A Tropical House in Manokwari

A few days ago, I went to Kampung Ambon atas. Its an area in Manokwari city. I went there to make some pictures of an old concrete house which was constructed by the Dutch for their civil servant who worked for the Netherlands Nieuw Guinea. It is clear that it is not a typical wooden house of Arfak Mountains. This is a typical tropical house that shows how the ventilation system is installed to keep the indoor temperature as cool or fresh as possible. If we see its jalousie windows, large openings were made above them. The openings can also be seen above the doors. These openings are covered with mosquito nets to prevent the insects from entering the house and spreading the malaria to the occupants of the house. In addition, the wooden windows of the bedroom have been designed to allow air flowing in and out through the harmonica holes of the windows. The design of this house is not complicated. It can be drawn easily if someone who has been commissioned for it does his architectural works using Archicad, a BIM software that is widely used in home and building design. Read my article How to draw floor plan with archicad to learn the basics of this excellent CAD software.

This passive cooling system is effective in cooling the indoor the temperature and is also efficient. This efficient ventilation prevents the home owner of spending a lot of money on buying fans and air conditioning machines. Manokwari was a small town in West Papua. It is located closer to the equator where the day temperature is high but also with high humidity. Well designed ventilation system is vital in ensuring that the tropical house is comfortable. The Netherlands left West Papua in 1962. The houses which they built in Manokwari and other towns in West Papua are used as reference by the current Indonesian architects when they want to design and build new houses.

If we look carefully at the photograph, the roof that was installed is not made of metal sheets. It is difficult to find such roof now. Today, most of the houses in Manokwari use corrugated metal roof that is cheaper but with several disadvantageous. The corrugated metal sheet roofs can easily become very hut during the sunny weather and will be noisy during heavy rain. Although they are not comfortable during the extreme weather condition, city dwellers in Manokwari prefer to use them because they are cheaper and more durable. Of course new houses that are now being built in this city have begun to use ceramic roof tiles that are more expensive than the ordinary asbestos and corrugated metal sheets. 

Only a few wealthy families who can afford to buy them because such construction materials are still imported from big cities in Java, especially Jakarta and Surabaya. When they have been locally manufactured, they will be cheaper. A little addition has been added by the occupants of this house. They made a small shade above the front door to protect the living room from receiving too much glaring sunlight in the afternoon. by Charles Roring

Also read: Wooden House from Tropical Village of Senopi

Tropical Wooden Houses

Tropical wooden houses in Minahasa have been around for hundreds of years. Most of the Minahasan people live in houses that are constructed from wood. Cempaka, Merbau,  and Natoh (Latin: Micelia celebica) are the main types of wood used in the house construction due to their hardness and durability in resisting wet climate of the tropical weather. In addition, they are more resistant to termite attack. Most of the earthquake resistant wooden houses of Minahasa are single and two floors constructions. Besides they are more suitable to hot and high moisture climate, wooden houses are chosen for aesthetic reasons. All of the rooms in a traditional wood house of Minahasa have ventilation holes. Jalousie glass windows are the preferred choice because they allow sunlight to penetrate the rooms even when they are closed. They enable the air to flow freely in and out of the house. Most of the ventilation in bedrooms are covered with mosquito nets. 

 Minahasa is a regency in the province of North Sulawesi of the Republic of Indonesia that is surrounded by several active volcanoes such as Mount Lokon, and Mount Soputan. In addition, it is located within the ring of fire of the Pacific Ocean where tectonic earthquake frequently occurs.

If we explore wooden house thoroughly, we will see that ladders are installed one at the front of the house which enables guests to come up directly to the second floor (where the living room is located) and the other at the back of the house connecting the second floor with the kitchen (which is located at the ground floor). The ground floor is usually allocated for the storage of agricultural produce (such as clove, rice, peanuts, and coffee), parking area for cars, and kitchen. Typical Minahasan wood houses have large yard area where the owners (whose profession as farmers) dry their agricultural commodity under the sun. Minahasan people like to grow clove and coconut trees in front of their houses. They also grow various flowers at the front yard as decoration that beautify the outside appearance of the house. The second floor is usually allocated for bedrooms and living room. These ladders stiffen and strengthen the construction of the wooden house against horizontal movements caused by tectonic and volcanic earthquakes. Read: Earthquake Resistant Wood House.
In the past the roof of the wooden houses are made of palm leaves. Because of frequent fire incident, today's wood houses have roof made of metal sheets which in Indonesia are called daun seng. Ordinary thin corrugated metal roof is actually not suitable for house construction in Minahasa whose atmosphere is often filled by sulphur emitted by the volcanoes but the local people there do not have other option. Actually the manufacturers of the metal roof need to produce metal roof sheets that are more resistant to corrosion caused by high sulphur content in air. 
Today the Minahasan wooden houses are being exported in the form of knock-down package that can be ordered directly from the internet and shipped in containers. House builders will be sent to help the buyer of the house construct the package.

Also read: 

What is green home?

The Ceiling and Windows of Wooden House

What is a green home?

When talking about green home, one may think that it is a home whose steeply slanted roof has been installed with solar PV panels that produce electricity, or a home whose yard is fully covered with green vegetations. Well, an environmentally friendly house construction needs to fulfill certain characteristics or criteria to be categorized as a green home.

1. A home that has minimal adverse impact on local ecosystem where it is built. For instance, the construction of the house did not cause a lot of forest clearing. Or the domestic wastes that are produced by from the house have to enter special treatment before they can be disposed off.
2. A home that is energy-efficient during its operation. If it is located in Europe or North America where the weather is cold, it will not need a lot of energy for indoor heating. If it is in the tropical region, the house must have enough ventilation holes to enable air naturally circulate from the outside into inside of the house and in reverse direction so that the cost for installing and operating air conditioning system can be minimized. For night lighting, the house uses LED lamps.
3. It has to be a house that has been constructed using environmentally friendly materials, both in the physical construction of the housing components and in its interior decoration. The construction materials for the house, if possible, should be taken from the local resource.
4. A home which has designed to have adequate natural lighting and ventilating system
5. And the last but not the least a home that is comfortable, safe, and healthy for its occupants.

If you plan to have your house designed by an architect or built by a home builder, don't forget to ask some of the above green home characteristics. You might only be able to fulfill small percentage of the above criteria but as long as you have tried any of them, you have helped the whole global community preserve this precious environment.

Also read:
Earthquake resistant wooden house
The ceiling and windows of wooden house

Archicad and Home Design

The following articles discuss Archicad tutorials and home design for architects and interior designers. At the moment the latest release from Graphisoft is Archicad 13. It is introduced with Graphisoft BIM Server to support model based team collaboration. As the number of users of this home modeling software is going up, there is a need or demand for information on how to use it. What I provide below are not meant to replace the official explanation presented by Graphisoft - the official company which has created the Archicad rather they are my personal journals which contain stories of how I study this great software.

I hope that by sharing some of the following articles, new Archicad users especially on the introductory level may find them useful for their own personal studies. I am not sure if I am able to provide more step by step Archicad tutorials in the future.

I write about anything in this blog from earthquake resistant wooden house to how to protect our tropical rainforest which is facing rapid deforestation. So, when you come again in this blog and find out that there are no new articles about Archicad then I suggest that you visit the official website of graphisoft.com There, you will find various information that is more suitable to your needs.

If after reading the following posts, you find that there are some mistakes, then please use the comment form to write some of your opinions which are very important for the corrections or improvements of these tutorials.

Before I finish this post, I would like to recommend other similar products created by Autodesk which many architects from around the world use in their home or building design projects. They are Revit Architecture, Revit MEP and REVIT Structure. Because the three BIM softwares are made by one company, they are more compatible for one another. As every software has its advantages and disadvantages, every new user of REVIT or Archicad must consult his or her needs with experienced users of each of the software to assess the right solution for his or her design needs.

ArchiCAD and Autocad

Archicad a powerful home design software

Drawing Scale and Units in Archicad

Adding Doors and Windows in Archicad Home Design

How to design roof with Archicad
The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia
Designing round wall room with Archicad
Designing simple bedroom with Archicad
How to draw floor plan with Archicad of Graphisoft
How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad
Dimensioning of round wall in Archicad of Graphisoft
Creating a rounded corner wall with archicad 12

Archicad and revit for house design

Archicad promotion in indonesia
Archicad 12 the best choice software for architects and interior designer

Cost Estimation of House Construction

Suppose that you are going to have your new house built by a home construction company, and you have just received from an architect or a house designer a number of drawings of your new house. These drawings are floor plan, general arrangement of the house with front and side views, detail drawings of foundation, windows and doors, ceiling and roof.

The next step is consulting the cost of construction with the architect or a home builder. If you appoint an architect to do the design, the cost estimation and the construction of the new house, you don't have to find a home construction company by yourself. All you have to do is pay the cost and receive the keys of your newly built house.

If you want to minimize the cost, after receiving the design drawings of your house, you will consult them with a home builder. He will make the cost estimation for the construction of your house. In general the cost estimation is devided into two main subjects. The cost of materials and the cost of building the house.

You might probably be confused with all these terms. To help you understand them, I will give you the scope and sequence of calculating the house construction. The followings are types of works which have to be performed for building a conventional house.

1. Preparation works

2. Foundation and concrete works

3. Wall works

4. Floor and ceramic works

5. Roof works

6. Roof of the garage works

7. Ceiling works

8. Windows and door works

9. Sanitair works

10. Clean water and dirty water works

11. Electrical installation works

12. Painting works

13. Cleaning works

There are many points which a cost estimator needs to calculate for each number or type of works. For instance, for preparatory works, the works which a home builder has to perform are the clearing of land, the measurement and installation of marking or profile boards, the excavation for foundation works, earth removing.

After calculating the volumes of each of the works of the above list, they have to be multiplied with the unit cost of material to obtain the cost of material. Then the amount of cost for each type of work have to be summed to obtain the total sum of the cost of the material of the new house.

Similarly, the volume of works for each type of works of the above list have to be multiplied with the man-hour factors to obtain the labor cost for the construction of the house.

The price of house material is different from one place or country to another. This also applies to the labor cost.

If you are serious about building your own house the cheaper way, I suggest that you read some books related to this subject. One of the titles which I recommend is
Fundamental Building Technology
written by Andrew Charlett. Also read: How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad and Wooden house of Minahasa an earthquake resistant construction

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua Indonesia

The Old Wooden House of Minahasa

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

You might wonder how long a wooden house construction can stand. Wood is one of the most versatile construction materials for housing. It can withstand frequent stress and strain to the changing live loadings. The main factor that deteriorates its strength is weather. Water can trigger the growing of moulds on the surface of wood panel.

Besides water, termites coming from underground, can eat the wood and cause massive damage on pillars, beams and wall panels of the house.

If properly dried and constructed wooden house can stand on the ground for hundreds of years. One of the wooden house constructions which has stood for hundreds of years can be seen in Japan. Even in tropical region with frequent rain and high humidity, wooden house can have lifespan that is long. One of the good examples is the main building of Pinabetengan Resort in Minahasa regency. This multi storey wooden building was built several hundred years ago.
Wood as the raw material has to be mature enough and properly dried to be used for home building. The older the wood, the stronger will be its fiber in resisting loads, water or termites.

For generations to come, wooden houses of Minahasa will still play important roles in providing shelters to the people and will still be the only viable sustainable construction materials that are suitable and affordable for every body. Also read: Special treatment for wooden house construction and How to buy a good wooden house

Special treatment for wooden house construction

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Wooden house is a favorite construction for an earthquake zone. It can withstand frequent ground shocks without failures. Although wood is strong, it will decay if continuously exposed to water. When the wood is wet or damp, mould will grow on its surface.

There are some treatments which can be applied to the wood surface to protect it from decaying. The most common treatment is applying wood paint or varnish to all exposed panels of the wooden house. The paint has to be of water resistant material. Every two or three years, carpenters must clean the wood surface again and apply protective coating.

We have to remember that to obtain the best wooden house construction, the wood as the main material has to be adequately dry. If it is still wet or contains high percentage of water, mould will grow and destroy the painting or coating which has been applied to its surface.

In Japan, experienced home builders apply a unique treatment to the panel surfaces of wooden house. They burn the surface of the wooden wall until it is wholy covered with cinder. By then, mould will not grow. This cinder layer is more weather resistant compared to conventional wood painting or varnish. Also read: How to buy a good wooden house and Earthquake resistant wooden house of Minahasa

How to buy a good wooden house

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua of Indonesia

The demand for wooden house in earthquake zone is increasing at the present time. People have known that wooden house is strong and sturdy construction that can withstand ground shocks and wind blowing. Besides having light weight construction, wooden house looks beautiful and well blended with nature.

If you want to buy a good wooden house, you must pay attention to some of aspects that are related to wooden house design and construction.

The type of wood - In tropical region, wood such as Cempaka, Merbau and Jati are some of the best types of wood that determine the quality of the end products whether they are furniture or house.

The age of wood - wooden material for house construction should be at least 30 years old. At that time, the wood fire is mature and strong enough to withstand stress or loads.

The dryness of wood - the drier the wood fiber the better will be the wood material for housing. If the water content is the wood is high, when the wooden has been constructed, after several year the wooden board, pillars or panels will buckle due to the drying process of the wood itself.

Wood is a versatile material for house construction. If wisely used, it can be one of the best renewable resources that continues to serve human needs for housing, furniture and any other needs. Also read: Earthquake resistant wooden house of Minahasa

The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia

Archicad is an easy to use and powerful Building Information Modelling (BIM) tools that is getting more popular these days in Indonesia. This architectural software is especially produced by Graphisoft for architects or building designers. The latest release, Archicad 12, has many new features which are useful in accelerating the design process of a house or building. Features such as curtain wall, hotlink module management, and 3D document can be found in the latest release.

These features make Archicad more attractive compared to other similar BIM tools software. More students who study architecture in Indonesia learn Archicad. In addition, the representative of Graphisoft in Indonesia has opened training centers for those who want to study Archicad in many universities in Indonesia.

I often visit a home design consulting firm. Its name is Flexika. The company is located at the back of my house. Architects there have been using Autocad 2007 for years but they are now beginning to learn Archicad under the guidance of their senior home designer Mr. Eddy Rachmat. He has used Archicad for years. In his opinion, he can design houses and buildings fast. The process of the designing 2D and 3D documents can be done simultaneously with relatively free of errors.

The increasing number of Archicad users is also caused by the availability of Archicad books in many bookstores around the country. The architects who currently use Archicad hope that in the near future Graphisoft can add new features such as Archicad MEP and Archicad Structure in the next release of the software.

Indonesia is a country that is located in the path of "ring of fire". It is an imaginary ring that signifies the meeting of earth layers around the Pacific region. There are many volcanoes in the ring of fire. As a result, Indonesia and many other countries in the ring of fire often face tectonic and volcanic earthquakes. Architects in Indonesia must seriously analyze the structure of the building which they design to prevent structural failures after the building has been built. Also read: How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad of Graphisoft

How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad

Earthquake has been the major natural disaster that causes many damages to man made structures. Concrete house which is not strengthen with columns and beams can be vulnerable to earthquakes. Archicad of Graphisoft is very robust software. It has features that can be used to design columns and beams. Their sizes can also be customized for an earthquake resistant house. In Archicad, we can set the size and height of columns and beams as well as their color and material.

To design an earthquake resistant house, first, we need to know its technical requirements. When earthquake occurs, it moves the house on reciprocating horizontal direction. The concrete structure of the house has to withstand such movement. Concrete material can withstand great pressure but cannot with stand tensile stress. Architects need to stiffen and reinforce concrete walls with beams and columns which are reinforced inside with steel frames or reinforced bars and rods. I am not going to discuss in detail about how to determine the size and number of the steel bars but I only want to show how to add column and beams to strengthen the walls of the designed house using Archicad of Graphisoft.

After launching the Archicad, open a file or make a rectangular room such as the one below:

Usually, home designer add columns to every corner of the house. Click column in the toolbox of your Archicad to activate the tool. You may probably need to set certain parameters of the column, to do that, double click the column tool. A window will show up. You can adjust the size, and height of the column as well as the material it composed of. Look at the following floor plan drawing above. The columns have to be tied to the steel structures of the house foundation.

After installing or adding the columns to every corner of the house, you can then add beams on horizontal direction above the walls. Similar to the column tool, if you want to do some adjustment to beam's size, location and material, you will need to double click the beam tool. Then, draw or trace the beams along the top edge of the walls. Your designed house or room should look like this on South Elevation.

You must remember that an earthquake resistant house has got various design factors which we have to adhere to. Some of them are the type of the foundation, composition of the mortar, bricks and sand; the size and depth of columns, the beam; and the joints of walls with the columns and beams of the house. Steel rood and wire mesh can be used to tie the walls with columns and beams in order to prevent it from collapse during earthquake. Latest innovation in earthquake proof building is the application of rubber dampers that can significantly reduce shocks. These rubber dampers are installed under the structure of the house or building. 

After adding column and beam to your house in Archicad, you can see it in 3D view by right clicking your mouse and select the photo rendering projection option. Your design should look like this.

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Also read:

• Birding in Minahasa
• Nature Tour in North Sulawesi
• Birdwatching and Butterflywatching in Sonder town of Minahasa Highland
• Minahasa Beach and Great-billed Kingfisher
• Lake Tondano
• Yellow-billed Malkoha
• Birding in North Sulawesi
• Knobbed Hornbill in North Sulawesi
• Birds in the Highland of Minahasa
• ArchiCAD and AutocadArchicad a powerful home design software
• How to design roof with Archicad
• The number of Archicad users is rising in Indonesia
• Designing round wall room with Archicad
• Designing simple bedroom with Archicad
• How to draw floor plan with Archicad of Graphisoft
• How to add column and beam to a house using Archicad
• Dimensioning of round wall in Archicad of Graphisoft
• Creating a rounded corner wall with archicad 12
• Archicad and revit for house design
• Archicad promotion in indonesia
• Archicad 12 the best choice software for architects and interior designer

Designing simple bedroom with Archicad

Archicad is a building information modeling software that is getting more and more famous at the moment. It is created by Graphisoft for Architects around the world. Designing a house or a building using Archicad is easy and fast yet many people still do not know many of the powerful features of Archicad.

In today's article, I am going to tell you about how to design a bedroom using wall tools and objects of Archicad. First, launch the Archicad from your desktop or laptop. If you do not have the software, go to Graphisoft.com and download the trial full version or the free educational version and install it on your computer. On your window screen, after launching the Archicad, create a new document. Then you have to locate the Wall tool located in the tool box. Draw a bedroom with the size of 5 meters by 5 meters as shown in the following picture.

When you have finished drawing the walls, you can continue by adding door and windows to the bedroom. You can select various kinds of objects provided in the Object tool.

Because it is a bedroom, you need to put a bed, a cupboard and some chairs and a table. All of them can be taken from the object library in the Object tool. When you can the objects, you might find that the position of the objects is not right. If you want to rotate it, right click your mouse and select the Move and then Rotate. Click the object which you want to rotate and rotate it.

Now, you have designed the bedroom using Wall and Object tools of Archicad. You can see the 3D view of your bedroom by right clicking your mouse and select View all in 3D. The inside of the bedroom should look like this.

You need to study more features of Archicad if you want to design a better finishing for the bedroom.

This Archicad Basic Tutorial is written by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Creating a rounded corner wall with Archicad 12

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Graphisoft's new release of Archicad 12 has been a great tool for architects who find that this software has helped them a lot in their daily works. Archicad 12 provides various new features such as curtain wall, hotlink module management and 3D document and etc. Anyone who has studied the fundamentals of building technology can design their own house using this software.

In this article, I am going to explain how to create a rounded corner wall with Archicad 12. Home owners some time ask their designers to round one of the wall corners of their new house which is usually the front one. To design a rounded corner, make two walls by clicking the wall tools on the tool box located on the left of your window screen. Then, one the working sheet, draw a vertical wall and a horizontal wall.

After drawing vertical and horizontal walls that form a corner wall, then proceed to drawing the round wall by clicking the use three points rounded wall, click and the outer ends of the walls. When you have clicked the two ends, Archicad will show a circle with a radius showing how the rounded corner wall will look like.

You need to make adjustments to the length and radius of the rounded wall so that you can connect the two horizontal and vertical walls. When you have finished making the adjustments, then you can press enter. Archicad wil show you an image similar to the one below. Make sure that the corner radius is not larger or smaller than it should be. You can see the final image of your wall in 3D if you select the view in 3D feature provided by Archicad 12 in view menu.

Archicad 12 is a great tool that accelerates the design process of a building. It is a BIM application software which I would like to recommend to anybody who is interested in learning how to design a house or a building in a fast yet accurate way.

Houses in Earthquake zone

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

Houses that are built in active earthquake zone must possess high modulus of elasticity to withstand the ground movement. Usually for traditional houses, people use wood as the framework of their houses. Wood although strong and elastic in nature is combustible. Therefore, for modern building, walls are built from concrete whereas the wood pillars are covered with concrete or other non-combustible materials to prevent them from getting burned during a fire accident.

In tropical region, wood is one of the most favorite home building materials. Besides it is strong enough to support the dead and live loads of the building, wood can stabilize the indoor temperature of the house. Unfortunately, special design concept and wood treatment have to be applied to wooden houses to prevent them from being wholly consumed by the termite.

Earthquakes are mostly tectonic and volcanic. When a volcano erupts, it will release sulphur ash that is corrosive to metal roof. In Indonesia, villagers use earth roof tile or palm leaves as roofing materials. They are resistant to sulphur ash. Palm leaves are called daun atap or atap rumbia. They need to be replaced by new ones every three or five years. Sometimes during the rainy season, the owner of the house has to insert some new palm leaves to mend the leaks. Palm leaves as roofing material is very combustible. It is not recommended to be applied in big cities due to many electrical lines running near the roofs of the houses.

Houses that are constructed in earthquake zone are usually reinforced by the application of steel frames inside the concrete walls to prevent them from bending and fail during an earthquake.

In addition, the height of the walls which are normally 3.5 meters will be reduced to between 2.8 and 3.0 meters to minimize the risk of failure during the earthquake. Reducing the height of the walls will create an impression of hot in tropical houses. As a solution, many homes in quake zones have many windows that are reinforced with wood to support the dead loads of the wall and roof structure.

If I have to choose between wood and steel as reinforcing materials for home, I will choose wood. Also read: Archicad and Revit for House Design

Archicad and Revit for House Design

In my previous articles, I said that Archicad is one of the best home design solutions which home owners and particularly architects can use to design homes. Archicad is produced by Graphisoft. A lot of freelance architects and home consulting firms have used the software for years. Archicad is not only useful for home modeling but also for interior designing. The current release of Archicad is version 12. It has many new features such as curtain wall and hotlink module management. I used to try it several times and I honestly admire many of its features. Archicad is really a very good home design or BIM software for professional architects.

Yesterday, I read an article which says that Autodesk has a home design suite that is one of the strongest competitors of Archicad. It is called Revit. Besides having many similar features with Archicad 12, Revit Architecture is offered with two supporting software which are Revit Structure and Revit MEP.
Given the two home design softwares on my hand, I find that it is difficult for me to judge which one is the best. I can only say that Revit offers three integrated home design solutions whereas Archicad offers a comprehensive building information modeling. For Autocad users their choice might be the three Revit softwares. by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

A good book for home owner, designer and builder

I just downloaded a book tonight. Its title is Your Green Home - A Guide to Planning a Healthy, Environmentally Friendly New Home.

The phrase new home is not intended only to newly built house but to any house which needs to be re-constructed or modified to be a green home.

I am planning to build my own house and I have been looking for information that is related to sustainable house construction. When I was surfing the e-book websites, I found this book. I haven't read all the pages of the book but I can say that the content is suitable for my needs.

The followings are the topics discussed in the book:

YOUR GREEN HOME

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: So YouWant to Build a Green Home

CHAPTER 2: Finding the Help You Need
CHAPTER 3: Where to Build

CHAPTER 4: General Issues in House Design

CHAPTER 5: The Structural Building System
CHAPTER 6: Energy Efficient Design

CHAPTER 7: Making Use of Renewable Energy

CHAPTER 8: Materials and Products for Green Building
CHAPTER 9: Creating a Safe Indoor Environment
CHAPTER 10: Respecting and ConservingWater

CHAPTER 11: Dealing with ConstructionWaste

CHAPTER 12: Landscaping and Plantings
CHAPTER 13: Costs of Building Green
CHAPTER 14: Living in Your Green Home

Steps in Building a House

Suppose that you plan to build a house this year. The first thing that you need to do is buying a land. The house should be constructed according to the condition of the land.

When you have known the size of the land, and its contour the next step is making the house plan. There are a number of technical drawings which you and designer need to make for constructing the house. Some of them are floor plan, foundation plan, roof plan, ceiling plan, front and side elevations. You also need to have such drawings as electrical and pipe installations for your house.

A floor plan can tell us the size of each room, the number of tiles and also the height of a floor compared to other floor in different rooms.

The foundation plan can tell us the length of the foundation which is important for the calculation of stones, sand, and steel rod materials for the house foundation.

When they are being made, make sure that the house materials that you are going to use are the natural ones. Avoid using materials that are not produced locally. Sometimes, people use pre-fabricated materials because its price is cheaper or stronger. For instance, pre-pressed wall is stronger and lighter than the brick wall that is constructed manually. Failing to plan is planning to fail. So, if you want your house to be comfortable and safe to live, plan it well before building it. by Charles Roring in Manokwari, Indonesia