The First Few Days

Monday Aug. 3 marked the first day with a full workforce of 15 motivated workshop participants! The foundation was dug, the first layer of sand (subbase) was rammed in place, and used wooden formwork was gathered to be recycled on our building. Materials (wood, sand, stone, and metal) and tools were ordered for future use on the site.

On Tuesday, stones were collected in the village nearby to reduce the amount of concrete used in the foundation, and then a concrete layer was poured and rebar was put into place to stabilize the wall. The team started assembling the formwork for the foundation of the rammed earth and adobe brick walls. 

Tuesday also marked the official meeting with the village chief and his speaker, as well as a welcoming ceremony. The chief granted the group permission to visit his village and to interact with its community.

On Wednesday, the team visited the stone quarry to order a specific kind of gravel needed for the earthen mixture, and the first preparation of the earth mix began. More progress continues to be made on the foundation and on leveling the formwork.

More team members arrive on the site on Sunday, so there will be more to report then. Stay tuned!

Thanks to Ingrid for the pictures!

Work has officially begun!

Our first arrivals have reached our site at the Abetemin Arts Village in the Ashanti Region in Ghana, and were able to report back what they've accomplished so far.

Markus, Matthias, Ingrid, and Vincent arrived at the village on July 30, and determined the best site for the house. It is situated between a palm tree and another big tree which will act as shading for the house during the evening hours. They also met with the other teams that are also currently building, and exchanged their experiences of their mud house workshops that are currently underway.

On Friday, the 31st, the team worked with 4 local workers to clear the site from trash and bushes. Underneath, they found the parcel fits exactly the required orientation of the house in regards to the path of the sun. In the evening, the team had an official meeting with the Village Chief's Wife, to hand over gifts from Germany, and to receive permission from her to build the house.

Saturday, August 1st, two more participants, Tim and Laura, joined the group. The floor of the site was leveled and measured, and the first parts of the foundation were staked out.

Stay tuned for more updates. More participants are arriving next weekend, and we will report back when we can. 

We want to thank all the people who have supported us so far on this journey. Our crowdfunding campaign is really taking off, with more than 20% of our needs being covered already! Thanks to all the people who have contributed so far, or have helped to spread the word about our project. We appreciate all the help you have given us!

For those new to our campaign, and wanting to support us financially, please check out our donation site at www.betterplace.org/p31124  (for the English version, look at the upper right corner of the page, and click on "English").

We need your support!

Dear Readers, we are closely approaching the start of the workshop and things are slowly falling into place! To help cover the costs of the workshop we set up a crowdfunding site to collect donations to pay for things like better quality materials, and getting local experts and community members involved in the work we are doing. The more we engage with local villagers, the more likely it is we will make a lasting difference in the community, and the more successful our workshop will be. Please help spread the word to your friends, family, and colleagues who may be interested in making a donation via this link: www.betterplace.org/p31124
 
We will be collecting donations up until the last day of construction (or sooner if we reach our goal before that). Every euro counts, no matter how small the donation, our project will receive 100% of donations. If you aren't in the financial situation to donate, please help spread the word to others you know who are interested in making a difference. Together we can put an end to destructive building processes and make a change in how sustainable construction is seen in the world.

Thanks!
The Raumgeschichten e.V. Team

Impressions

Here are two images that show what the house might look like end of August:

View from the south east showing the entrance to the main living space

View from the south west showing the new solar-chimney and seating area

The images are showing a possibility for a shading device to be designed during the workshop by the participants, which will help shade the west wall from the evening sun.

More updates on the design

Along with the positioning of the massive rammed earth walls, to optimize internal comfort, Transsolar has suggested rotating the building 10° to the west. This shift would let in enough sunlight for comfort without overheating the building, and it would have a positive impact on the solar chimney effect (don't worry, I'm getting to what that is).

Our original design featured a green roof, but that had been determined to be unrealistic in terms of workability and technical feasibility. During the rainy season it would become soaked with rain and become very heavy and during the dry season, nothing would grow so the roof would lose its intended cooling effect. The advice from Transsolar was to instead build a roof in two layers with a gap in between to allow air to circulate and which would act to reduce the heating effect inside the house. 

In this region of Ghana, air circulation plays an essential part of internal comfort. Since the rammed earth wall on the north side hinders cross ventilation, a solar chimney can be an alternative. How it works is that air from the room will mix with the warmer air that flows through the gap in the roof which will then rise through the solar chimney. All it needs to activate it is a window (of at least 0.2 m²) on the south facade which can be left open at night to create the airflow.  As an extra added effect, the chimney may allow for some diffuse lighting to enter the room through its opening.  

Developing the Design

While some of you have been getting your plane tickets and applying for visa's, RAUMGESCHICHTEN has been corresponding with experts in the field to further develop our original design and to optimize it for climatic, structural and practical constraints.  We only have four weeks to construct the building, and we're there to learn as well as build (and hopefully have some fun as well), so we've decided to downsize the design in order to have a functional building at the end of the workshop. The good news is we've received a large amount of applicants from 8 different countries, so we'll have plenty of people on hand to complete the project!

We're still using a combination of earthen techniques - rammed earth and adobe brick - for the exterior walls, which remains to be the focus of the workshop. The house will consist of two rooms, a living room and a sleeping room, with the possibility for a bathroom to be added on at a later date (another workshop?). We've also redesigned the roof to make better use of the climate and to increase air flow in the house with the use of the solar chimney effect.

The position of the house will be determined on arrival at the site. Markus and Matthias will arrive a few days before the workshop begins to look at possible sites available in the Abetenim Art Village and determine the best location for our design. Based on the altitude of the sun, the building orientation should be east/west - to have the shorter walls facing lower sun radiation. This means the rammed earth walls would be located north/south, with the larger rammed earth wall on the north side, so that it avoids the south sun and can be used as a cooling mass for the building (thermal component activation).

I'll be writing more about the details of the design as we create them. Here's some images of what the house is starting to look like: 

View from the south east

View from the east

View from the south

Thanks Transsolar!

On May 1st, RAUMGESCHICHTEN met with Markus Krauss from Transsolar.

Transsolar is helping us adapt our design for the Nkɔsoɔ House in terms of energetic performance and climatic optimization. We met in Nürnberg and discussed topics like building orientation, air circulation and ventilation, flooring, mosquito protection, and roof construction. 

Based on the altitude of the sun at the site, we re-oriented the building east-west, to have the shorter edges face lower sun radiation. Further, we discussed locating the main rammed earth wall to the north side for less solar impact to avoid heating. This wall would then act as a cooling mass to improve the interior climate of our house. The roof design has changed and is now split into two layers to reduce solar impact and to generate air flow through the space in-between.

Since air circulation is essential to internal comfort levels, we discussed the option of adding a solar chimney as an integrated part of the rammed earth wall. Natural ventilation, especially night-time ventilation, will this way, be greatly improved. 

RAUMGESCHICHTEN is looking forward to further productive discussions and is very thankful for the voluntary support from Markus Krauss!