Guadua

Over the last weeks I have been looking into the construction of a sustainable house.We already know that Colombia is a fantastic place to use solar energy and now it seems Colombia has something great to offer to build a sustainable house: Guadua.

Guadua is a bamboo that is native in South America. It is one of the few species that has all the characteristics to make it the perfect building material: It is light, flexible, strong, easy to use and relatively cheap. From an ecological point of view it is a far better product than wood because it grows much faster.

Colombia has a long history in the usage of Guadua and it has 50.000 ha of natural guadua forests. Now guadua is a growing industry in Colombia and architects are exploring the typical characteristics to build fascinating buildings, bridges, schools, churches, homes, etc.

Although guadua may be cheap and a very good building material it doesn/t mean homes built with it are cheap. It requires specific skills to use guadua and today guadua homes are often tailor made requiring a lot ofy handcraft. There are currently hardly any pre-fabricated homes available and this is a challenge. A young student architecture from Venezuela called Pedro Suescun picked up this challenge and made a promising flexible design, watch below video to learn more about it. This concept is one of the very few I found out there that has the potential to become succesful.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wHq63TUPPeU

This concept is worth trying it in the real world. Who knows I will use it one day as the base of my sustainable life in Colombia.

Sustainable living according to a C++ programmer

Loren Amelang is a C++ programmer and definetely not the average techie guy. He left the company he worked for because he couldn't stand the flickering of the light in his office..

But he is a genius as well. He is a programmer and built his own house. He designed everything himself. He found his own solution for any challenge he met resulting in a fantastic off-grid sustainable house. I really love it. If you compare Lorens approach to the "No Impact Man" it is quite the opposite. Loren was not interested in public opinion, he just built the house as he wanted it to be. With the no nonsense approach and all the technical skills that he obviously has.

I hope I made you curious enough to watch below video that explains how this house works.

Norcal veteran coder customizes with sensors off-grid home

Let's summarize why I love this house so much.

• It is built using local building material : wood from the neighbourhood.
• It has no connection to the power grid.
• Self supporting with 1600W of solar panels and batteries.
• The integrated control of all systems really contributes to comfort and efficiency.
• It has a sophisticated heating system.
• Cooking on solar energy using induction.
• Automated irrigation.
• Water system with automated ozon cleaning.
• Central door lock system.
• The overall solution being lean and mean.

Not all solutions are applicable in Colombia but nevertheless there are valuable lessons to learn here.

how do I compare to "No Impact Man" ?

Ana sent me a link of the "No Impact Man" movie from 2009. At that time Colin Beavan aka the No Impact Man got a lot of publicity for his project and while I watched this documentary I wondered where I feel different from his objectives and priorities.

Get your food locally is a great idea as well as having your own vegetable garden.  Reduce your garbage by using as little packaging a possible: Yes. Composting organic waste: Yep. Use bikes and public transport instead of a car : Of course. Use as little chemicals and cosmetics as possible: Sure.

Trying to live without electricity or appliances did not seem a good idea. No TV, no washing machine, no refrigerator. Not to mention no toilet paper. This sounds ok if you are willing to sacrifice a comfortable living but frankly I don't think many people want to go that far. Neither am I. This is where the project lost some of its credibility.

Bottom line Colin Beaven did a fantastic job creating awareness among the general public and everybody knows what "No Impact Man" is about.

I don't have the ambition to grow awareness of a lot of people, I do want to include the Colombian community that I will be part of in the plans I have.

I found out that Colombia is one of the best places on earth for solar energy but this industry has not taken of yet. That's what I call an opportunity !