Training in earthquake resistant construction with adobe in the Peruvian Andes
INSS Annual Conference
April 8-10, 2015
UNC Charlotte Site
Charlotte North Carolina
M Blondet, M Serrano & A Rubiños Catholic University of Peru (PUCP)
Humans have been building with earth all over the world for thousands of years…
… And the Peruvian Andes are no exception
Most people build their houses in adobe because it is cheap and accessible as a construction material
Additionally, adobe houses have very good thermal and acoustic properties
BUT earthen constructions and earthquakes are a perverse combination
Peru, 2007
Pakistan, 2005
China, 2010
The work in safe adobe construction has been recognized worldwide...
Still, people in the Peruvian Andes continue building houses the way they did 100 years ago!
People from Pullo asked the intervention of the PUCP to help them overcome the damage resulted
An interdisciplinary team traveled to assess the situation and propose a help/work plan
The resulting work proposal was a long term training project on three phases
Follow up with the
community
Training
Awake
interest
The project consists helping Pullo improve their housing conditions by acquiring the ability to do so on their own
It's important to raise people's interest on the training program in order to increase the acceptance of the technology proposed, which is a very cheap and accessible nylon rope mesh
We are designing field demonstrations that allow people to experiment building their own models…
Katherine Chávez
…and testing them in the portable shaking table
We are developing a construction manual with friendly illustrations and simple words to train the community
It is projected that the whole community applies the knowledge learnt through the construction of a social building
Through all this process it's important to keep a fluent communication with Pullo's people
We want them to internalize the risk they live in and the proposed technology to avoid it