by Gloryrose Dy
A Day of Knowing BiotectureI woke up at 7 am, a little bit late for the days schedule. We were supposed to be up at 6 am for breakfast and start working at 7 am which is not the usual time for me.
The construction day for me started with working on the vault tirewires. We did this for about 2 hours and then we transferred the vault to the wall and connected it to the bond beam.
It was indeed a magical moment because all of the men and women were working together to really connect the vault and the tires.
The vault and the tires where connected using a bond beam. The bond beam is composed of U shaped rebar and a 32 inches long dowel which where embedded inside the compacted tires.
The rebars need to be painted before there are embedded to prevent rusting.
The vault and dowel are connect with wires.
And then they are covered with potty cake with a 3:4:5 mixture. 3 bags cement, 4 pale sand , 5 pale gravel mixed with water.
After connecting the vault to the tires, the team starting working on the bottles partition for the non-bearing walls.
The Batug Community Volunteers Meet with Michael Reynolds
At lunch time, Michael Reynolds met with the local volunteers to talk to them about the windship. He explained how the building is made of recyclable materials such as the bottles and the tires. He also explained about how the culvert which served as a cooling tube made the structure cool in the inside despite the robustness of it. He also explained how the structure is completely zero-waste and can be used off-grid even without the dependence of third party energy i.e. main distribution line from electricity and water companies.
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| Michael sits down with the community |
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| culvert |
As translated by Maria Marasigan, the locals were able to understand and they asked a lot of questions, too. This is so far one of the magical moments in the camp. This is because even if most of the local volunteers had a hard time understanding English and even the technical terms that Michael was saying, I felt that they understand the sincerity that everyone involved in the camp was giving.
There is, indeed, no language barrier in the sincerity to help others.
Biotecture with Michael Reynolds
After the build, I was able to talk to Michael Reynolds at the 'bar' that the coop of the community built (with the help of the kind hearted lady named Gigi Bartulaba, a community organizer from Mindanao) . Michael Reynolds loves staying and chilling at the bar after the build and I realize this today.
Me, Weng and Quin were walking towards the bar when we saw Michael at the farthest end of the place sitting with three other volunteers from Taiwan and Rory.
Michael Reynolds told us a lot about Biotecture and his profound beliefs about building and designing. We conversed about why he is not into architecture but into Biotecture. It is quite interesting. We talked about architects not being able to work as they should be, which to work with nature, and that architecture is archaic.
That is the reason why he coined the term Biotecture and made it into a real profession which Biotect, an person practicing Biotecture.
And then I asked Michael if he works a lot on site because he was working at the site as a worker too, this morning. Or if he was at the office sometimes.
Rory, one of the leaders in the build of Earthship Biotecture, but in and said that Michael works a lot in the office. This made me laugh a little. And then Rory said, but Michael works on site a lot, too, which makes it easier for the people on site to decide easily on what to do.
By the way, Phil, the leader of the build, is an architecture graduate, says Michael.
To know more about Earthship Biotecture, take a look at this video. You can see Phil talking about it here.
By the way, dinner is served amazingly once again by the Batug women.