An architect in Morocco has created a cost-effective home that's earthquake-resistant. According to an article in architecture magazine DOMUS, Aziza Chaouni has designed and built an earthen home that can withstand seismic activity.
After the devastating earthquake on September 8, 2023, Morocco's Marrakech and Haouz regions experienced mass destruction. Thousands of families lost their homes and are still in the process of rebuilding.
Determined to start restoring the region, Chaouni set out to build affordable homes made from traditional, sustainable materials. She teamed up with local engineers and contractors to construct a 70-square-meter family home in a remote mountain village of the Haouz region.
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To make the home earthquake-resistant, the team embedded steel rods every three meters into the brick walls. They then supported the roof with wooden beams and vaulted bricks.
In an effort to fuse affordability with sustainability, Chaouni and her team designed the prototype with the goal of minimizing the home's carbon footprint. Where possible, the team opted for lightweight, recycled concrete to build the foundation. They also constructed the roof with Durabric bricks, a type of patented material made from 95% raw earth that contains water-repellent properties.
Since many rural parts of the region lack sewers, the team also installed gravity filtration to treat wastewater. The system also reuses the water for irrigation. In total, the construction of the prototype house cost just over €20,000, per DOMUS.
Moving forward, the affordable, earthquake-resistant design has the potential to replace 50,000 homes in the earthquake-struck region. As a result of her affordable anti-seismic prototype house, Chaouni won The World Monuments Fund Watch Award.
"We learned a lot during the construction. That's what prototypes are for," Chaouni told DOMUS. "We refined the interlocking brick system to make it more aesthetically pleasing and uniform, and we're already working on a 2.0 version of the project that will include walkable roof terraces, still earthquake-compliant."
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