  
|
 |
| March 2007 |
Feature |
|
Eco-friendly 'green' housing bumps up against
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Photo credit: West Cape News |
CAPE TOWN (WCN) - Eco-friendly housing is no longer the domain of exclusive country retreats or tie-dyed hippies, as a Cape Town (South Africa) couple forge ahead with building a house made of gum poles and mud walls in the popular seaside suburb of Muizenberg.
When it’s finished Simric and Carey Yarrow's house will be almost entirely self-sufficient and capable of withstanding the next wave of rolling electricity blackouts that the Cape has become notorious for.
And although electricity and water shortages in Cape Town over the last year would seem to be a vote in favour of houses which minimise water and electricity consumption, the Yarrows' efforts to build their dream house has been an uphill battle.
Lack of recognition for alternative building has prevented them from getting a bank housing loan - a problem that threatens to restrict growth in the market for eco-friendly houses.
Undeterred, the Yarrows’ are determined to use the construction of their house to further the cause of alternative housing and interest has been such that the couple have put up a board outside the plot informing the public about the house.
They are also holding once-monthly workshops where anyone who is interested can squelch in the mud and learn about alternative building.
Although a small market, eco-friendly housing and even whole villages are not unknown in South Africa.
But the Yarrows' house is unusual in that it is being built on a vacant plot in Muizenberg surrounded by bricks and mortar homes and 200m from the beach.
Speaking on-site this week, Carey, a sculptor, said she had always dreamt of building a home in the country that integrated with the environment.
"When we spotted this plot I thought why not do it in town? It won't blend in with the environment but it will bring nature back into the city in a way that will alert people to the possibilities."
Husband Simric said: "At the moment there is a general perception that people have to have brick houses, but it is possible to have a house that is built in other ways. I just think the reason people don't go this route is through lack of awareness."
With the project underway since 2006 and construction taking place throughout 2007,
the finished double-storey house will consist of a main section with two bedrooms, a lounge, kitchen and bathroom.
A separate one-bedroom bed and breakfast flat will complete the house.
All the woodwork in the house is treated with environmentally-friendly products, say the Yarrows', and thick poles sourced from alien gums are being used to support the roof.
Only a small part of the house will contain a bricks and mortar structure, with the rest of the walls being constructed using an age-old technique known as cobbing.
Beach sand, clay, earth, water and straw are mixed together and stomped to a smooth consistency with the bare feet of whoever can be roped into a mud bath.
Layer upon layer of the final mixture is then used to create thick mud walls.
Cobbing has been chosen because the materials are sourced locally, there is no excessive run-off into the water table and bricks and cement are avoided, both of which have negative environmental implications due to their manufacture, said Simric.
The thickness of the cobbed walls insulates the house so that it is cool in summer and warm in winter, using less energy for heating and cooling.
North facing walls will optimise the earth credentials of the house, soaking up the sun for warmth.
A grey water system will recycle water from baths, basins and the washing machine.
The house will initially be on the electricity grid, but Simric said they hope to ultimately be off-grid and energy self-sufficient.
Simric believes not utilising alternative technology misses a valuable opportunity to empower people to build homes and address South Africa's housing backlog.
But bureaucracy is a major blockage to widespread adoption of the technology, he said
Not only did the Yarrows' have to get an architect to vouch for their house in order to get council approval, but financing the house through a bank proved impossible.
Simric said banks required approval from the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) before they could finance a house, but because the NHBRC had no guidelines for approval of alternative buildings, it was not possible to get approval and a subsequent house bond from the bank.
As a result the Yarrows' have raised funding privately.
Finding companies to do the actual work had been another difficulty and it had taken "an awfully long time to find some of the people," he said.
Stephen Forder, who is doing a masters degree in sustainable development at Stellenbosch University and lives at the Lynedoch eco-village about 10km outside Stellenbosch, said: "I think this kind of building will become more mainstream as issues like global warming become more pressing."
He said one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions was the production of building materials.
Forder said getting planning permission for alternative building projects was a "huge problem".
South Africa was "a long way behind" taking advantage of developments in clean building technology.
The reasons were that the climate was "very forgiving" in the country and energy was also cheap, meaning there was no immediate impetus to use different technologies.
Ann-Marie Moore, architect-in-training at Eco Designs Architects, said people were beginning to understand that there is "a corner of the market that are asking for more sustainable, eco-friendly developments".
"There is an increasing trend. It was previously only hippies but now we have a lot of interest from larger developments and increasing requests for renovations to make homes more eco-friendly," she said.
Gavin Lutge, the freelance structural engineer involved in the Muizenberg project, said people were more interested in building in a way that was not damaging to the environment.
With regards NHBRC approval, Lutge said the NHBRC did not have regulations for the construction of eco-friendly houses.
He said as a result the Muizenberg house was being built based on New Zealand codes.
But Kgomotso Mahlobo, chief operating officer for the NHBRC, said her organisation was "very interested" in alternatives and how these could be supported.
She said the backlog in housing was because of the constraints of constructing houses with brick and mortar.
She said if there was an alternative using acceptable standards that were SABS approved and complied with the building regulations of South Africa then "I don't see how we could not support it".
When contacted for comment, the Absa group, one of the largest home-loan providers in South Africa, confirmed that they did not finance alternative buildings.
In email correspondence, Absa said: "Absa does not as yet finance eco-friendly houses that are built using alternative materials. However, we are consulting with the NHBRC regarding this issue and exploring ways and means on how we can best accommodate this emerging building trend in our home loans and housing financing products."
Builders had also been invited to propose innovative financing solutions. -- West Cape News
More information:
West
Cape News
Copyright Science in Africa, Science magazine for Africa CC. All Rights Reserved
