Eco-building
Eco-building is primarily a way of thinking in an ecological manner about the place where we live or where others will live, without overlooking any details in the process of building or sourcing materials.
Over time, Damanhur has had to renovate and build houses: practical experience and continual research have permitted experimentation with techniques, materials and innovative solutions with respect for the environment. Everything achieved so far with eco-building in Damanhur has been done based on the principles of re-utilisation and saving energy and for this reason we can better define it as ‘eco-climate building’, which takes into consideration various factors: human beings who make use of the external environment.In order to build these homes, the Damanhurian architects started out with a careful analysis of what already existed and with the aim of constructing buildings in harmony with the environment. As much as possible, materials already there were recovered and used; then new, completely ecological materials were employed, such as clay, wood and natural chalk.
The Damanhurians have also taken great care with all the integrated operations aimed at saving energy, whether passively as with high thermal caulking of the insulation, or actively as with the installation of solar and photo-voltaic panels, www.solera.info. The Damanhurian houses, besides being pleasant from an aesthetic point of view, are healthy and work well in the natural environment where they are situated. One can come across the most complete expression of these principles in all of the community-nucleos built in the woods of the Council District of Lugnacco: Dendera, Porta della Luna, Casa del Lago and Magilla but also at the Fattoria (Farm) and at Aval in the Council District of Cuceglio: these last two were awarded the Green Home flag in 2007. At present, there are two Damanhurian building co-operatives, the first, originating in the 1990s, is M.B.M. EDIL DH and the second, recently set up, is ARCHOLIS.The building enterprises operate a way of working that includes ethical rules and rules of behaviour (in addition to the legislative requirements for safety in the workplace) to be observed by everyone working on site: no smoking, sort waste for recycling into different bins, leave the place clean and take care not to pollute the environment.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ECO-BUILDING HOUSE
Applying the experience in eco-building acquired by M.B.M. EDIL DH has led to devising various systems of building, more suited to the characteristics of the area where the work is being done; such has been put into practice, for example, in the new residential quarter of the special Plan for Vidracco:
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Ventilated loose stone foundations: keep the house dry and, by means of the ventilation, facilitate the elimination of radon, a harmful gas present in the ground.
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Walls constructed with clay and wood chip bricks:Natural non-polluting materials that allow the walls to breathe.
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Careful caulking so that the houses are cool in summer and warm in winter. Sound proofing and warmth are guaranteed by 10 cm thick cellulose or wood fibre panels that make up the cladding which covers the external walls and ‘wraps up’ the whole house
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Ventilated roofs that make use of the natural airflow: an air chamber open in the lower part and on the top of the roof ensures the warm air enters from below and rises upwards.
MATERIALS USED
The materials are completely free from chemical products and in many cases are renewable, like wood and cellulose; they do not pollute and guarantee a healthy environment for the inhabitants of the houses.Stains and paints have as their base natural citrus, resins, linseed oil, boron salts and plant extracts.The plasterwork is in natural chalk with a base of pounded terracotta, a material used in the past which allows the building to breathe and makes it solid; it is made with broken shards of bricks, tiles, pulverised building waste, held together by natural chalk.
All the binders and adhesives are made with a base of natural chalk.
