CEB
Bricks, Rs. 1.50/unit
Material: Clay, Sand, Cement (5%)
Background: Nepal’s Living Standard Survey (2004) claims that only 18% of the Nepali people live in the houses built with modern construction material. Apparently, many of these \houses are not built with adequate safety standard, as safety means more material and thus more money; in fact recent earthquakes in Pakistan and China have shown they tend be more vulnerable than properly built traditional houses. Yet, it will be a wishful thinking to hope that we can replace modern building materials with the traditional ones. For large scale structures, we need to find a common ground, where the virtues of tradition and modernity can be effectively synthesized. In this regard, we believe Compressed earth blocks CEB and Micro Concrete Tiles MCR (which includes 5% cement) can provide a good compromising ground for wall system and roof, as the synthesis can maintain the thermal comfort of the traditional material and the embodied energy of traditional materials are reduced.
For the purists and who want to build small scales, we still however, encourage the pure mud and straw.
