The Bricoleur: Making Do

Claude Levi-Strauss used the term "Bricoleur", referring to a maker, of sorts, who makes do with the tools and materials at hand. Terry Frohm, principle technician at the CRRF Chuuk marine laboratory in Chuuk in the early 90s, used the term "Making Do" in reference to appurtenances and contrivances, innovations he cobbled together in creating a functioning laboratory, with a minimum of expensive and specialized equipment or hardware.

I recognized, in Levi-Strauss's descriptions of the Bricoleur, the Micronesian fishermen's use---of necessity---of available materials to solve their own technical problems: Marshallese fishermen used a piece of broken glass or a sharp piece of Aluminum beer can to clean a catch of fish on the beach; spears were fashioned of discarded heavy iron wire from water-tank bands, straightened and sharpened; their slings made from old airplane inner tubes. Goggles were carved from wood---using possibly a kitchen knife sharpened on a piece of pumice that had drifted onto the beach, their glass from a
relict World War II airplane. Gillette's study of Tuna fishing in Tokelau features a demonstration by a Tokelauan elder: trapping an air bubble in the hand cupped over one's eye to provide an air-water interface through which to see fish clearly.

This Blog cannot adequately honor the resourcefulness of those men, but I have borrowed the words of Terry Frohm, to describe the purpose of this proposed collection of solutions and innovations of various kinds. These solutions are embarassingly rich in their reliance on modern materials. The intention is to develop a repository of cheap and easy solutions to problems that are important to me. I I hope it can serve as more than a collection. Rather, by example, a reminder that solutions are often at arm's reach, and not in catalogs.


Thursday, July 25, 2019

I did an experiment like this: Burlap-Crete.

Ken Kern's book inspired me.

My project didn't look like this.  The desing in this figure instpired me.


On the island of Moen (also known as Weno), i built a structure using burlap-reinforced plaster/concrete.  I think it was something of a success; however I haven't returned to the island except once since the 1990s.  Maybe someone knows the outcome of this experiment.

Our plywood home, with corrugated iron roof, was blown apart in Typhoon Nina, in 1997.  I had just been paid my first paycheck, covering 5 pay periods, so I had some cash in my pocket.  But no home.   My son Forrest's first birthday was a few days away.  It was essential to hold a massive celebration; in these islands, the first birthday is of special significance.  It may be the only one to be celebrated.  It marks the arrival of a new person, a significant landmark marking survival of a whole year. 

Luckily (in some ironic sense), Joe Ten "super" market had put a container full of frozen chicken on sale for 5.00 a case.  In this case, I had enough for the main course!   It was a fine celebration, held on Capitol Hill, one doesn't remember quite where, in a large room.  Possilby an office building.

One problem solved.  Another, bigger challenge remained: what about a house?  I had wanted to build a burlap reinforced concrete house, for years.  Ken Kern's _Owner Built Home_ presented some ideas.  Could this work?

I had enough cash to purchase tools and some materials.  I don't remember how the plan came together---maybe it wasn't a plan at all, but an unfolding.  What resulted was a small, 8' x 12' dwelling, with electrical wiring.  This is something worthwhile.  This time, it had a corrugated iron roof.  I did come up with a solution for rolling long rolls of plaster slurry saturated burlap up and over a frame work of joists.  I envisaged a 40' x 20' (or so) building, costing no more than $2,000.00.  On some isiands, this would be a practical idea: all one needed was some number of sacks of concrete, a very small number of rebars (to provide some strength where required), some burlap, and a number of tools.  Burlap was readily available as coconut sacks. 

Did it work?  I wouldn't be surprised if it still is standing.  But I don't know.  Maybe the roof would go first.  It was very comfortable, and it had a feature that would have been very difficult to built in any other way: a vent at one corner, drawing a draught of air from under the house.  With windows high on the opposite side, air would be drawn through, and it was drawn through, making it comfortable on a hot night.

I cannot go any farther for now. 
This is from Annesley’s Weblog 

Here is a web site on a
more ambitious use of this material.  I am told that buildings around the Bay Area were built in a similar fashion, including the Palace of the Legion of Honor, by a highly regarded architect from Berkeley.

This awesome website has gone far far further than I might ever have imagined:

https://annesley.wordpress.com/burlap-crete-explained/

Annesley's website gives instructions for the method.  It seems like he spent a lot of time on this, and experimented exhaustively with materials.  Ken Kern recommended incorporating "Asphalt Emulsion." 


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