Model 'Eco-City' Could Soon Rise in Senegal
2010-01-15 from:Reuters author:Anton Ferreira
For Khalili, who visited Senegal last month with his partner and fellow architect Iliona Outram and his brother Nasser Khalili, an infrastructure specialist, building a model city in Senegal would be a giant step toward attaining a long-standing dream.
"As far as I'm concerned, truly the whole treasure is sitting right there: the land is there, the water is there, the people are extremely nice, very peaceful and cooperative," he said.
"It's a very important project, really it can be a breakthrough."
Khalili and Outram teach the Superadobe system at their Calearth Institute in Hesperia, California , and are using the method to build a museum for the city.
Because they are in an earthquake (news - web sites) zone, the buildings have been subjected to stringent state building code tests -- which they passed with flying colors.
Their strength and stability derives largely from their domed construction, much like the shape of a chicken egg allows the thin shell to withstand relatively high forces.
Because a Superadobe house has no conventional roof, there's nothing to be ripped off in a hurricane; the solidity of the structure means it will remain standing in a flood.
Many people who have trained at Calearth have gone on to build their own Superadobe homes, in the United States and abroad, but Khalili has no idea how many.
"Now and then people send us photographs of what they have built," he said.
A SUSTAINABLE TOWN
Despite great interest expressed in its work by development professionals at the United Nations (news - web sites) and elsewhere, Calearth has yet to be given the opportunity to put its ideas for low-cost, secure, comfortable shelter into practice on a large scale. The Senegal project would be the first of its kind.
Khalili said Calearth had trained several apprentices who would be eager to go to Senegal to help local people get started.
"The way I see it, the sun that exists in Senegal is perfect to do solar energy for a sustainable town and of course you could use natural energy like wind for cooling as well, and they use the earth to build just about all the structures," he said.
"The technology to create a sustainable town exists today fully."
Khalili's Superadobe homes borrow heavily from traditional Middle Eastern architecture, incorporating for example wind funnels extending above roof level that catch breezes and bring cooling air down into the living area.
Khalili said he and his team had visited the flood-ravaged north during their trip and had been moved by the plight of the victims.
"The solution seems so close at hand: just some knowledge of how to dig what is under their feet, how to add some bags and barbed wire and tie it all together, how a sensible design can save them from the next flood, storm or natural disaster," he said.