This is a research project in partnership between Engr308 Technology and the Environment and the barrio of La Yuca, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, during Fall 2011, to compare the benefits and costs of three different types of construction. In Summer 2011, community members from La Yuca, and students from the U.S., Japan and Dominican Republic worked with architecture firm RevART and other local partners to construct a schoolroom from plastic bottles and concrete (a style called ecoladrillo). Now, Engr308 will look to see if ecoladrillo, papercrete or conventional block is the best choice across a few different metrics, such as cost, embedded energy, environmental impact, comfort and localness of the money.

See Arcata plastic bags/Raw info for Engr308 research from 2010 on plastic bags and Arcata plastic bags for their final product.

Make sure not to plagiarize. Use the format of subsections (four = signs in this case) on various topics and references using footnotes[1]. Do not editorialize. Just paraphrase what you learn.

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Ecoladrillo

Team:

Ecoladrillo research

Paste your research here. You may want to use * to make bullets automatically.


Brainstorm for research--

  • Ingredients for Ecoladrillo include the following:
    • Plastic bottles
    • "Trash" content
    • Chicken wire
    • Plaster
    • Concrete.
  • We need to find the following for each:
    • Embedded energy
    • Environmental costs (to produce and to dispose)
    • Economic cost (to compare to block)
    • Origin (transportation)
    • Content (toxins).
    • This website gives some embodied energy coefficients that might be helpful

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cbpr/documents/pdfs/ee-coefficients.pdf

    • Here you can find some good guidelines in how to assess and look at embodied energy and the embodied energy of some common building materials are given

http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs52.html

  • Taking this into consideration, how far "negative" is ecoladrillo?
    • In other words, how much energy is saved if they are up-cycled?
  • Site specific issues:
    • DR's recycling program (rate of usage?)
    • Does this extend to the trash used to stuff bottles?
    • In the end, how much "trash" is diverted?
  • [My favorite part]: If NOT used for ecoladrillo, these materials are left in the system. Consequently, what are the:
    • Environmental costs (pollution)
    • Social costs (health detriments)
    • Economic costs (clean-up infrastructure.)
  • Examples of effective sites and reasons why.
    • Does DR have these same conditions?
  • Can we assume that plastic bottle consumption will stay constant?
  • Perhaps ecoladrillo is only efficient if used at a certain scale?
  • Benefits

(As taken from this [1] and this [2] website.)

    • Usually abundant materials
    • Easy to make
    • Economical
    • Hygienic
    • Easy to transport and store.
    • Reduces transportation costs
    • Takes advantage of sustainable human energy.
    • Saves on carbon emissions
    • Acoustic and thermal insulator
    • Absorbs earthquake shocks
    • Locally constructed
    • Replaces construction materials which are contaminating.
    • Offsets environmental costs.
  • This site surveys the extraction and manufacture of cement plaster. Its a good source to look at for questions we should be answering and thinking about check it out

http://www.level.org.nz/fileadmin/downloads/Materials/LevelMCBPlaster.pdf

chicken wire

    • raw material is flexible galvanized wire

Cement plaster

    • also called 'portland' cement? this includes calcium carbonate (limestone), silica and alumina (clay or sand)
    • cement plaster is:
    • harder and stronger than lime plaster
    • low vapor permeability
    • inflexible (use on flexible backgrounds such as wood or straw will leads to cracking
    • extraction of raw materials and quarrying can destroy natural habitats and landscapes
    • cement has the highest embedded energy compared to other renders and plasters
    • Cement industry is one of the main industrial sources of NOx and CO2 emissions
    • Cement plaster is non-recyclable

www.greenspec.co.uk/plaster-and-render.php

  • Here using graphs, it is shown the concrete actually has a low embodied energy, but is one of the most used materials, and therefore has very high emissions

http://www.tececo.com/sustainability.embodied_energy.php

  • This is a good source for learning about natural lime plaster. The humidity of the DR might hinder the durability of the plaster

http://www.holistic-interior-designs.com/natural-lime-plaster.html


Ecoladrillo in action

This is an organization whose work is specifically building Ecoladrillo schools in Guatemala

http://hugitforward.org/

http://bottleschools.com/wiki/Why_build_a_bottle_school%3F

Conventional block

Team:


Conventional block research

  • How they are made
    • "The cement manufacturing process begins with evaluation studies and mining of raw materials (limestone and clay) required for production. As a second step, the raw material for cement manufacture is extracted from the quarries, by exploiting planned and started the process of drilling, removal, grading, loading and transportation of raw materials." [4]

Papercrete

Team:


Papercrete research

Paste your research here. You may want to use * to make bullets automatically.

  • What is needed
    • Paper
    • Water
    • Cement
    • Molds
    • Sand
  • Things to consider
  *Climate-humidity
  *drying time
  *locality of materials
  *what type of paper is used? - new or recycled
  *Is the block better with holes or without

Community questions

This is just a start, please edit appropriately.

Papercrete

Mixture:

  • Best mixture so far?
  • Issues?
  • Drying times?
  • Is it an ideal method? Papercrete has high compressive strength, but has a good chance of old production as it absorbs moisture [5] (ML


Block:

  • Size/dimensions.
  • Hole sizes/dimensions.
  • How did you make them?

Sand:

  • Where do you buy the sand?
  • How much does it cost?
  • Where is it extracted?
  • Depending on the plans for the building, how much sand will be included, as less sand will allow for easier window application. [6] (ML)

Paper:

  • Where do you get the paper?
  • Does it cost?
  • How much is available?

Plaster:

  • Most typical type of plaster?

Block

Cement:

  • Where does it come from?
  • How much does it cost?
  • Is cement mined locally or imported? Where do they purchase cement? Who is the manufacturer?
    • Cement may not be as readily available, or as inexpensive as it possibly could be, due to regulations. [7](ML)

Aggregate:

  • Where does it come from?
  • How much does it cost?

For a column, such as in the school room:

  • How big is the column?
  • How many labor hours does it take to make?
  • What was the cement ratio?
  • Where does the aggregate come from?
  • What is the labor cost for making a column?

Blocks:

  • How much do block cost?
  • How much labor to build a room of ____ size? Or labor cost/m^2.
  • What is the standard size?
  • How are they made?
  • Where are they made?

Ecoladrillo

Bottles:

  • Did you fill the bottles with trash?
  • If the bottles and trash don’t go to a recycling center, where would they end up?
  • Is there a recycling center for plastics? Are they recycled locally or sent to another recycling center (e.g. another country)?
  • What is the most common bottle? Is there a main soda distributor for plastic bottles?

Chicken wire:

  • What type of malla did you really use? (it is not chicken wire)
  • Is the chicken wire imported?
  • Do you know where it is produced? What is the name of the company?
  • How much does it cost per area?

Plaster:

  • How thick was the cement plaster used on the walls?
  • What was the ratio of cement?
  • Have you noticed any changes in the structure?
  • What do you like/not like about the construction?
  • Do you think it was worth it? Would you recommend this process?
  • In what ways did it affect the community or the education brought to the students? Awareness?
  • If you could change the design, what would you do?
  • How is the thermal comfort?
  • How is it holding up?
  • Has anyone tried to duplicate the process? Any other community interest? General community reaction?
  • How was it finished/painted? Did you paint or use other materials for esthetic appeal?

References

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