As you all probably know by now, the reason why there is devastation in Pisco is due to the fact that the city rests on a very active fault line. In the past (and still now) they have built houses from brick with single walls and used concrete for their roofs. This is obviously NOT an earthquake friendly way of building, but is all the people of Pisco know how to make.

PSF have begun building using a new technology that I’m sure you will have heard of before, earth bags. Earth bags are literally a sack (imagine a potato sack, possibly like the type you would have used as a kid to have sack races) filled with dirt and then manipulated to form a brick-like shape.

These sacks are then placed on top of each other, like giant bricks, to make an earthbag wall. We use barbed wire in between each layer to hold them together as well as steel rebar hammered though all the bags from the top.

Many truckloads of earth are needed.

The wall is built pretty much the same way as a brick wall.

Mel worked on the bathroom for the Earthbag Community Centre, which was the first complete building made from earthbags that PSF completed.

The making and putting together of the bags and roof only takes a few days. The step that takes the longest time is the rendering process. You need to make a wet mix of cement and sand and then flick it on the wall. Leave it to dry and then repeat… and repeat.. and repeat!

The final outcome of the community centre was this…

Looks awesome, don’t you think?

Earthbags buildings are almost completely earthquake proof, better insulated and protected from other elements as well. PSF used the Community Centre as a means to show the community how they can also use the technology for building their own houses.

Hopefully in the long term more residents of Pisco will choose earthbags as a building form over bricks.

If you want to know more about this, check out the following link…

http://www.piscosinfronteras.org/earthbag-construction.html