Past editions

Sanitation without water becomes mainstream

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:42:13 +0000

The Clay House Project in Namibia has developed a dry-toilet that is gaining wide acceptance among users and Experts alike. The Town of Otjiwarongo is planning to build thousands of “Otji toilets” in the next few years. A group of experts to the European Union recommends the use of dry toilets to resolve sanitation problems of rural and semi-urban Namibia.

Ferrocement for quick actions after a disaster

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:14:48 +0000

In this third contribution in our series discussing Different experiences in reconstruction projects, the EcoSur E-magazine documents a project proposal for rapid action after a disaster.

Cuba: rapid recuperation after the disaster

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:34:41 +0000

Fifteen days after hurricane Ike, almost anywhere in Cuba one feels the enormous effort to reestablish normality. Almost half a million houses were damaged and more than 100’000 collapsed totally. Everywhere one can see people repairing roofs and placing fibrocement elements (similar in shape to asbestos-cement).

Little technological innovations improve the lives of brick burners

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:50:35 +0000

The workday of Cristobal Flores used to start at 3 o´clock in the morning. In the cold of the early morning, at 2800 m over the sea level, Cristobal mixed the earth deposited in his back yard with sawdust, soaked the mixture and started to trample it to grind and homogenize it, with his bull “Martin”. Four hours later, the mixture was ready to mould and be converted into raw bricks.

New ideas for new constructions!

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:39:31 +0000

At this time we lance the Project competition for 2009. And, our memory takes us back to the third international EcoMaterials conference in 2005, when the EcoSur Network organized a competition of projects in two categories.

EcoSur tests open source programs

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:20:01 +0000

At the headquarters of EcoSur Nicaraga, young architects are learning how to use open source programs for their 3D architectural designs.
Use of these programs responds to the "open source" philosophy that theEcoSur Network maintains with its technologies: for example MicroConcrete Roofing technology is shared with all the little secrets that make a business successful. A small entrepreneur develops little secrets in the fabrication, commercialization, roof structures....and... shares them through the EcoSur Network with other producers, and at regional and international EcoMaterials conferences.

Ancestral Adobe in El Salvador

paulcoyote@gmail.com (Administrator) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:16:16 +0000

A group of technicians of the EcoSur network from Nicaragua and Ecuador visited the archeological site Joya de Ceren, during the regional EcoMaterials conference held in the city of San Salvador, El Salvador, from the 28th to the 30th of October 2008, 40 km from San Salvador. The archeological site situated 40 km from San Salvador reveals ruins of 1500-year-old Adobe constructions. These ruins have been protected by volcanic ashes and show ancestral adobe architecture.