CAUKIN Virtual Workshop - South Pacific Prototype Housing

CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

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South Pacific Prototype Housing

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The aim is to aid communities whilst creating a cyclone, resilient building typology that is research-based whilst rapidly built and inexpensive for the community. The community will, therefore, have an opportunity to build up a sustainable village improving on the sustainability goals.

The idea of this programme is to create a cultural plan that looks back on tradition whilst using modern technologies. There will be three aims to help create this plan.

Learn – Build – Share Learning is the research base where it looks at traditional building vernacular techniques of the pacific island countries and the modern technologies to create a more sustained collaborative design that is a low cost, using local materials and easy to construct. The researchers will always be striving for the better. Most of the research is carried out by looking at regulation, successes, and traditional building methods to accumulate the knowledge together along with the added aid of engineers and architects around the world designing and experimenting.

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

South Pacific Prototype Housing

Build – This stage is a crucial stage of the process, which is not just the construction, but teaching as well. The key is to understand how the communities work to create a success that the villagers also like and want to duplicate, which is just as crucial as creating cyclone resistance. The knowledge is transferred to the local communities st this stage, whilst building substantial structures and life for them.

Share – The idea is once a few people are taught the skills and techniques and approve of the building, they will be able to share the skills and methods they have learnt throughout their community and surrounding villages.

vanuatu fiji

vanuatu

fiji

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

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South Pacific Prototype Housing

description

The priority would be working with the community to create a sustainable core living set up programme followed by flexible buildings for the villagers that help with entrepreneurial work, education and other community events.

The style will try to mimic the traditional vernacular style in Vanuatu and Fiji, which engages the communities into the countries cultural heritage and relearning the traditional building techniques which can pass on successfully.

The modular type style allows effortless repetition. Once the wall and structure as learn and built, the process becomes simple. The idea is that the same building techniques used for every building in the village.

As the building sizes increase, so do the number of sides, for stability, whilst keeping symmetry which is vital to resist the wind.

One of the key objectives is to be able to utilise the local materials, so it is straightforward to access and therefore, more manageable and quicker to build. Importing materials takes longer as well as added cost and issues of transportation to the site. The embodied carbon will decrease additionally due to the use of local materials. Using local materials will need to be carefully looked at to be able to use them to their advantage and create resilient structures; therefore, the research team will continuously look into improving their use. Already there is existing research on materials sources local, included in this project.

The result of globalisation led to western material used in the Pacific Island countries, however, have been known to fail in community

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

South Pacific Prototype Housing

use as well as structurally, due to little or no research leading to destruction in a disaster. In some areas, the communities have seen western materials new an exciting without knowing the correct construction methods resulting in disastrous consequences when a disaster hits. The conventional vernacular methods provide an additional benefit of using local resources and materials which is financially viable and is more accessible to obtain by the communities.

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

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South Pacific Prototype Housing

material research (Zaryoun, M. 2019) Results of Lightweight reinforced clay LRC stested with different reinforcements.

Hybrid Adobe already researched by the Fiji Institute of Sustainable Habits, FISH, is to be used. This material can be used for landscaping, building and a lot more applications and made up from recycled materials, for example, newspaper and paper alongside water, clay, plant fibres and a binder. This material is adaptable to multiple shapes that dry (2-7 days) and sealed by a waterproof sealant. This material is beneficial that it is cheap, easy to source locally and quick to build. Adobe is earthquake resistant with a compressive strength around 600 to 2800 ps, and with the bamboo reinforcement, is more robust. The bamboo will not weather due to it being inside the material acting like rebar. This material also has excellent insulating qualities from R 24 to R 38. The fibres within the Adobe fibres are easily accessible in the Pacific Island Countries; the fibre of coconut already tested by (Zaryoun, M. 2019), who has researched the impacts of adding human hair and natural fibres to clay, resulting in greatening the strength of the building material.

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

South Pacific Prototype Housing

Timbers that are grown in Vanuatu and Fiji, Buabua/Boutu, Vaudamu, Vala/ Vutu and Vesi, all have been tested for construction as loud Barry elements by the Fiji Department officers, the University of California, with the vast stress range from F5 to F-17. However, there is an increasing demand for Fijian hardwood internationally, and with the trees taking 25 plus this to grow, there is a time-lapse issue. The solution is planting these trees for the communities and sharing the remaining availability throughout the islands until fully grown timber is ready. Each developed village will have access to the timber in 25 years which could be used and shared further, developing their economy.

The timber needs treating to prevent rot and decay, therefore, adding durability. Governments including Fiji, have set up mobile timber treatment so that communities can treat their timber quickly, so more likely to do such minimising weaknesses in the structure due to rot and decay giving a lifetime of 50 years. Giving the villages access to this mobile unit will provide them with every opportunity to create sustainable communities. https://fijisun.com. fj/2017/01/27/fijis-first-self-contained-mobile-timber-treatment-plant-in-kadavu/

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CAUKIN Virtual Design Workshop 2020

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South Pacific Prototype Housing

future research and progression questions

Look at the masterplan in greater detail to cover all that is needed, i.e. water supply.

Continuing research on materials and technologies to find the best solution for cyclone resistance.

The technical solution in detail to look at the fesability of using the rocks to anchor down the building.

More research on waterproofing the structures.

Greater feesability studies on the different layouts to choose the most appropriate solution.

Greater research on implementing the underfloor storage and fire pit.

Alternatives to metal fixings (research base).

Fessable local alternative to concrete to place posts in creating extra strength.

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