“The International Federations community-based early-recovery programme has supported tens of thousands of quake survivors to take control of their own recovery. With support from trained Red Cross volunteers and students from local universities, affected communities have managed and implemented the construction of more than 14,000 quake-resilient transitional shelters.  Read more from > Bamboo Shelters in Indonesia

Earthbag Foundations for Soggy Seismic Areas By Kerry Bingham As far as I know, mine was the second earthbag structure to be built in Turkey, and it was met with widespread skepticism. With frequent earthquakes, severe flash-flooding on the south coast during the winter months and rising damp, many thought the house would either ‘melt’,   Read more from > Earthbag House in Turkey Survives 6.1 Earthquake

We’ve had several reports on Project Somos. This video is their May 2011 update. They’re doing outstanding work and I encourage readers to study their website and learn more about how they are building. Compassion Fruit Society began construction of the eco-sustainable Project Somos Children’s Village near Tecpan, Guatemala. The Village will become the forever   Read more from > Project Somos Children’s Village Update

An engineer of note gave us some suggestions on how to improve earthbag corners in seismic areas. The engineer is concerned the barbed wire could shift in a quake. He felt that wire mesh anchors (4- 5 with 1″ long teeth, bent so it stands up nicely) would better secure barbed wire at corners. He   Read more from > Barbed Wire Details in Seismic Areas

Yesterday’s post was about the earthquake resistance of earthbags. Today’s post illustrates what an earthquake resistant gravel bag foundation looks like and explains why this design is so effective. Gravel is an ideal material for this application because it’s durable, reasonably inexpensive, readily available in most areas, has high bearing strength and prevents wicking of   Read more from > Seismic Resistant Gravel Bag Foundations

This is another major announcement courtesy of Structure1.com. Instead of building buttresses, which tend to be time consuming and difficult to design correctly for earthquake zones, they recommend using the same specifications we reported earlier for reinforced earthbag walls in seismic regions. The comments below are from the latest email exchange with Structure1.com. Refer to:   Read more from > Reinforcing Steel Recommended Instead of Buttresses