2023-07-01 13:00:01
Wood, hemp, biomass, or even earth… nature offers us something to shelter us. We still need to consider these durable materials at their fair value. Architects, construction professionals and researchers gathered, from June 26 to 30, in Guadeloupe, to take stock of the many possibilities of building ecological habitats.
As part of the Caribbean and Amazonian Symposium on sustainable materials, which was held throughout the week, on the initiative of the Regional Council of the Order of Architects of Guadeloupe (CROAG), the participants in this major event -you have explored all avenues for developing sustainable materials that can be used in the construction sector.
If we only have to name a few, let’s talk about hemp in particular, which is coming back to the fore. This material was once used as a raw material for the manufacture of paper, ropes and even clothing. For several months, it has been studied as being able to intervene in construction, for ecological, economic and sustainable habitats.
What if we could make durable constructions with multiple benefits from a plant? • ©Christian Danquin
How not to mention the wood! Multiple species are already used, such as Mahogany, Mahogany, Indian wood, Campeche, Tendacayou, even Bamboo. But it is necessary to create real sectors and to tend towards a reasonable use.
Several species of wood are used in construction. • ©Christian Danquin
Land is also popular. It is malleable and can therefore be shaped at will. A material widely used in some countries, particularly on the African continent, earth, worked with respect for its properties, offers a host of possibilities in terms of construction.
The earth has so much to offer, in the construction sector! • ©Image provided
Other sustainable components are being studied around the world: this is the case of biomass, low-carbon concrete, or even… fish scales!
One of the objectives of researchers embarking on this path, in the face of climate change, is to decarbonise architecture.
After this symposium, an architecture competition for young talents is to be organised. It will be a question of making the link between innovation and natural materials, of changing perceptions, to enlarge the community of those who “live single”.
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What appears to us as a necessary revolution, in the current context where mother nature requires measured and sustainable consumption in all areas, is already a practice that goes without saying elsewhere. Witness Djosse Léobard-Houenou, engineer architect in Benin (graduated in France), which we invite you to listen to, below, the full interview; he uses clay in a thousand ways, a material available everywhere on the globe and which he praises… and for good reason!
I have been working for 35 years on local materials, in Africa. And, during those 35 years, we built all kinds of equipment. We transform the earth using as little energy as possible; with human energy, since it is available.
Djosse Léobard-Houenou, engineer architect
Djossê Léobard-Houenou, engineer architect • ©Bruno Pansiot-Villon and Christian Danquin – Guadeloupe La 1ère
REPORTAGE/
Reporter: Bruno Pansiot-Villon
Reporteur d’images : Christian Danquin
Monteur : Eric Marion
Mixer: Teddy Artis
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