Biography

I'd like to take a quick moment to introduce you to the 5 team members of Earthbaggers.

DANIEL BUCCHERI
21 years old from Melbourne.

Loves to design and interested in Architecture, Daniel is also very interested in music.






JOEL DUNCAN
25 years old from Queensland.

Studying Building Design (Architectural) second year, Joel worked in Game development professionally for 4 years.  He aims to finish this course and begin work in building design industry.





LEAH OIKAWA
19 years old from Japan.

Second year student of Building Design in RMIT University.  Wants to finish her study as a Architect at University.  Interested in designing.






LEIDEN BAO
28 years old from China.


Finished his study and worked in Industry Design.  But he is interested in designing houses so he is pursuing Building Design (Architectural) at RMIT University of Melbourne.





SHAKIBA MORADI
20 years old from Iran.

Doing the same course and looking for finish her study at University and be a good Architecture in future.

Loves to design and creating new things.



Shakiba.

Rationale & Aim

The Earthbaggers team has chosen to analyse-design-construct-test the use of Earthbags as a wall construction material.

Why Earthbags; short answer, floods. One of the team members comes from Queensland, where flooding occurred earlier this year. These floods saw thousands of homes inundated with water, destroying livelihoods and disrupting day to day life. One of the main methods used to limit the damage of the floods in Brisbane and surrounding areas was sandbagging, a technique which Earthbag construction is heavily tied too.

Traditionally Earthbag is a construction material used in 3^rd world countries as it is relatively inexpensive, and the contents of the bags can be filled effectively free. The traditional Earthbag house has a distinct beehive shape, with porthole windows and the structures are typically smaller single storey dwellings.

As we enter the Analysis phase of Earthbag construction we are currently researching the history and current use of Earthbags around the world. Looking ahead to design-test-construction we have set ourselves a list of goals/tests:

1- Construct a 1:2 scale model of an Earthbag wall (including a window and roof).

2- Test waterproof level the structure is under simulated rainfall.

3- Test and Compare Earthbag fillings (price, insulation quality, weight)

4- Construction of a more suburban look rather than the traditional ‘beehive’ look.

During the Analysis phase each team member has been assigned something specific to research (history, current construction techniques, etc.). When we move through the next phases, specifically construction and testing, the team will work more as a group sharing successes and hopefully not destroying a backyard in the process.

Joel.

Blog up and running!

Welcome to the Earthbaggers blog for Research Project 3!

Given all the recent flooding along the East coast of Australia, sandbags have become a well known material.  But they can be used for much more than just keeping flood waters out of your home.

Our team intends to research, design, construct and test the use of Earthbags as a building material.

Earthbagger Team Members:

Daniel Buccheri

Joel Duncan

Leah Oikawa

Leiden Bao

Shakiba Moradi

Stay tuned for more!