By Tony Kaye | AVN Management Committee
The first Nubian vault house* in Zambia was successfully completed on August 11th, in the village of Mutakwa. The work was a little behind schedule, as the masons ran out of bricks, and then the truck used to go collect more bricks ran out of petrol... But the client - she is about to move into her new house - is very happy with the result, especially as the cost of roofing a house in Zambia with sheet metal is astronomical, and any project that can reduce construction costs is very welcome.
The house has aroused a lot of interest locally, and three more families from the same village have asked for NV houses to be built for them. And the community in the village of Chipeso, some 18 km away, have asked for a clinic to be built, as well as two houses for the clinic's staff.
The two Zambian NV masons trained in Burkina Faso have recruited two apprentices, so, for the start of the 2011 building season next Spring, they will have plenty of work, and will be able to recruit several new apprentices to help them and to learn the NV technique.
* N.B. As soon as we get some pictures of the completed house, I will post them here (at the moment, there is a technical problem with the digital camera on-site, and a new one needs to be found...no easy matter in this part of the world.) In the meantime, you can see photos of the work being carried out earlier on the house
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