of the housing. It appeared that most people got used to the excessive noise of the various water harvesting and energy saving features but were dissatisfied with the build up of mould from excessive condensation that caused internal wood and paintwork to be compromised.

Jayne Bannister from the University came along to describe the University of Lincoln's participation in Marcin's suggested ventures, and told us about the plans for working with E.M.E.S.S. and students to build temporary structures on campus over the coming months or years. They have agreed in principle to allow a Mud 'n' Stud wall to be built, later this spring near to the Architectural suite.

Roger, from E.M.E.S.S. talked at length about how they had come to be formed and what they hoped to achieve in their work with older presently existing earth structure buildings, the work to regenerate interest in this fascinating method of building and their participation with other groups of like minded methods. They had even managed to move and relocate an old building previously due for demolition, near to the coast. (Skegness area)

It was also detailed how architecture can vary dramatically depending on the region where they are built, which seems obvious once that has been described. Cornish cottages, thatched roof houses, slate cottages and even peat buildings in Scotland. Where-abouts can have a serious affect on what materials are/were available to build from, and the construction methods employed.

Finally Marcin spoke at leisure about how he hoped that our joint projects could all be united in cooperation, skill sharing and networking opportunities. A question and answer forum was presented to the audience and many topics were raised for discussion, including the opportunity for being involved with the Abundant Earth Community project and learning from E.M.E.S.S, their valuable skills and knowledge base. They are running a course for interested parties in April, in Leicestershire, S.P.A.B. (Wed 30^th April- Thursday1^st May) Learning about earth walled buildings, repair of a stable block

A number of new connections were made and progress has been noted in collaborating with Marcin and the other groups present.

Thank you Marcin for inviting us to speak on behalf of A.E.C.

Please check out the links to the other groups and their various projects and data resources. (Click coloured text)

A.E.C. (P.W.)