Although the traditioal houses in the region of Kajo-Keji made out of mud and grass, called „tukul“, have been adapted to climate and life already for ages, they have one big problem: termites.
As the ends of the wooden poles are placed in the ground, termites begin to climb up (they cannot fly!) and start to destroy the timber very soon after the completition of the tukul. After some years the roof is destroyed and the mud walls start eroding.
Most local people try to beat those nasty animals by poisoning the soil or using „permanent“ material like steel and concrete, which has negative effects to ecology, indoor climate and finally is even causing financial problems for many people: as the majority of the Kukù-people is living as peasants, buying industrialized material is much more difficult than collecting mud, timber, bamboo and gras in the bush for free.
In order to reduce the amount of industrialized materials and to benefit from the potential of natural and local resources, principles of physical termite-control have been studied, adapted and implemented at the very beginning of the design-process:
To minimize the potential points of termite-attack the roof is separated strictly from the solid building underneath. As a second step two or four oblique columns are combined on one base to reduce the critical points to an absolute minimum. Finally a special design of those bases with „termite-shields“ shall handicap termites to climb up to the timber.
Finally, the separation from the roof and the usage of massive mud-walls helps to get a pleasant indoor-climate. The challange of constructing a ceiling that provides enough thermal mass, without the usage of organic material (termites!) touching the mud has lead to the development of a new composite-system of mud and simple reinforcement-steelbars. Therefore the transformation of the traditional wattle-and-daub-technique into the new system was tested by using real-size mockups.
From the first research up to the construction-work local people have been involved as good as possible. Especially the skills and knowledge of masons and local craftsmen of wood- and metal-workshops gave a very positive input to the project.
Planner: studio gelatat | Christoph Lachberger & David Kraler, Vienna – Austria
gelatat.wordpress.com
Client: Osttirol für Jalimo (NGO)
Research: 2012-2013
Planning 2013
Construction: 2013-2014
Location: Mondikolok, Kajo-Keji County, South Sudan
Position: N 3° 54.869' E 31° 37.612'
Altitude: 990 m
Local Tribe: Kukù-People
Indoor Area: 193 m²
Outdoor Area: 280 m²
Roofed Area: 687 m²
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