ECONEIGHBOURHOOD MUQUINQUIM
Lobata,
São Tomé and Príncipe. 2012
This
project was funded by the UN to build affordable housing in the village of
Lobata, on the island of São Tomé and Príncipe. The TIBÁ team was called in by
Baixo Impacto Architects to introduce the techniques of cascaje, adobe and
wattle and daub. Bricklayers and carpenters from the region were trained for
ten days. Fortunately, the eco-technologies were strongly embraced by the local
builders.
Testing
the earth begins to define the mixture for the adobes.
Production
of adobes, made with mud, water and a lot of straw. The island sand is dredged
from the bottom of the sea or the beach, an expensive product with serious
environmental impact, for this reason we discarded its use. Horse manure that
is also used in the mix was hard to find, there are only about 60 horses
isolated around the whole country.

Two local bamboo guys were also present at the training sessions, previously coached during an internship in China.

A
simple earth building technique is wattle and daub. This was part the training.
On the island there are no current techniques of building with earth.



The rustic Cascajes forms factory.
There
was a point in which metal sheets could no longer be found on the island, the
solution was to make the Cascaje form using only wood, an abundant material on
the island.
The
houses begin to rise. The perfect marriage of a Cascaje slab with adobe walls.
