This is a Journal entry by Mirror
Glass fibre mud huts
Mirror Started conversation Nov 17, 2001
While talking to a friend recently about the homeless people of Afghanistan living in tents in the bitterly cold and windy desert, I remembered a couple of programmes on TV in the dim and distant past that related to instant housing.
One, was a way of spraying an instant dome 'mud hut' made from, if I remember correctly, mud and glass or carbon fibre sprayed over a form. Trouble is, it must have been over a decade since I saw the programme and cannot now remember much about it.
The other idea I think I have a bead on, was cardboard survival huts used in the arctic. Everything was made from cardboard including the beds, tables and chairs. The only problem my friend could foresee was that the cardboard may not stand up to the weather in Afghanistan or Pakistan as the arctic is so cold there is little external humidity.
I was wondering if anyone out in h2g2 land thought these possibilities were a) feasible and b) could recall the programme or the inventor or anyone connected with it, in order to come up with a reasonably warm and dry alternative to tents and or bombed homes.
What do you think?
Glass fibre mud huts
Tonsil Revenge (PG) Posted Nov 21, 2001
Check the wed for a publication called 'Mother Earth News'.
It is an alternative living magazine that has been around the US for over thirty years.
I would also investigate 'yurts'. They're portable, they're collapsible and you can make them out of almost anything, except cardboard.
Fibre glass is a fascinating product but it stinks, is fairly toxic and require.....well, I don't think that's what you're talking about.
Glass fibre mud huts
Mirror Posted Nov 21, 2001
Call me ignorant if you like, but what the heck is 'yurts?'
Thanks so much for the other information, I will check it out. If you know of any other cheap, simple and instant housing that could be used in this situation, let me know. There's a surfeit of recycled paper in this country and I thought that the cardboard survival huts might be a good use for it.
Vis a vis the glass fibre, I wouldn't know about it stinking, I do know it is a pretty ghastly stuff to deal with. I don't suppose that people in Afghanistan who are starving, freezing and homeless are going to be, in the first instance, terribly worried about those things. In any case, the glass fibre was mixed in a machine with the mud and water and sprayed, so it's not like it was glued together in layers in the same way most stuff is made with glass fibre.
Thank you for replying and trying to help. If you are from the USA, my deepest sympathy is also with you guys and gals across the water. I hope you are not going to suffer too much more from terrorism. Unfortunately, here in the UK, we have been suffering from it for quite a while and you do get to be stoic about the threats and even the bombings, its the anthrax thing that is really scary.
Good wishes to you.
Glass fibre mud huts
Tonsil Revenge (PG) Posted Nov 23, 2001
The yurt is a traditional mongolian nomadic structure. It is composed of branches or thin lengths of something else tied together at the mid point and spread out radially then erected as a dome. This is then covered with skins, canvas, or nylon tenting material. I've seen discarded parachutes used. It is collapsible within minutes, imminently portable and cheap. You should be able to find a listing for them in any encyclopedia. Maybe I'll write an entry about them.
This is a big country. It truly takes a lot to get our attention and keep it. A lot of people have their doubts about the way many things are being handled. So, what else is new?
Glass fibre mud huts
Mirror Posted Nov 23, 2001
Oh! . . . Thanks. Now I know. It is something like a wigwam or teepee? Or is this now known as something else, or has it become politically incorrect, like black plastic sacks, or is it just that I am so long in the tooth that I am out of touch?
Anyway, thank you for the lesson. Because I really had no idea what yurts were, it didn't cross my mind that it might be something they put in an encyclopaedia.
All the best.
Glass fibre mud huts
Tonsil Revenge (PG) Posted Nov 23, 2001
No big deal. We all live in our own little worlds.
I just happen to live in one where I know about yurts but I can't find my way downtown in a city I've lived in for three years without a map.
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Glass fibre mud huts
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