Project Introduction
Objective
The objective for this project is to build a small local pharmacy (Botica Popular) for the people of Las Malvinas, which will provide basic medical supplies and medications to the community at a much lower cost. The pharmacy will be built over a cistern that is currently being finished. The goal is to design and construct a sound structure that utilizes local and readily available materials and implements the use of plastic waste. The end product must be cost efficient and must satisfy the communities wants and needs.
Background
The site location of our project is in the heart of a community called Las Malvinas. Las Malvinas is located in Santo Domingo Norte, across from Rio Isabela, and is home to more than 150 families. A number of community leaders gathered at a meeting with members from ColectivoRevark and Practivistas Dominicana on June 2, 2013 to discuss the needs of the community. It was settled that the top priority of the community was to build a structure for a local pharmacy. The goal of this construction project was to construct a building that contains less embeded energy than a traditional concrete structure, and utilized local and affordable materials. The project was divided into two alternative construction student groups. Three walls of the pharmacy will be built using concrete blocks built with alternative materials. The interior wall separating the storage room and service room will be built using an ecoladrillo technique. The exterior walls were reserved for block construction to avoid the issue of compromising security concerns of building with plastic bottles. The ecoladrillo team consists of Mabel, Cesar, and Hammerly (UNIBE students) and Brandon, Adrienne, and Justine (Humboldt State University students). With the help of numerous community members, a number of prototypes were tested to find a satisfactory ecoladrillo model for the wall. Our goal is to finish the pharmacy by July 6th, 2013.
Literature Review
See Las Malvinas Botica Popular Ecoladrillo 2013/Literature Review for relevant research completed for this project.
Criteria
| Criteria | Constraints | Weight (0-10) |
|---|---|---|
| Safety | Building components and methods are safe for employees and customers | 10 |
| Security | The wall could withstand basic burglary attempts | 9 |
| Affordability | The building is within program budget | 8 |
| Materials | Appropriate and locally sourced materials, easily obtained by community | 8 |
| Longevity | The structure is built with the future in mind; something that will last | 8 |
| Replicability | The building is built using methods that can be replicated by community members | 7 |
| Climate/Environmental | The structure is weather resistant and environmentally appropriate | 7 |
| Educational | The methods and the structure act as an educational piece | 6 |
| Aesthetics | No visual impacts according to community preference | 5 |
Timeline
| Date | Activity | Photos | Members | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 5th | Meeting with the community of Las Malvinas |  |
Everyone | |
| June 6th | Begin collecting plastic bottles in la Zona Colonial |  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Cesar, Justine, Mabel | |
| June 10th | Make signs to collect plastic bottles and raise awareness of community project on UNIBE campus |  |
Brandon,Mabel | |
| June 15th | Develop prototypes. Using a wooded frame (2' x 4') and chicken wire, the group experimented with a mortar and plastic bottle wall. In addition, a similar technique was used to develop a block type prototype. On this day more progress was made on the cistern as well. Also, many valuable community concerns were presented. Most notably from Gregory and Julio who expressed their concerns with security, stating that a ecoladrillo on a pharmacy that carries valuable medicine would need to be able to withstand burglary. At the end of the day, Domingo, a valuable asset in previous projects was contacted and it was agreed that we would meet the following morning to further discuss ecoladrillo. |  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Justine, Mabel | |
| June 16th | Meet with Domingo to get input on how to make an ecoladrillo wall more durable yet not have a ton of weight embedded into it. Durability for security, and lightness to avoid major injuries if there was any collapsing of the wall (as earthquake hazard is a component to take very seriously in Hispaniola).
To add, Julio helped make an ecoladrillo 'brick'. Julio did this by putting four cinder blocks together as barriers and staggering 18 water bottles filled with caliche (right side up and up side down) in between the four cinder blocks. To fill the voids between the water bottles, he put in a mix of cement, sand and earth. The brick came out beautifully, but was very heavy, therefor not ideal for our situation. |
  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Cesar, Justine, Mabel | |
| June 18th | Build cistern. |  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Cesar, Justine, Mabel | |
| June 19th | Start and finish a new prototype.
Also, dig out the trench for where the foundation of the storage room of the botica popular will stand. |
 |
Adrienne,Brandon,Cesar,Justine,Mabel | |
| June 20th | Build foundation for botica storage room by collecting large rocks to put in the bottom of the trench. Then create large 'vigas' out of four long rebar pieces tied together by multiple shorter rebar pieces that are perpendicular. These rebar 'vigas' were layed over the large rocks, and attached were more vertical rebar columns. After this, a mix of sand, gravel and cement was made and the trench was then filled with this mix. |   |
Adrienne, Brandon, Justine | |
| June 21st | Test plasters |  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Justine | |
| June 22nd | Test plasters. Working with mixes of sand, sawdust, caliche, and cement. |  |
Justine | |
| June 23rd | Seal the cistern |  |
Adrienne, Brandon, Justine | |
| June 24th | Collect bottles | Adrienne, Brandon, Justine | ||
| June 25th | Collect bottles | Adrienne, Brandon, Justine | ||
| June 26th | About six layers of fibercrete bricks have been laid down on top of the foundation for the storage room. | |
Adrienne, Brandon, Justine |
Budget
| Material | Costs |
|---|