After discussing political guidelines and the wishes of the people. this chapter deals with various organizational forms and possibilities as to how the extended family with the lowest income and which constitutes the largest portion of the population can be housed in shelters that give them human dignity.
In addition to the growing population on the African continent. there exists the difficulty in the last few years of a steep rise in prices, es-pecially for imported building materials. This has led to consideration being given to the possibility of building. a nice and useful house with local traditional buildin g materials and building techniques which would accommodate the usert swishes.
Part of the accompanying photographs demonstrate how many excellent bUildings have been built in Africa in the cOUrse of this century made of
stone, mudbricks,and wood. These buildings could serve as an inspiration and standard of excellence" for our own " modern' J constructions.
147
CHEMINEMENTS VERS L'ACTION
• L; architecte egyptien,. Hassan Fathy aJait une tentative speciale pour faire revivre la tradition perdue des artisans. Depuis la construe ..
hon du village de New-Gourna (1945) qUi est presente avec des des-sins techniques et des photographies dans la Section 3 (partie con-sacree
a
l' Egypte) J Hassan Fathy ne 5' est ;amais fatigue d' etudier et de construire des maisons simples et belles en briques de terre.Pour presenter de maniere detaillee ce materiau de construction im-portant et tres bon marche, un paragrapbe de l' ouvrage de Hassan Fathy Architecture for the poor University of Chicago Press, 1973) es t cite ci .. apres:
II declare: I I • • • 19 composition et les propritHes du sol variant con-siderablement d'un lieu
a
Pautre, il est indispensable que, en an en.droit donne. la terre
a
utiliser pour la fabrication des 'briql1es soit soi ..gneusement ana1ysee, chimiquement et physiquement. Des experiences ,et des essais de laboratoire sur des briques echantillons at des
modeles de murs (en vrai grandeur dans les deux cas) doivent etta fsits pour detetminer Ie retrait, 1a resistancet Ie comportement l P bu ..
'midit~ et au sechage et les a.utres priorites physiques •••
n
importe de bien comprendre qUI il est impossible de fixer des carac-teristiques generalesa
ce sujet, comme on peu tIe faire pour P aeieret Ie beton. J.1 Dans l' Annexe V de son 'ouvrage au chapitre t ~ Brick Making" (fabrication des briques) il mentionne les experiences faites par la Colonel Debes et M. Mustapha Yehya avec desbriques.
Les meilleurs resultats sont obtenus avec de Ia terre argilo .. limoneuse et 20 p. IDO de sable. fin ou ordinaire; apres180 jOUTl\ les contraintes sont comprises entre 47 et 52 kg/cm2.
B riques de terre:
H:ASSAN F.ATlIV
t t
J'
aimerais que toutarchitecte ou tout in-INni"", qui'dooaigne 18 terre m'indique un
autre mat6riau par lequel je pourrais retzl'oo
placer Is ,terte. U
Hassan Fathy
SECTION lc
H:ASSAN ,F:ATHY
MUDDBIeKS
I would like any architect or engineer despising mud to telt me ",hat other material 1 can replace it with:
ROADS TO ACTION
The Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy has made a special attempt to revive the lost tradition of the craftsman. Since the construc-tion of the vil1age New-GoulIla (1945) which is described in
techni-cal drawings and photograph s in Section :2 under Egypt, Hassan F athy never tired 0 f designing and building simple and beautiful hou$es of mudbricks.
In order to give a detailed descriptiolt'of this Important and very cheap building material, a paragraph ftom Hassan Fathy's book Architecture for the poor (University of Chicago Press, 1973) is cited below.
He says, " . " .. because composition and properties of soil vary widely from place to place, it is essential at any given site that the soil 'to be used for brick making be carefully analyzed, chemi-cally and physichemi-cally. Experiments and laboratory tests on sam-ple bricks and samsam-ple walls (full sl%tl In each ease) must be made to determine the shrinkage. bearing power, .behaviour under wetting and drying. and other physical properties •••
It Is important to understand that no general specifications Can be laid down in ,this matter, as they can be for steel and concrete" • In Appendix V of this book under" Brick Making" he refers to
Colonel Debes' s and Dr. Mustapha Yehya' s experiments with mudbrlcks. Best results, sil,ty clay soil and 20 per cent fiDe or small sand; shesses after 180 days 47.52kg/cm2
CHEMINEMENTS VERS L'ACTION
1. Ma'iDns outline a parabola an the end wan with rbud plaster
Hassan Fathy a resolu Ie probleme de Is construction de plafonds dans les maisons, sans ciment, sans aeier ou sans bois lors de la construction du village de New .. Goura en faisant revivre UDe ancienne tradition. Des macons nubiens d' Assouan ont appris aux ouvriers
a
conshuire des voiites en briques. Sans considerer la beaute d' un pIa fond en vaute, les differences entre les prix de revient sont con ...sider.bles pour Ies plafonds en voule el les autres plafonds. Par exemple" dans Ie cas d-Ufie chambre de 3 x 4m, les prix de revient en livres egyptiennes (\946) sonl les suivants:
Voute 3,40
Plafond en beton 16,00 Plafond en bois 20,00
11 en ressorl que Ie prix de revient du plafond en voute est egal au inferieur
a
20 p. 100 seulemenl du prix de revienl des aulres types de plafonds. On peut ajouter ici que tOilS les instituts de recherches enAfrique ont procede
a
des experiences avec des briques de tene:murs de terte, toutes categories de briques, cuites et crues, compri-mees et non compricompri-mees, et avec les bois Iocaux, coniferes et feuil~
lus, etc. (liste des instituts de recherches africains
a
l' Annexe 3~II ESCalPTION
DE LA PRODUCTION DES VOUTES
SECTION lc
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCTION OF V·AULTS
ROADS TO ACTION
Hassan Fathy solved the problem of making ceilings in houses without cement, steel or wood in the construction of the New-Goure village by reviving an old tradition. Nubian masons from
Aswan trained the building labourers in making mudbrick vaults.
Leaving aside the beauty of a vaulted ceiling, the difference in cost between the vaulted ceiling and other types is considerable.
For example, for a room of 3 x 4m the costs ate in Egyptian Pounds ( 1946)
Vault LE. 3.4
Concrete ceiling = £.E.16 Wood ceiling :::: £. E.20
This means that the vaulted ceiling is only 20 per cent Or less of the cost of the two other types of ceilings.
It may be added here that all research institutes in Africa have made experiments with mud bricks, i.e., earthwalls, all types of bricks, burned and unburned, pressed and unpressed, and with local soft and hard wood, etc. (List of African rese arch insti-tutes, see Annex B.
8. Trimmin.pWter with an adze