Sho, Y. (2014, June), Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda  Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20561

\bibitem{asee_peer_20561}
  Sho, Y. (2014, June), \emph{Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda}
  Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana.
  10.18260/1-2--20561

Yutaka Sho.  "Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda".  2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2014, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2014.  https://strategy.asee.org/20561 Internet.  28 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_20561}
  Yutaka Sho.
  "Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda".
  \emph{2014 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2014, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2014.
  https://strategy.asee.org/20561 Internet.  28 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_20561
author = "Yutaka Sho"
title = "Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda"
booktitle = "2014 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2014"
month = "June"
address = "Indianapolis, Indiana"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://strategy.asee.org/20561}
number = {10.18260/1-2--20561}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                               Home Experiments:                EarthBag Construction as Teaching Tool in RwandaThe home is often the site of experimentation in the field of architecture and engineering. In alow-tech, low-income setting, such as rural Rwanda, skilled labor and experience required forsuch experiments are difficult to find and risks are large. For the construction of a prototypehome using EarthBags in Rwanda, the inclusion of local architecture students proved to be thekey to successful construction and community engagement. Students were involved in every stepof the process; design, construction management, sourcing materials and worker training. Theproject not only provided a pragmatic solution to low-cost housing demands but also criticallyexamined every step of building practices that may exclude the poor and focus on economicgrowth over social and political equity. Our project introduced a new construction technique toRwanda, but also integrated local students and unskilled villagers in the building sector by self-built methods and enabled them to steer the future direction of design in their country.EarthBag walls are polypropylene bags made of a petrochemical byproduct, readily available inAfrica for transporting goods, stuffed with site soil, stacked and pounded to be stabilized. Ease ofbuilding allowed unskilled villagers to establish their own builders’ association by the end of thethree-month building period. These EarthBags used a new three-channel tube system, resulting inwalls that are most stable when plum with sharp corners as in Western homes instead of curves.After plastering, the walls appear as masonry, avoiding the stigma of “the poor’s material.”Western aesthetics, however foreign to their culture, is a powerful symbol of African’s aspirationto achieve better living conditions. Engineers and designers working in Africa cannot ignorethem. Using the EarthBag home construction as a case study, this paper examines meanings ofresilient construction processes and their teaching opportunities in international developmentenvironment.BEDROOMSRAINWATER TANKSHOWERKITCHENBREEZEWAY/ CORRIDORLIVING ROOM
AU  - Yutaka Sho
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Home Experiments: EarthBag Construction as a Teaching Tool in Rwanda
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/20561
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--20561
ER  -