Home cheap home: Vietnam architect's quest for low-cost housing

Yahoo – AFP, Cat Barton, 25 Jan 2015

Farmer Vo Van Duong rests inside a S-House 2 built in his garden in Vietnam's

 southern Mekong delta province of Long An on December 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Hoang Dinh Nam)

Long An (Vietnam) (AFP) - Vo Van Duong's bamboo and coconut leaf house looks much like others deep in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. But unlike them, his seemingly simple abode is designed to withstand typhoons, flooding and earthquakes -- and at a cost of less than $4,000 could herald a new wave of cheap, sustainable housing.

The natural materials on its surface belie the hi-tech internal structure of the farmer's new home, which uses steel struts and wall panels as a defence against the elements in this natural disaster-prone region.

Architect Vo Trong Nghia speaks during 

an interview with AFP in Ho Chi Minh City

on December 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Hoang

Dinh Nam)

"The new house is safer, I'm not afraid that it will collapse," the 48-year-old papaya farmer told AFP inside the house he moved into nine months ago.

Duong is testing a prototype by an award-winning Vietnamese architecture firm looking for low-cost housing solutions for communities vulnerable to climate change.

His S-House 2 was free, but if rolled-out on a wider scale could be sold for less than $4,000.

"There was water coming down from the roof in my old house. Sometimes, when there was a strong wind, I was so afraid the house wouldn't survive," Duong said, adding his new home was the envy of his neighbours.

The eco-home is the brainchild of Vo Trong Nghia, who joins other architects around the world in trying to fill a demand for cheap and easy to assemble housing -- from flat-pack refugee shelters to shipping-container homes for tsunami victims.

He says all architects have a duty to help the poor.

"What about those with low income, billions of them, how can they live?" Nghia told AFP. "They have the right to live in comfortable, functional places."

But he wants to go further, creating a home residents can take pride in.

"I don't want people to be looking at it as 'cheap houses' but as resort-quality accommodation close to nature, so (residents) can live a life of the highest quality."

Farmer Vo Van Duong in the garden of a S-House 2 in Vietnam's southern Mekong

delta province of Long An on December 11, 2014 (AFP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam)

Flat-pack homes

The design is still being refined by his team, who are eventually aiming to create a flat-pack home. The newest version, S-House 3, can be built by five people in three hours.

"Our goal for S-house is for the owner to construct it by themselves," said Kosuke Nishijima, a partner at the firm.

The latest design also allows for multiple houses to be tacked together, a function that could allow, for example, the construction of a storm-proof school easily transportable to remote areas or a larger family home.

Nghia has already been approached by NGOs in disaster-prone Bangladesh and the Philippines, but is not yet ready to supply the house commercially.

From saline-intrusion and flooding in the Mekong Delta to typhoons along the central coast, Vietnam is also home to communities living in high risk areas.

For decades, Vietnamese families have adapted their houses themselves, many building ad hoc mezzanines to avoid flooding.

In more recent years organisations including the Red Cross and Women's Unions, as well as local authorities, have been trying to help people develop more resilient housing.

A bedroom inside an ecologically conscious traditional Vietnamese tube house

 designed by architect Vo Trong Nghia's company, in Ho Chi Minh City on 

December 12, 2014 (AFP Photo/Hoang Dinh Nam)

But in order to ensure such projects are successful, "private architects' support is critical", according to Boram Kim, an urban specialist with UN-Habitat in Vietnam.

"State and local government authorities are well aware that such houses are needed for the poor, but have little technical knowledge for realising their ideas," she told AFP.

"Architects have technical knowledge for reducing the housing construction cost while making it storm proof," she said, cautioning that it was important for designers to listen to the needs of local communities.

Architect for the poor

Nghia's firm found that one of the problems facing rural Vietnamese living in traditional bamboo shacks or stilted river-bank dwellings is the costly upkeep they require to withstand increasingly extreme weather.

Although the S-House 2's outer casing of coconut leaf may need replacing every four years, the structure itself should require no expensive maintenance, said engineer Lien Phuoc Huy Phuong.

A series of concrete slabs and gaps filled

 with plants in the facade of an ecologically

 conscious traditional Vietnamese tube house

 designed by architect Vo Trong Nghia's 

company, in Ho Chi Minh City, on December

12, 2014 (AFP Photo/Hoang Ding Nam)

"It can last a long time, the structure is sound," he told AFP during a tour of the small building. 

Despite its solid exterior, the house is spacious and airy inside, with large windows and doors to bring residents closer to nature.

"We tried to design this house with the best ventilation system, with spaces by the roof and windows for better air flow," Phuong said, pointing out strategic gaps that should reduce the need for electric fans.

Architect Nghia, who used bamboo as a key element in Vietnam's country pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, has long sought to incorporate natural and local materials into his work.

One of his first projects in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City was an ecologically-conscious take on a traditional Vietnamese tube home, known as Stacking Green house.

Built in 2011 for around $150,000, the building is made of a series of concrete slabs and gaps filled with plants to provide privacy while still allowing plenty of air and light.

Nghia is in strong demand for high-end projects from hotels to private houses, but said the low-cost S-House is his personal obsession.

"I want to live in S-House. If my family will agree," he said.

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Governor Orders Construction of Bamboo Shacks for Conjugal Visits for Volcano Victims

Jakarta Globe, November 02, 2010

Jakarta. Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X has ordered the construction of bamboo shelters for families displaced by the Merapi volcano disaster to allow for privacy, including for married couples who wish to engage in sexual activity.

Merapi evacuees having a meal at a
shelter.Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan
Hamengkubuwono X planned to build one
shelter for one refugee family to provide
privacy. (Antara Photo)

“[On Monday] we received an instruction from the governor to build each family a shelter,” Sleman district deputy head deputy Yuni Rahayu told Detik.com. “The special shelter is necessary so children can study and husbands and wives can conduct their sexual activities in private.”

With predictions the eruptions could continue for months and that the rebuilding process for those who lost homes even longer, Yuni said the shelters would need to accommodate 13,000 refugees.

He said the three x four meter structures would be manufactured from bamboo.

All natural: The Green School in Bali features bamboo construction
engineered into a more modern look. JP/ Zul Trio Anggono

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Locals learn quake-proof construction

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, The Jakarta Post, Padang Pariaman, Mon, 03/15/2010

The violent 7.9-magnitude earthquake that jolted West Sumatra in September last year destroyed hundreds of thousands of houses and other buildings, highlighting poor construction standards.

A survey by the University of Indonesia in the early weeks of the disaster found that most of the toppled houses had no steel reinforcement to support the brick walls. A local confirmed this, adding that in many houses, bricks were offset in an orderly stack.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post recently, 41-year-old construction worker Maryunis said that builders had been constructing houses in Padang Pariaman regency using “any means they knew”.

But with the bitter quake experience, Maryunis and many others in Padang Pariaman are now seeking to learn better construction methods that will make their houses safer should another quake hit the tectonically volatile area.

More than 100 locals have received training on how to build affordable, earthquake-proof houses, with another 25 to receive training this week.

The training is conducted by Build Change, an international not-for-profit social enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses.

At a busy construction site just behind a community office in the Sintuk Toboh Gadang subdistrict of Padang Pariaman, dozens of men build an annex office.

Participants of Build Change’s training, the men practice their newly learned skills: Two use their shovels to mix cement using the right composition.

Others try their hand at putting up a brick wall against a concrete footing they had previously laid out. Facilitators from Build Change monitor the activity, at times showing the men how to put enough mortar between two bricks.

Maryunis said, “The builders here usually skimp on the mortar.”

Build Change program coordinator Moslem explained that construction workers in the area worked in teams.

“They usually learn their skills from team leaders who learned from previous leaders. So the same incorrect construction methods are continuously propagated,” he added.

Moslem pointed out a structure: two concrete walls under a big tree. Only a couple on inches thick, the walls are not made of bricks, but of thick wire mesh plastered with concrete.

“We also teach them to build walls using this technique. This is safer than bricks, which could collapse when a major earthquake hits, and from the outside, it looks like an ordinary, permanent brick wall after we paint it,” he said.

Building a 36-square-meter house using this technique costs less than Rp 40 million (US$3,800), Moslem said, adding that a permanent house built using Build Change’s standard would cost between Rp 50 million to 60 million.

Moslem said homeowners could choose between using wire mesh or woven bamboo to make semipermanent walls.

“Both materials can be plastered with concrete, but given its elasticity, it is harder with woven bamboo,” he added.

He also said that while people in several areas in Padang Pariaman implemented the construction techniques taught by the organization, many others were not aware that materials other than bricks could be used to construct walls and that would be esthetically similar.

Maryunis said he planned to teach his new skills to fellow construction workers in his hometown, Toboh Mesjid village.

“It won’t be easy. They have been using the same methods for years and I don’t think they would be willing to adopt a new one.”

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Colombia's 'Bamboo' architect wins Prince Claus Prize

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Alejandro Pintamalli, 22 December 2009

"Stronger than oak, lighter than steel", was the headline - in Dutch newspaper Trouw - above a picture of Colombia's 'bamboo' architect, Simón Vélez. He was recently awarded the main 2009 Prince Claus Prize for his designs using bamboo. The prize provides an opportunity for him to introduce his work to the Netherlands. Plans to construct an open-air podium in North Amsterdam are already at an advanced stage.

Mr Vélez combines modern architecture with traditional building materials. He has designed over 200 buildings using bamboo. Most of them are in Colombia, but his work can also be seen in Brazil and even India and China.

The Prince Claus Fund says Simón Vélez' work promotes sustainable development, introducing new ideas on ecological issues and questions. The citation describes him as an architect "whose aesthetic and technical innovations have considerably expanded the possibilities of bamboo as a building material, providing a challenge to prevailing architectural trends".

Bamboo is native to nearly all the world's continents, with the exception of Europe. It is lighter than steel and stronger than concrete. In addition, bamboo constructions have been shown to withstand earthquakes better and to be more energy efficient than other buildings.

Slum dwellers choose river over toilet when nature calls

The Jakarta Post, 03/24/2009 

Up shit creek: A man rows a bamboo raft which serves as toilet, bath
 pad, and laundry station, along Ciliwung river in Kampung Pulo in
East Jakarta. JP/Bagus BT Saragih

Jakartans are no strangers to sanitation and hygiene programs launched repeatedly by various government bodies and nonprofit organizations for decades.

But along the tired Ciliwung River, many people still choose to use the river over lavatories when nature calls.

To outsiders, the mobile river toilet in Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta might look like a normal bamboo raft, with a bench for two adults to cross the river in style.

In fact, two users can sit side by side at the back of the raft, chatting and enjoying the river view while excreting.

Former governor Sutiyoso in 2005 said jokingly the Ciliwung River was the longest public toilet in the world.

Kampung Pulo has two 8-meter mobile toilets, locally known as getek. Each one consists of a 2-square-meter roofless compartment built at one end of the raft, subdivided into two cubicles with a small hole in the flooring.

The getek are always busy, particularly during peak hours in the morning, whereas the eight public toilets nearby are deserted. The remaining area of the raft is used for various other activities.

In the morning, while some people are defecating, others are bathing on the other side of the raft. The people bathing on one side of the raft who are chatting along with their fellow bathers, do not seem bothered at all by the people defecating on the other side.

“Sometimes, when we are bathing, human waste comes floating toward us. We just stop bathing for a moment while it floats past us, and then continue bathing,” said teenager Zaky.

Around noon, the number of bathers begins to wane and housewives, oblivious to those defecating in the cubicles, board the raft to wash vegetables.

At 2 p.m. women arrive with their basins filled with clothes to do their laundry, using detergent despite the muddy water.

An hour later, children come to play and catch small fish, forcing the ladies to promptly stop their washing.

“I have a lavatory in my house, but I would rather defecate at a getek, because sometimes the waste gets stuck due to the poor drainage system in this neighborhood,” Zainuri, a resident, told The Jakarta Post.

Another resident, Husin, said that getek were much more convenient than regular toilets.

“When I use a getek, I don’t have to flush and clean myself,” he said.

Zainuri and some of his neighbors cited another reason.

“We have to pay Rp 10,000 [80 US cents] a month for electricity and a cleaner to use the MCK [public lavatory]. But for us, that is a significant amount of money. That’s why I use a getek, because it’s free.”

The head of the neighborhood unit (RT), Hendryaneffi or Efi, disagrees with Zainuri.

“Getek is not actually free. A brand new getek costs around Rp 2.5 million and users have to chip in Rp 50,000 to buy one,” said Efi.

“They pay once for unlimited use, but they actually don’t realize the cost of the impact on the environment is far higher,” she said.

Getting people to change their behavior and stop using getek is tough, Efi said.

“It takes time. They have used getek for generations,” says Efi. She has tried to get people to use public toilets and the laundry area she built with the Ciliwung Merdeka community.

Herman, a resident of Bukit Duri, South Jakarta, who lives on the other side of the river, recounted his one-month struggle to convert from using a getek to a public toilet.

“That was not easy. I was used to hearing the sound of flowing water when excreting in a getek.

I don’t have it anymore now,” he said, his face forlorn as if missing a loved one.

In Herman’s neighborhood, getek disappeared years ago. The residents, whether they liked it or not, had to get used to using public toilets.

Why does Kampung Pulo still have a getek?

“I will phase out our getek too. I have to do it over a period of time, since many still rely on it,” deputy head of Kampung Pulo subdistrict, Nazimuddin, said.

According to Nazimuddin, the subdistrict has eight MCKs to serve a population of 24,000, or 3,000 per MCK.

However the underlying problem is not merely a logistical one, said the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

“The Kampung Pulo case is the perfect example illustrating that raising awareness is far more important than just building facilities. It is something that seems to be forgotten by the government,” said Selamet Daroyni, head of the Jakarta branch of Walhi. (bbs)

VP urges earthquake-proof housing

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Tuesday urged the wider use of earthquake-proof housing, to prevent the kind of mass casualties seen in previous disasters.

He said that although efforts had been made to mitigate the impact of disasters, people continued to die unnecessarily.

"Although the number of victims in recent disasters has not been as high as the 2004 tsunami, we still need to better apply regulations and technology, and improve people's preparedness to reduce the damage," Kalla said at the opening of an international seminar in Jakarta.

"There's a different culture in housing inside and outside Java. Most houses in Java use ceramic roofing tiles, while houses outside Java use corrugated iron roofing, which results in fewer victims."

Last year, earthquakes devastated Yogyakarta and surrounding areas in Central Java, claiming nearly 6,000 lives, displacing 1.5 million residents and damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings.

Bantul in Yogyakarta and Klaten in Central Java were the worst-hit regions.

The most recent earthquake, which rattled North Bengkulu regency on Sept. 12, damaged more than 30,000 houses and killed dozens of people.

Director of the Center for Earthquake Engineering Dynamic Effects and Disaster Studies, Sarwidi, said Indonesia was obviously a disaster-prone country.

"So in order to create a safe living environment for people, the construction of houses needs to focus on how to reduce the impact of disasters," Sarwidi said during the seminar.

"According to the studies we've conducted, houses with brick walls, or semi-technical houses, were the most frequently damaged in earthquakes, causing the biggest losses in terms of human lives and materials."

He said this type of housing, built on little or no foundation, with poorly reinforced walls and heavy roofing was more likely to collapse when hit by the massive tremors typical of the earthquakes that frequently affect Indonesia, such as Yogyakarta in Central Java, Blitar in East Java and Banggai in Central Sulawesi.

"The foundations for earthquake-resistant houses are simple and cheap, and the houses can be designed in simple symmetrical shapes, such as a rectangle," said Sarwidi.

"The foundation should be placed at the right depth, and have a strong, connecting frame. The use of a light roof, made from material such as corrugated iron, helps make a house more earthquake proof."

He said securing ceramic tiles to wooden or bamboo frames in traditional tile-roofed houses could also reduce damage and fatalities.

Construction expert Wiratman Wangsadinata said any planning of earthquake resilient houses should take into consideration earthquake intensity and frequency.

"Buildings in Jakarta, for example, should be able to withstand 5 to 8.5 magnitude earthquakes within a distance of up to 500 kilometers," he said in a paper. (ndr)