Ulwazi Educare is getting a makeover and a new eco-building made from reclaimed items so that they can take care of 120 children in Delft, Cape Town.
Delft, South Africa (28 January 2022) – Peter McIntosh, founder of the Natural Building Collective, has been sharing the incredible progress of a building at the Helderberg Nature Reserve, which is being built using 8000 EcoBricks and 900 truck tyres. With that building project at an end, he and the team started working on a pre-school in Delft.
Peter and his team specialise in natural and sustainable building techniques while using reclaimed and recycled items like colourful wine bottles, tyres and EcoBricks.
The Ulwazi Educare is in Delft, Cape Town. The project is already on the way and is making room for 120 children. The building will be made up of 1800 tyres, eco-bricks, cob, reclaimed materials from the film industry, glass bottles and reclaimed doors and windows.
The tyres are from the government depot in Atlantis. The Waste Bureau donated the transport for the first load of 1000 tyres at the start of the project, and the team have been collecting the rest as needed.
“Tyres are laid in rows and rammed with compactable earth till they are solid or, ‘pumped up’. Each row requires the tyres to be of the same depth when laid flat so we selected 265 mm deep tyres for the entire tyre wall including the foundations. Once the tyres were compacted they were 300 mm deep. Having a huge depot to select tyres from made this approach possible. The fill material for the tyres is from recycled building waste, mixed with earth from a site excavation to make an easy to compact material.” – Peter McIntosh
“Ecobricks fit into the gaps between tyres and it’s a good place to get rid of a few thousand. The outside walls will get a final cement plaster for ease of maintenance and the inside walls will get a lime plaster.”
The school is coming along nicely, and soon the roof will be ready to go up. Peter welcomes the donation of firm and filled eco-bricks, as well as glass bottles. So should you wish to offer yours, you can reach out via Facebook here.
by 