Earthbag houses can be designed into 2 bedroom units whereby the curved domes are integrated with the rectangular spaces to link up in a balanced way.
Cost.
Earthbag cost kes 15,000 per m2, half the cost compared to using prefabricated methods or using stone at kes 30,000 per m2. They cost slightly more than mabati houses at kes 10,000 per m2 but ofer high quality interior temperature insulation due to their thick walls compared to mabati, which tends to be very cold at night and very hot during the day.
Hyperadobe.
Current advancements in the earthbag technology are at use of the hyper adobe netting raschel bag which tends to enable stronger bonding in the wall, hence removing the use of barbed wire that is used in the super adobe method to bring in friction between bag layers.
Earthquake.
The thick walls provide extra levels of structural strength compared to other methods of construction. In earthquake prone areas, earthbag houses have withstood strong quakes that have destroyed other types of building structures.
https://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/konbit-shelter-earthbag-homes-haiti.html
http://www.calearth.org/blog/2016/6/23/for-immediate-release-may-5-2015-superadobeearthbag-orphanage-withstands-nepal-earthquake
Unique designs.
Earthbags can be designed to various unique shapes depending on the creativity of the designer and developer. In South America, earthbag design is advanced to the levels where there are 3 and 4 storey earthbag houses constructed.
http://www.monolithic.org/news-feed/spacious-dome-home-for-sale-in-australia
https://www.taringa.net/posts/imagenes/15635643/Casas-de-super-adobe.html
As more and more people embrace earth bag technology, the designs keep improving and more interesting shapes are currently coming up, compared to say 5 or 10 years ago where most earthbag buildings were simple single domes. Now we can see alot of flamboyance in the designs as more and more people get comfortable with the earthbag technology.
Workshops.
In Kenya, there are earthbag workshops held in Athi river area by the Permaculture Institute here below
http://pri-kenya.org/?p=2317
Also, a4a Gardens located in Kiserian offers similar workshops.
https://www.facebook.com/a4agardens/
Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau
info@a4architect.com
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