Slide Shows of San Pedro de Alcántara

Applying for the “Juvenile Fund for Reconstruction Contest”

Currently we are applying for a grant from the Nacional Youth Institute´s “Juvenile Fund for Reconstruction: Young People for Chile”.  Our project proposal is to build a pilot pallet house which will then be used as a meeting house for the community. The house will also include an interactive library with archives of the construction project as well as resources for environmental education.

The construction process will be documented step-by-step through a video or a time laps. This documentation will be later become a construction guide which can be distributed to the community and perhaps to other communities also rebuilding.

We hope to involve the youth and the residents in the construction process so they can learn and then replicate. The pilot house will be inaugurated with workshops on the construction of composting toilets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composting_toilet), and on organic community gardening.

The proposal is due next week, May 25th, and we are still working out the financial details and creating an inventory of costs including materials, transportation, the labor. We won´t find out the results of the contest until June.

http://www.injuv.gob.cl/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=107

We hope this project will become a stepping stone for a paradigm shift of the reconstruction process. Eventually we want to suggest the pallet house to the government and other organizations such as Techo Para Chile as an alternative to the very temporary, basic mediagua. Although building mediaguas is a fast, easy, and cheap solution for the thousands of families still lacking roofs, the quality varies from poor to very poor, due to the quality of the materials (much of it is donated) and design.  The cost of a mediagua is from $US 400.00 to $US 1300.00 and it takes about day to build one but  you get what you pay for. Recently in the news there has been a lot of debate about the quality of the mediaguas, especially after the first rains of the seasons.

http://www.latercera.com/contenido/680_257165_9.shtml

http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2010/05/06/ceroni-ppd-critica-mala-calidad-de-mediaguas-entregadas-y-acusa-falta-de-eficiencia-2/

http://blogs.elmercurio.com/cronica/2010/05/07/ejercito-dice-que-mediaguas-se.asp

a typical mediagua

We think that the pallet house, although more expensive, is better solution because it is a real house that people can make themselves. Its a home, not just a shelter. Its longer lasting, better quality and has more ties to traditional architecture (or at least in regions where adobe construction is the norm). Its better to invest a couple hundred more dollars now instead of having to come back in two years and build again.  Or to have to buy plastic tarps to cover leaking mediaguas in two months.

Earthquake Damage in San Pedro de Alcántara

San Pedro was renowned for its lovely, distinct adobe architecture. After the earthquake, many houses were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.

Pallet House Plans

Leonardo Vergara from Reacciona, http://reacciona.cl, has made a powerpoint with the plans for the pallet house
Plans for the Pilot Pallet House

Sustainable Housing for San Pedro de Alcantara

The Specs of the Pallet House.

• Earthquake-safe building of 42 square meters or 138 square feet with the option to expand
• 2 bedrooms
• Kitchen-dining room common space
• exterior bathroom
• attached roofed terrace
• adobe insulation
• internal and external finishing of adobe
• connection to an external water system
• electrical installation (not included in the quote)

Prices:

Option 1-  $CH 900,000.00 or $US 1800.00 (this includes the purchase of the construction materials)

Option 2- $CH 400,000.00 or $US 800.000 (this is using recycled construction materials from damaged houses and donated pallets)



These are some photos of the construction of a pallet house in Mexico taken from the World Hands Project website.

http://worldhand.s435.sureserver.com/index.php/site/general/8

As seen in the pictures, the pallet frame is filled with a combination of adobe and straw and then covered with adobe.