Another Low-Cost Building Technology for the Poor Explored

In the aim to provide decent and affordable housing for the poor, Homeless People’s Federation Philippines Inc. (HPFPI) and the Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives Inc. (PACSII) together with the Technical Assistance Movement for People and Environment, Inc. (TAMPEI) are continuously looking for and applying alternative building technologies like the Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks (ICEB) to various CLIFF housing project initiatives of the federation nationwide. 

Last February 8, 2011 (Tuesday), community leaders and technical assistants of the Federation from NCR, Iloilo and Cebu had a site visit in First Home Subdivision in Navais, Mandurriao, Iloilo City to explore and learn from another low-cost building technology. The activity was facilitated by Engr. Joseph Asturias of Salvacion Infrastructure and Development Corporation (SIDC) with office-based in Negros Occidental in collaboration with Jockin Arputham, President of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), together with an Indian community engineer. 

This alternative building material is called Plaswall,  was introduced as one of the recent building technologies developed by Sterling Construction and Development Corporation (SCDC). Plaswall is made of two cement board and spacers (a hollow permanent concrete formwork) which should be filled with concrete (mixture of sand, water and cement). It is completely a load bearing wall with complete rendered finish which can be modified according to the shape of your choice or depending on your structural design.  It is designed to carry loads such as beams and slabs and can also be a substitute for columns. It has faster speed of installation and requires significantly lower skilled labor to build high quality concrete homes and buildings at a shorter construction period. 

During a short discussion about the building technology, some local architects working with the Federation found the material quiet expensive for low-cost housing in Philippine context. They reasoned out that the most expensive part of housing construction using plaswall is the filling-in of concrete mixture on its hollow part.

On the contrary, Jockin Arputham, SDI president showed great interest to adopt this kind of technology in Kenya where CLIFF housing is present and quiet expensive. He encouraged HPFPI-PACSII and TAMPEI to study the building technology and find means on how to make useful for the poor. 

­­­­­­­­­­­“Don’t look at the monetary value of the building technology but focus on how to make the material more affordable for the poor”, Arputham stressed out.