[GSBN] Earthen floor sealer in Haiti. Use oil (not blood) . . .

Fri Mar 25 08:54:54 UTC 2011

I understand that .the traditional Haiti house was very much influenced by
the northen french bathhouse architecture, in the late 1890. Young Haitian
architecture students in France, were inspired by these forms and created a
tropical Haitian house, documented later by an American,.Anghelen Arrington
Phillips.

StrawBale building methods can adapt very easily to this traditional Haitian
architecture language. I make a emphasis on this issue because I believe
that the best way to promote strawbale houses its to adapt them to the
traditional architecture, special in rural areas. We do that in Portugal,
and the impact is excellent, as locals do not look at these houses as a
foreign aeccentricity, but yes as a intelligent and smart way to build their
traditional houses.

Being lime the traditional material used in Haiti, why not just use a
limecreet in the floor (well documented by Barbara Jones), about 5cm of 4:1
lime/sand -- attention, not too humid please .. :-)) -- finished a few hours
later by a «burnt cement» finishing layer (cement powder mixed
withpigments, and trowel after with a inox trowel). It makes a
beautiful floor,
very traditional on tropical and temperate climates, fresh and easy to
clean. If you need more practical info about this just tell me.

By the way, .cCouldn't we all help to developed a few well documented open
source emergency building projects for a law cost passive house that could
be used in any part of the globe, and easily adapted to local architecture
design?

Good work

Jorge Van Krieken

On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 5:45 AM, martin hammer <mfhammer at pacbell.net> wrote:

>  Hello all,
>
> Below are thoughts from an important member of our BWB strawbale team in
> Haiti regarding the idea of using blood as a sealer / hardener for the
> earthen floor.  Regine Laroche is an architect and the only Haitian member
> of our design team.  The informative GSBN discussion about this included two
> of our builders in Haiti, Andy Mueller (lead builder and initiator of the
> discussion) and Tina Therrien (who is doing the finish floor), and
> eventually led to an internal discussion about how we would finish the
> floor.  Blood was being considered, and after biting my tongue (but not to
> the point of bleeding) I expressed my preference for not using blood on the
> floor of this building.  It didn’t feel right to me personally (note: I’m
> not vegetarian) and I questioned how it would be received by Haitians (as
> did Derek Roff from BWB).  So I put the question to Regine and here is her
> response:
>
>
> *Subject:* Re: Floor finish.  Use oil (not blood) . . .
>
> Hello
>
> Touchy, touchy subject!
> I've been a vegetarian for over 20 years, and personally find the idea
> highly distasteful.  It's true that no animal will likely be killed
> specifically for that reason, and in some respect the notion of recycling
> ironically applies here.  However, we are talking about a substance that
> carries the very essence of life itself- even to the point that we humans go
> to great lengths to store it up and transfer it  from original "donors" to
> "recipients" for life-saving purposes.
> More importantly, it seems to me the issue of cultural biases you pointed
> out, Martin, is KEY.  I will venture to say that if you do use blood as part
> of  finishing procedures for the floor, chances run HIGH that people will
> perceive this in a totally different light and associate it with ritual
> sacrifice and even the so-called "dark arts" (notice: I didn't say "vodou",
> a term many allow themselves to use without having ever bothered to
> seriously research its actual content).  Remember, we are dealing with a
> culture that believes everything is endowed with consciousness and that
> beyond the end of physical life, some subtle essence (soul or energy)
> persists.  I'll be curious to observe the fate of a house people know to
> have been treated in such manner.
> I have never heard of such practices in construction here, but since many
> things  no doubt escape my radar, I have asked a few people more familiar
> than myself with local traditional construction practices.  All had never
> heard of it either and were shocked at the prospect.
>
> Food for thought!
>
> Regine L.
>
>
> You can follow the preceding thread below if you like, including my
> ponderings and Tina’s thoughtful considerations, but suffice it to say, the
> subject is quite charged in Haitian culture.  I’ll broaden this to say that
> it points to the importance of considering culture and context in all
> building decisions, including materials, how they are used, and of course
> all aspects of functional and aesthetic design, including matters of
> symbolism and meaning.  It’s not to say one can never go against or try to
> break through cultural bias if one believes they have good reason (including
> in one’s own culture, as we often do with strawbale itself!), but it should
> be done knowingly, with good and wise intention, and understanding of
> consequences.
>
> Martin Hammer
>
> ------------------------------
> On 18-Mar-11, at 4:31 AM, martin hammer wrote:
>
>
> Dear Tina,
>
> If it's not too late I want to strongly encourage that oil, not blood be
> used to finish the floor and make it more durable.  Although I know blood
> is
> used in various parts of the world for this purpose, using blood seems
> philosophically wrong to me for this building (or maybe any building).  To
> rely on fresh blood from another living creature to finish the floor, when
> vegetable or mineral materials also work (even if the creature was to be
> slaughtered anyway), seems antithetical to what I think our work as natural
> and sustainable builders espouses.  I'm not vegetarian, but it still feels
> wrong to me.  I've remained silent on this, but have struggled with this
> feeling and it hasn't gone away.  I've copied others on this for their
> thoughts.
>
> Thanks,
> Martin
>
>
>
> On 3/18/11 7:23 AM, "Tina Therrien" <strawbus at auracom.com> wrote:
>
> It's not too late. Floor is still drying (the half to be plastered
> tomorrow, now that we have materials here again:)
>
> The idea of blood for the finish was in part because of discussions about
> plaster finishes, out of an uncertainty of what oils are even available
> locally (and how they work as a hardener) and out of a curiosity to know how
> it actually was traditionally used in finishes & plasters. I didn't want to
> use a product/material that would require an animal to be killed, but
> started thinking about it more seriously due to the fact that there really
> is a cow that is slaughtered weekly just down the road from GrassRoots. That
> does seem natural to me, to use materials that are locally present in the
> community. But I wasn't sold on it, more curious. It certainly isn't ethical
> to kill animals solely to have plaster materials, but for me, I was
> comfortable using blood from an animal that was going to be slaughtered
> regardless of our plaster finish. Honestly, I wasn't sure how it would
> 'feel' to use blood, but I am still quite interested in knowing
> traditionally how it was applied. I forgot to pick up coconut oil, but will
> do so over the next few days, unless there is a better oil/finish idea that
> comes up in the various conversations about this.
>
> cheers,
> tina
>
>
>
> *From:* martin hammer <mfhammer at pacbell.net>
> *To:* Tina Therrien <strawbus at auracom.com>
> *Cc:* Andy Mueller <info at greenspacecollaborative.com>; Catherine Wanek <
> mail at builderswithoutborders.org>; Derek Roff <derek at unm.edu>; Regine
> Laroche <anakaite at yahoo.com>; Mark Phillips <mrppy1 at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Fri, March 18, 2011 12:31:42 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Floor finish.  Use oil (not blood) . . .
>
> Thanks Tina.  I know this brings up issues about what is “natural”,
> including the notion that blood is natural, especially in the case where as
> you say a cow is slaughtered weekly, locally and that this is part of the
> society and culture.  I really do appreciate that aspect of it.  I also
> appreciate that you say it would be unethical to kill an animal solely for
> this purpose, which I assumed you and everyone else would say.  So I don’t
> want to be naïve or falsely pure about this.  Death is part of life (is that
> a legitimate view here), and if this slaughter will occur anyway, then one
> could say the blood would just go to waste (presumably), so why not use it
> for good purpose.  Maybe there is already a history of use of blood in
> plaster and earthen floors in Haiti, especially in rural areas.  Can you ask
> some of the Haitians there about any history, and what they think about
> using blood in this manner regardless of its history?  There may be strong
> cultural bias, either for or against.  (Regine, could you please weigh in on
> this?)  I’m being very careful about this, especially for this model
> building, as it tends to set precedent (and may even encourage undue
> slaughter for a future building?).  My own instinct is still against, but
> I’ll remain open to a full exploration of all sides, including but not only
> its effectiveness, which I think it deserves.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Martin
>
>
>
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