Sustainable Development in Nigeria - Green Materials

Nigeria’s Intercontinental Education Community Center (ICEC2): Recently our TPA group had a meeting in Doylestown. The morning of the 13th at 7am found four from the SBA class in a café meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Ukazim who are the owners and promoters of ICEC2. During the two hour meeting Mr. and Mrs. Ukazim relayed the history of the project as well as its aspirations and goals. We decided that as this will be, among other things, a school and clinic that will be used year round it is important to consider materials inside the building envelope that contain few to no VOC’s and off-gas as minimally as possible. The project’s land has already been bought and is in the process of being fenced off for security reasons before construction can begin. The project is located at about 5° latitude and 9° longitude, the planned location of ICEC2 means that there will be over twelve hours of sunlight per day available for sustaining the building. While the approach to the materials differs dramatically from those being considered for the Newtown project there are still numerous ‘green’ materials that are being considered. Looking at case study in San Francisco called ‘scrap house’ goes a long way in understanding how much is still possible when you have a limited budget. Scrap house is located on a 90’ X 135’ parcel of land in front of San Francisco City Hall. If the name wasn’t telling enough the objective of scrap house was to create a house using nothing but scrap and salvaged materials. Some examples of salvaged scrap include furnishings like: the cardboard table & stool made out of recycled corrugated cardboard, salvaged floorboards, and heavy-duty cardboard tubes. The table was accompanied by a stool made of rolled and carved corrugated cardboard, topped with a comfy seat of wine corks.[1] For interior finishes include: the Phonebook Wall. Looking through Scrap House’s main entryway, visitors were greeted by a wall made of 1,500 phonebooks stacked vertically. The phonebooks were affixed to the sheet metal wall covering with two self-tapping screws drilled through the spine of the book. The phonebooks acted as insulation and helped with the acoustics of the main space.[2] And finally examples of exterior materials include Street Sign Siding. Street and traffic signed were used as siding for one entire exterior wall, some of which were visible from the interior. The signs were donated by the San Francisco Department of Public Works.[3]

Another case study with considerations important to green material in Nigeria was a Women’s Intercultural Center Being Built with Used Tires in Anthony, New Mexico[4] and others that reuse tires in construction. While there are fast becoming more ways and used to recycle or reuse tires there are still tons that go to landfills every year. Roughly 300 million scrap tires are generated each year in the United States alone[5] according to the Industrial Resources Council. Of that 300 million about 40 million tires end up in landfills. [6] Tire derived aggregate has very useful engineering properties that make these materials an excellent choice for construction applications like at the Women’s Center in New Mexico. In addition, tires have a high energy density and can be used as fuel to generate electricity. Nigeria is the largest producer of Rubber in Africa[7] and is a major production link for Michelin and Bridgestone for the fabrication of tires around the world. This means that tires may well be a viable, cost effective way to use a free or cheap commodity in the creation of ICEC2 that is also environmentally helpful. Tires can be used to make the wall of the building, as in New Mexico, or may be used as a cushioning material in playgrounds and other public areas popular with children, or even as a replacement of traditional concrete sidewalks. The feasibility of using tires as a fuel source may well turn out to be too costly of an endeavor for ICEC2. However as part of the schools focus is to “educating the whole person” which includes vocational training it may be a viable consideration as this manner of ‘tire fuel’ is often used in trade skills like glass, steel and concrete.



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Photos courtsey of: http://www.thereporteronline.com/articles/2009/01/05/news/srv0000004343733.txt
http://icec2.org/home.html
[1] http://www.scraphouse.org/Materials [2] http://www.scraphouse.org/Materials [3] http://www.scraphouse.org/Materials[4] http://www.laprensa-sandiego.org/archieve/june21-02/tires.htm [5]http://www.industrialresourcescouncil.org/Materials/ScrapTires/tabid/367/Default.aspx[6] Ibid[7] http://www.wrm.org.uy/bulletin/138/viewpoint.html#-%20Nigeria:%20Tyres%20at%20the%20expense%20of%20people’s%20livelihoods