25 April 2010

Sandbags can counter increased home contruction costs, says Joachim Claes, a successful Belgian architect who specializes in environmentally sound building practices. Having completed several sandbag homes, he says it is an inexpensive and easy approach to 'green' building.

The economical system of sandbag building is being used increasingly, especially in developing countries. The system was presented during a recent five-day seminar in the United States to train Vastu Coordinators for Vedic Architecture (Maharishi Sthapatya Veda) in their home countries.

Speaking on Maharishi Global Family Chat,* Joachim Claes, a Vastu Director for the Global Country of World Peace, gave a clear, comprehensive overview of the sandbag building system. Mr Claes illustrated with many slides the practical, economical, environment-friendly nature of the buildings, and showed very interesting ways of heating and cooling at low cost and with a very high level of comfort. He also described other attractive features such as high thermal inertia and insulation values, which make sandbag houses warm in winter and cool in summer.

Already five Vastu sandbag homes have been built in Ukraine, where Mr Claes has led the project. He expects that the technology, which was invented in South Africa, will soon be widely used in other developing countries of Africa and Latin America. Sandbag home projects have started in Latin America under the auspices of Raja Jose Luis. (read more)