<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div>Howdy, Baleheads --</div><div><br></div><div><div>Ecological Building
Network (EBNet) has <a href="http://www.ecobuildnetwork.org/images/stories/ebnet_pdfs/%20%20ebnet%20haiti%20appeal.pdf">won an international competition</a> for the best new housing ideas for Haiti, and
we’ve just been asked to build our model in a very prominent location. I am both proud and puzzled to say that our apparently unique winning idea is: use Haitian materials and Haitian people to build a Haitian
house. Everyone else in the exposition will be importing prefabricated contraptions, at least so far as I know. </div><div><br></div><div>After a lot of meetings and discussion among a lot of knowledgeable folks -- including a bunch of you -- we arrived at an optimal "natural" design we think best suited to the culture, economy and climate of Haiti. The EBNet model home will use the most abundant and inexpensive local
resources—concrete rubble, bamboo, and the huge local
labor pool—to make seismically safe houses at or below
the cost of conventional (and unsafe) masonry houses. </div></div> <br><div>With that all said, two questions:</div><div><br></div><div>1) We expect to use a thick, fiber-rich earth plaster over bamboo (or possibly metal) mesh for a lot of the walls, but need to give it a very durable finish (see wall section in the onliine link). "Durable" here means not only resistant to abrasion and driving rain, but also forced entry; it has to be and feel secure against intruders. I seem to recall some discussion on this list about lime and lime-cement plasters over earth, and Bill Steen reporting that he could never get that to really work -- too much delamination despite efforts to bond things.</div><div><br></div><div>Anybody have thoughts or suggestions?</div><div><br></div><div>2) We have to raise $75,000 in a pretty short time, so any leads or suggestions are most welcome. We seek both philanthropic support and commercial
sponsorship at this prominent exposition.</div><br><div apple-content-edited="true"> <div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Thanks, and cheers all around,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Bruce "Mr. Natural" King</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Director of <font class="Apple-style-span" face="Sketcher" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">EBNet</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Sketcher" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">Ecological Building Network</span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><b><i>the art and science of building well</i></b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; "><a href="mailto:bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org">bruce@ecobuildnetwork.org</a> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">PO Box 6397</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">San Rafael, CA 94903 USA</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">(415) 987-7271</div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">follow us on Twitter: @EBNetwork</div></div></div> </div><br></body></html>