Local Materials used for Building

After having spent two weeks designing, researching the local building materials and talking to the local masons and carpenters as well as academics, always with Paul’s help and consent, we were in a position to start ordering materials such as timber, cement, pozzolana, iron bars for the reinforcement of the concrete foundations, and metal roof sheeting. As already mentioned, building with earth/Atakpame is not allowed in urban areas. The original Atakpame builders in the old days in Ghana were from Benin and born in Ghana when their families migrated there but they have now left Ghana and

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gone back to Benin. There were three Ghanaian Atakpame expert builders in the vicinity of Abetenim but were too expensive for the village communities to hire. ‘Most people cannot afford their labour’ Julie explained. As a result the vernacular atakpame technique was discouraged.

The two BRRI experts involved in the project visited us on site and checked the clay soil from the ground near the construction site of another Nka project, mixed it with water and concluded it would not be good to use for our building as there was not enough clay in it. It would need to roll into a soft ball ideally. In this part of the world the earth does not contain enough clay so we have to improve it by binding it. The earth walls of another Nka Foundation project fell on their own weight as the concrete pillars on either side of the walls did not bind with the earth (see Figure 4.33). Neither the concrete pillars nor the earth walls had binders in them which resulted in the earth walls collapsing.

This is a project implemented by another Nka Foundation group from Italy. The detailing needed to be revised after the group had left Abetenim, as the concrete pillars on the corners did not bind with the earth walls, which resulted in the earth walls collapsing. One solution would be to reinforce the Atakpame walls with Pozzolana cement which acts as a binder for cement and earth.

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The maintenance of the earth walls is key in preserving them. Every year they patch it up like a clay plaster. ‘In the North of Ghana there is a particular season for maintaining the walls, it’s like a family culture, they go from house to house to re-plaster with clay.’ Trevor Marchand (2009: 21) while describing the annual re-plastering of Djenné’s Mosque, say: ‘this “awesome, messy, meticulous and fun” festival takes place each spring and requires the cooperation of all townsfolk. The barey to arrange the date, organize the labour, and secure all necessary materials and equipment. In return, prominent townspeople furnish gifts of grain, rice, millet porridge, and money, and these are divided amongst the masons.’

The BRRI experts visited us on site on November 21st in order to look at the excavated trenches of the canteen and kitchen foundations. They brought fifteen bags of pozzolana from the BRRI factory, eight of which would be used for the canteen and the rest for the kitchen in the stabilisation of the earth blocks. This time we had already purchased the cement on its own from elsewhere but the experts suggested that we could order bags of pozzolana and cement mix from the BRRI should we require any more (see Figure 4.34).

A bag of Pozzolana cement mix produced and sold by the BRRI.

Figure 4.34 A BRRI bag

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They also confirmed that their consultation would be gratis and their wish for ongoing collaboration with Nka’s projects in Abetenim. In addition, they suggested that we use between 6% to 10% pozzolana mix (mix: one part pozzolana to three parts cement), and that the slab of the canteen would need to be poured at the same time as the slab of the surrounding terrace, as otherwise there could be cracks in the slab and termites could go through. We could also space the timber posts further apart at 1500mm from centre to centre which meant that the concrete foundation pads would have to be spaced further apart too. The seasoning of the timber would be necessary before using it for building. The notion of time again cropped up as both Thomas and Michael recommended to allow enough time, possible two weeks for the timber posts to season. It would take one week to source the timber and approximately two weeks to season it. Optimistically the timber would be delivered on site by December 8th. The timber used for the construction of the canteen’s frame would be sourced from a tree which the locals refer to as the ‘poor man’s soup’ (oriemfosama in Twi). Paul explained that this type of tree is ‘cheap and lasts long so poor people prefer it.’ The metal roof sheeting would take a couple of days to be delivered on site once we placed an order. The timber used for the formwork of the previous Nka project was reused for the canteen and kitchen. So was the extra steel reinforcement bars used in the concrete foundations of the canteen. We had proposed to use raffia palm matts for shading the canteen (see Figure 4.35) but discarded the idea as soon as we discovered that another Nka group had already used them in a previous project and soon had to remove them because of deformation. Cutting the raffia palm can be dangerous so it would require skilled workers. They would be harvested fresh and would therefore shrink, get deformed and break easily once they dried, so would need to be replaced every year. Another consideration that deterred us from using them was their cost, which increased from 40GHC to 120GHC per roll since 2009.

Some of the statements provided in this sub-chapter about the materials, their maintenance as well as necessary treatment prior to using them in construction, may be common knowledge. However, this knowledge is important in the context of the research as it may shed light on: the reasons that certain decisions and choices were made; the challenges other researchers and/or practitioners would need to consider if given an opportunity to work in a similar context or project.

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A roll of raffia palm matt cut and made locally by a skilled worker.