5) Description of housing product/service offering: Safe housing is essential for the stability and security of rural communities. Yet many communities in seismic regions still live under the threat of the physical injury and loss of shelter which earthquakes inevitably cause. When natural disasters are seen as a part of a fate that must be patiently accepted, it is extremely difficult to convince poor farming communities to relocate or even accept any other alternative – especially communities that are dependant on the land for its livelihood.

This need to provide a design solution was the driving initiative behind our work. Our vision was to create a design that would ideally be self-sustainable, built by the villagers themselves with minimal government help beyond the provision of materials and basic training. It would be an acceptable response related to local architecture and cultural norms through the careful combination of traditional skills and crafts with modern technology.

The subject of our Architectural project was a small village in Afghanistan - Saighanchi. The challenge was to provide an earthquake-resistant building system that was: - Based on modern technology - Economically viable - Constructed of readily available materials - Culturally and aesthetically acceptable to the community - Utilising traditional crafts

The process of developing this building system inevitably led to the integrated design of an entire village development: An integrated village development involving self-help, resulting in self-reliance, with the main focus on the local community rather than the individual. Saighanchi is small village situated in a narrow river valley close to the Kabul to Mazare-Sharif road. Lying in the narrowest part of the valley, the village is isolated and subject to the constant destruction of earthquakes. Local architecture consists of adobe buildings of dome and vault, a construction method common in the area. The population is made up of a number of families that are entirely dependant on local agriculture - it was here that we initiated our self-help project.

In preparing the brief and our services to the Saighanchi community, we needed to have an understanding of their requirements. It was obvious that there was an urgent need for earthquake resistant housing to provide safe shelter. However, houses alone do not make a community. There was a need for clean water, adequate sanitation, a healthy environment and a sound economy – all items essential to sustaining the village well into the future.

As the project continually evolved, the design brief for the new village started to include such facilities as a place of worship, a school, communal meeting places, a communal bath house, public toilets, animal sheds, a clean drinking water supply and a system of land irrigation, as well as a new home for every family. In order for the village to be self-reliant it was intended that buildings be maintained and repaired when required - a work shop housing the appropriate tools to enable the villagers to repair and service the buildings was included in the expanding brief.

In designing the planning of the village and the location of the separate components, it was our intention to not merely reproduce the existing patterns, but to understand the relationships and contexts of traditional village development and respond accordingly. Only the values which are positive for the development and growth of the society were retained. Our new proposal for Saighanchi was planned with an arrowhead formation of houses and lanes where villagers were able to maintain former relationships with people and places. It was our goal in the overall planning of the village to meet all the basic needs of the community while at the same time improving their quality of life.

The main beneficiaries were primarily the village families of Saighanchi and the community as a whole. As well as receiving new earthquake resilient houses and a re-designed village, the self-help initiative benefited village members through:

- Training of new skills - Opportunities to become self-reliant - Increased sense of motivation and responsibility to the community - Reduced dependence on external providers

The Government of Afghanistan was also eager to see the result of such an initiative and whether it could benefit from the process. The purpose in undertaking such a challenging project was to offer the government of Afghanistan a building system and a model for village development that could be applied to other earthquake prone areas of the country.

6) Description of innovation: A variety of design solutions have been proposed or attempted in an effort to reduce the loss of life by earthquake in developing countries. Many such solutions have failed because the proposed ‘earthquake-resistant’ housing has been culturally unacceptable. Simply providing prefabricated sheds or concrete cubes is not a solution.

Our Saighanchi proposal for a system of earthquake resilient housing addressed this problem with two main driving innovations: - The Earthquake resistant Building System - Rebuilding as a self-help project

- The Earthquake resistant Building System: In essence, this is a simple building system that consists of a wall structure and an independently supported roof. The design of the wall system is based on a model of the traditional arch. In utilising the properties of an arch, the walls to the village homes increased their load bearing capacities while also withstanding severe oscillations – more importantly, even after failure the walls only fell outwards, thereby safeguarding inhabitants.

Another technique adopted was curving the walls. This provided us with two main advantages: numerous configuration possibilities in area and shape, and structures with high resistance against seismic forces. Experience has shown us that structures which are circular or have curvatures will always fall outwards due the varying forces generated by an earthquake. To ensure this occurs, walls need to adopt the Earthquake Bond – a system of construction where bricks are laid to a certain curvature, guaranteeing wall failure in a controlled outwards manner.

The design of the roof system was also considered in regards to safety of the inhabitants. The roof components of the Earthquake resistant Building System are easily fabricated with the structure designed in such a way that stresses imposed at any point are quickly distributed among all elements. The shape of the roof is based on a dome – a common feature in countries with such extremes in temperature. It is derived from a structure used by nomadic tribesmen and is independently supported. The dome is covered with a combination of wood joists, boards, mats or reeds and then rendered over with a mixture of mud and straw, providing shelter from rain and snow.

Most earthquake casualties occur when people are crushed or trapped in their houses under heavy falling masonry. In mountainous regions flying rocks and stones also claim many lives. The Earthquake Resistant Building System provides, through detailed research, houses that are unlikely to collapse and bury their occupants and are safe refuges from flying debris. In the event of a major earthquake, the walls may indeed crack and sections may fall, but they will fall outwards and the roof will remain standing, offering a measure of protection. It will then be relatively easy and inexpensive for the family to rebuild the walls using the same materials.

- Rebuilding as a self-help project: It was one of the underlying project initiatives to develop a system of earthquake-resistant housing for rural communities built by the villagers themselves. Survival and self-sufficiency have always been the principle concern of rural communities and if the opportunity to become self- reliant is presented to them, and a sense of motivation can be created, it can be relatively easy to train the building system.

The outcome of the project sought to create self-reliance through self-help at a community level. The proposal was such that no individual could fulfil the building programme alone – this could only be achieved by a division of labour through the cooperation of the wider group. It was imperative that the whole process was also an educative one. The community needed to be aware that by implementing such systems, it would ultimately reduce their external dependency and result in a situation of increased self- reliance. The initiative required a development of cooperation and of community values that would in time ensure the permanent participation of the community as one.

To ensure the community was effective as a whole, simple guidelines were developed and adopted by the villagers: - A pre-condition of participation in the project was to be a willingness to cooperate with the whole group - Priority was given to communal values: the first building to be constructed was the mosque, a building which is by tradition constructed by the joint efforts of the local community - The social gathering of the team and the villagers frequently provided the basis for dialogue and discussion about the project and its goals

Through this process of developing social awareness and the experience of physical cooperation, the villagers could claim ownership to the project and a resultant sense of pride and achievement.

7) Benefits to clients: One of the major challenges for any self-help project is the willingness of the participants to take part in the initiative. To effectively reach out to the villagers, the whole community needed to experience a sense of motivation. Once the village community was educated with the aims of the initiative and motivation was established, a well thought out training and teaching programme was developed to ensure that proper participation in the project would be maintained. It was our intention that the effectiveness of such a program would go on to promote initiative and even lead to further self-help activities after the completion of the original project.

As part of this training programme it was necessary that all village members learnt each of the skills the building system demanded. In order for this to work, tasks were rotated with the end result being villagers with skills in the use of such mechanical and technical equipment as drills, generators, electric saws and measuring instruments. It was also essential for all members of the community to be trained in the basic technologies required for building and restoring walls so that in the event of an earthquake, every individual would be capable of rebuilding the damaged section of the house without further help or training.

Several organisational systems were devised to ensure that every person in the community was working to the maximum of their physical and mental ability. A group system was set up where the entire village was separated into two main groups – one for each phase of the project. This system allowed a greater communal work ethic and as a result, a greater sense of unity and cooperation developed. Work productivity increased dramatically which brought a growing sense of pride on the part of the village in their joint achievement.

It was our goal to see that the community as a whole became fully proficient in all the technologies of the building and training system so that the reliance on external building and repair work would be reduced. Only then could the community be completely self-reliant. The devised training unit consisted of three main components designed to share varying challenges within the working community:

- Building materials and labour force: This involved the selection and ascertaining of local raw materials and determining the most efficient and economical method of bringing these materials to the site as well as the organisation of the labour force to achieve maximum efficiency.

- Components for the building system: This component was responsible for the teaching and supervising of the manufacture of the building components including structural steel members, doors, windows etc.

- Training: This involved the supervising of the work, training the workers and teaching the technologies of the system.

Once this system was established, the villagers became increasingly efficient in their learned skills – enthusiastic that their participation was contributing to the overall development of Saighanchi. It was clearly evident that they recognised that whatever skills they could learn enabled them to build their own houses which resulted in a decreased dependence upon external help.

8) Key operational partnerships: The project was initiated by Syed Sibtain, an Australian architect with help from a small foreign trained team from Australia, Denmark, Holland and Sweden. The team consisted of architects, a building constructor, scientists and social anthropologists who all worked collaboratively to provide an answer to the pressing need for earthquake resistant housing.

The partnership with the Government of Afghanistan was fundamental in the development of Saighanchi as a future model for disaster relief. Permission of the Government to use the Earthquake-resistant Building System in the reconstruction work allowed us to demonstrate the advantages of such an initiative. It was our primary intention from the start to offer the Government a building system and prototype for a village development which could be applied to other earthquake prone areas of the country.

In particular, our close working partnership with the individual men, women and children of the village was vital as their contribution to the building of the housing turned the project from an initiative into a reality. They were trained and assisted by the foreign team and forged close relationships during the entire process – both professionally and emotionally.

Other key partnerships which made our proposal possible included many relief organisations around the world that recognised the importance of providing such aid to developing countries – especially victims of earthquakes. These included The Australian Council of Churches, Folkekirkens Nodhjaelp – Danchurchaid (Denmark), Nederlandse Organisatie voor Internationale Ontwikkelingssamenwerking – NOVIB (Holland), Australian Catholic Relief, The Australian Development Assistance Bureau, The Freedom from Hunger Campaign (Australia) and Community Aid Abroad (Australia).

9) Financial model: As the Saighanchi project was largely a volunteer based initiative with grants from varying aid organisations, it is quite difficult to establish the actual costs incurred. The self-help nature of the building work and the direct input from the village community further complicates calculation of labour costs. However it is clear that by utilising village labour, overall construction costs were significantly reduced.

An Afghanistan National Report to the UN Conference on Human Settlements, revealed the following costs for houses constructed using kiln-bunt bricks in rural areas:

- One room dwelling US $1642 - Two room dwelling US $2654

The cost of materials used in a two-room earthquake resistant dwelling (including store room and boundary walls) as calculated in 1978 was US $1232. It must be noted that this figure does not include the support costs of the villagers who supplied the labour force.

It has never been claimed that the earthquake-resistant housing introduced to Saighanchi is ‘low-cost’ when compared with user-built traditional vernacular housing which, beginning with one room, continues to be extended as the family grows. But it is low cost when compared with contracted artisan-constructed housing, and it is well within the economic reach of rural communities. As the system, which is based on modular and industrialised principles, becomes universal, mass production will further reduce the overall costs.

In order for such a scheme to develop into the future, continual financial aid from the Government and aid organisations is fundamental. Once this capital is secured, it is envisaged that the villagers, with their newly acquired skills and training will take it upon themselves to rebuild the earthquake-affected village.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 0

          • Financing: Funding for the reconstruction of the village of Saighanchi came through grants from: - Australian Council of Churches - Danchurchaid (Denmark) - NOVIB (The Netherlands) - Australian Catholic Relief - Freedom from Hunger Campaign (Australia)

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: The purpose behind the reconstruction of Saighanchi was not only to design an fully integrated village or prove the viability of combining modern technology with traditional house form – but to offer a successful model of constructing earthquake resistant houses that could be applied to other areas of the country. The effects of our proposal were soon evident as two Earthquake-resistant ‘Saighanchi houses’ were built in Khulm. The structural roof frames for these houses were fabricated by Saighanchi men and the bricks laid by masons trained in Saighanchi – confirmation that our initiative had been effective. One of the more important outcomes to our project was the shift in the Afghanistan Government’s policy regarding earthquake disaster relief. In the past, after an earthquake disaster, immediate aid was given in the form of tents, blankets and food, and the people were left to rebuild the houses as best they could. As a result of the policy change, provincial depots will supply earthquake victims with food, blankets and tents while also helping them to rebuild their houses using the Earthquake-resistant Building System. And if a subsequent earthquake destroys these homes, due to their new self-reliance, the villagers will know how to rebuild their homes and their lives. Work on the construction of Saighanchi finished in 1979.

          • Number of clients in past year: The entire village population.

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 100

          • Potential demand: Ideally the magnitude of earthquake-prone areas to benefit from such an initiative would be limitless; hopefully the Earthquake-resistant Building System will be adopted wherever earthquake disasters occur.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Mature stage.

          • Expansion plan: The village is currently home to many of the village community and unless an earthquake is to unfortunately affect the area, no expansion plans are envisaged.

12) Origin of the initiative: The rebuilding project of Saighanchi was initiated by Syed Sibtain, an architect from Australia with fellow-workers from Australia, Denmark and Sweden - all with the ultimate aim of providing Earthquake-resistant housing for rural areas that could be built by the villagers themselves.

Contact Information:
Allen  Kong
Ashoka Fellow
Architect - Director
Allen Kong Architect Pty Ltd
(Architectural Office)
Australia