Project Name: La Voûte Nubienne

Project Type:
6) architecture

Project Mission/Goal:
3) respond to our growing need for clean water, power, shelter, healthcare, education

Project Description:
In sub-Saharan Africa, timber has always been used, traditionally, for roofing (flat beams and rafters made from rough timber and branches, supporting laths covered in earth); such roofs are supported by adobe / mud walls, incorporating load-bearing timber posts.

Population growth in recent times, together with increasing desertification and regression of forested areas, means that these traditional building techniques are no longer feasible..

People in rural areas now have to resort to buying sheet metal (corrugated iron) and sawn timber beams and rafters for roof-building. These imported building materials, with their deplorable thermal, acoustic, and aesthetic properties, are often beyond the means of many people. They have to be paid for in cash, often a problem for families living outside any formal economic system. Finding the necessary funds becomes a major drain on family resources, and does nothing to promote sustainable development.

An ancient architectural technique, traditionally used in Sudan and central Asia, but until now unknown in West Africa, can provide the answer to the current problems of house-building in the Sahel. This technique - “la Voute Nubienne” or VN - makes it possible to build houses with vaulted roofs (on top of which a traditional flat roof terrace can be constructed) using basic, readily available local materials and simple, easily learnt, procedures.

What’s so special about the VN technique?
- the only raw material used is earth, for making both mortar, and mud bricks dried in the sun
- timber shuttering is not required to support the vault during construction
- the traditional methods have been simplified, and adapted to provide protection during the short but heavy rainy seasons of sub-Saharan Africa.

The major cost element in using the VN method is labour, thus keeping cash in the local economy; the raw materials are locally available and ecologically sound. The VN technique provides people with a feasible alternative to building with imported sheet roofing materials and timber. It is essential that the technique becomes more widely adopted, and this is the declared aim of the “Voute Vubienne” association, through its programme Earth roofs in the Sahel.

The VN technique has been adapted to match the prevalent customs and traditional ways of imparting skills, especially in rural communities. The result is a streamlined technique, easy both to put into practice and to teach by example.

Most VN buildings to date are in rural areas, but the VN technique can be used in denser urban and peri-urban zones. The additional expense of transport of bricks and water to urban sites, and higher labour costs, may be counter-balanced by lower material costs, especially for two-storey buildings, when a VN vault can replace a costly reinforced concrete structure.

Text from: http://www.lavoutenubienne.org

Links:
www.lavoutenubienne.org
http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/?lang=en
http://openarchitecturenetwork.org/projects/4446
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.eartharchitecture.org/...
Latest news: http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/-News-
http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/AVN-Europe
Images: http://www.lavoutenubienne.org/-Photo-Galleries-

Videos:

Project Details:
Location: Burkina Faso
Concept/Lead Architect(s)/Designer(s): association la voute nubienne
Project Architect(s):
Year (s): 2000 to present
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Nominated by Matt Charney, AFH New York

Location