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OTHER HOUSING PROJECTS
NATIONAL
BAMBOO PROJECT - COSTA RICA
The National Bamboo Project
(PNB) was officially endorsed by the Costa Rican Government through
the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements, the ministry of planning
and the ministry of foreign affairs. The original grants 5.7 million
dollars from governments of Netherlands and UNDP. The administration
was carried out through UNCHS habitat and UNDP. PNB divided its
activities into four main areas: Cultivation, Construction, training
and Research and Development.
The project was started
in 1986 as a new technological approach to prevent deforestation
in Costa Rica. The idea was to replace the use of wood with an alternative
cost-effective and seismically sound building material. The project
has been monitored in three phases. The preparatory phase saw the
pilot-project transfered from experiences in Colombia and Ecuador.
During the First and Second Phases an intensive construction scheme
in the rural areas was developed including technical training, massive
bamboo cultivation, community and labour organization, environmental
assessment of the technology and production of furniture and handicrafts
for export. The project has fostered the sustainable use of bamboo
as a raw material for an indigenous housing programme and for the
industrialization and marketing of by-products, thus giving low-income
families the means of obtainig proper housing.
From the community groups
of give to six people were formed and each group built five to seven
houses. Each group built its houses simultaneously so that all five
to seven houses were at the same stage of construction at any time.
There were about 33 tasks involved with the construction of the
house. The PBN technicians supervised these units on daily basis.
These technicians came from a construction school and were trained
by Roger Chaves who has extensive experience in bamboo construction
methods (Karina, 1998).
The project has achieved the construction of 703 houses in rural
areas, among them the indigenous communities of Terraba, Rey Curre
and Boruca. During the first phase of the project 300 hectars of
bamboo were cultivated. Besides the production of valuable building
material, and contributing to continuos improvement of the environmental,
the bamboo cultivated areas capture and store carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere, contributing to preventing negative impacts of the
green-house effect at the global level.
INDIAN
PLYWOOD INDUSTRIES RESEARCH and TRAINING INSTITUTE (IPIRTI) - BANGLORE,
INDIA
TRADA International with
the funding supports from DFID has supported IPIRTI
India to develop and demonstrate affordable bamboo housing and to
increase the access of the poor to safe secure durable and affordable
shelter.
The bamboo housing technology
developed at IPIRTI is of great significance in the sense that all
load bearing and semi load bearing elements have been made either
of round or split bamboo in the forms of slivers in combination
with bamboo based composites like BMB and BMCS for roofing with
mimimal use of timber and high energy consuming materials like iron
steel and cement. In IPIRTI system, they adopt -
1. use round bamboo columns
and trussed rafters as main load bearing elements
2. Use of split bamboo grids and chicken mesh and plastered with
cement mortar to provide overall stability to the sturcture
3. Appilcation of appropriate preservative treatment of bamboo depending
on the degree of hazard and service conditions
4. Use of BMB gussests in combination with mild steel bolts for
load bearing joints in roofing structure and
5. Use of BMCs as roof claddings
For details contact: Plywood
Industries Research & Training Institute
Post Bag No-2273, Tumkur Road, Yeshwanthpur,
Bangalore 560 022
Phone No: 091- 080- 8394231/32/33
Fax No: 091- 080- 8396361
E-mail: cbdindia@vsnl.net
; ipirti@giasbg01.vsnl.net.in
National Mission for Bamboo Application (NMBA)
National Mission for Bamboo Application (NMBA),
an autonomous organization under the umbrella of Ministry of Science
and Technology, Govt. of India has done a lot of progress in developing
bamboo housing technology. They have developed bamboo house with
engineered bamboo panels. The houses are tested for various standards.
These houses are said to be resistance to high wind pressure and
very cold climate. For details, please visit their website http://www.bambootech.org/
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