By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST, Jan 28 2008 (IPS)

A simple architectural solution could ease housing and environmental problems in Romania and beyond.

Each spring and fall, when the rivers rise, floods bring down hundreds of houses in villages around Romania. Every time, authorities say that weather conditions have taken them by surprise, and grant minimal financial assistance. People again start building their homes from scratch.

Clay houses could be an answer to such emergency situations, and in numerous cases where people cannot afford construction materials, local architects say.

Houses built from clay or cob – a mixture of clay, water, sand, straw and other natural materials – are cheap and easy to build. “Most of the construction materials can be found on site,” says architect Ileana Mavrodin. “From digging the foundation, we get the earth needed for the walls, and the vegetal soil is used for the roof.”

For the past two years, Arhiterra, a Bucharest-based group of architects, engineers and artists, has been proposing building of houses from basic materials easily available around the country.

The group was formed in part to pressure parliament, which intends to prohibit earth houses in areas affected by floods. Arhiterra member Corina Stoianovici says Romanian legislators argue that such houses will be vulnerable to spreading waters, but they are really more keen on protecting the interests of the timber business.

Earth houses can be built with materials that make them resistant to humidity, for instance, adding linseed oil to clay, the architects say. So vulnerability to water should not be used as a pretext against such housing.

“We are seeking answers to difficult questions posed by a developing economy and the transition period, when many people are left poor,” Mariana Celac, architect from Arhiterra told IPS.

Beyond organising workshops to familiarise the public with this housing model, the group has also been building model houses around the country. “These experiments were organised, not unintentionally, in relatively isolated and underprivileged areas,” Raluca Munteanu, coordinator of the working group told IPS.

“In these areas, one can still find certain traditions and crafts that modernity forgot, and from which we may still have a lot to learn,” Munteanu said. Experimenting with traditional building techniques also enabled use of the local labour force, she said.

Clay houses can be more than an answer to poverty. More widespread use can reduce environmental damage because their construction and upkeep demands low energy consumption, the environmental architects say.

“Cob is gentle on the planet,” says Ileana Mavrodin. “It reduces the use of wood, steel and toxic building supplies. Buildings are solar oriented and energy efficient, warm in the winter and cool in the summer, no air-conditioning is needed, and minimal heating is required due to the exceptional thermal quality of the cob.”

In spite of the advantages of clay houses, there are reasons to doubt that Romanians will embrace this construction model on a large scale.

“In order for such an architectural type to be successful in our country, people must first understand that the energy resources of the land are limited, and then act towards minimum energy consumption in the long run,” Klaus Birthler, one of the architects designing earth houses, told IPS.

Environmental awareness remains low in the country. Unlike other Central and Eastern European countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, where environmental movements developed during state socialism and played a central role in the 1989 regime changes, in Romania such organisations have been promoting a credible message only in recent years.

Furthermore, cultural obstacles stand in the way of small-scale, traditional building. Putting up an imposing house has become a fashion among the emerging middle class, anxious to confirm its newly acquired status through building in concrete.

On the outskirts of capital Bucharest, property prices have skyrocketed over the last couple of years, driven by demand from businesses and from young professionals looking to raise their children away from the city.

As members of the European Union for a year now, Romanians want to be considered a part of the developed world rather than join ranks with the poorer third of the world that lives in earth houses.

A part of the developed world might already be moving in a direction other than Romanians think. “Politically speaking, we have the paradox of underdeveloped countries giving up tradition in favour of ‘miraculous’ concrete, compared to developed countries which hope to rediscover traditions and diminish the usage of unfriendly materials,” said Munteanu. But it is still early days in that direction.

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