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The quincha is gaining ground in San Carlos. They ensure that the houses are cooler and the cost of building them is 50% less than with bricks. A house under construction with the quincha system. An old system of lower cost and sustainable construction seeks to resurface in Mendoza. It is about the thatch, based on the use of wooden structures and mud and straw filling, which is already being used in the construction of houses, including the Provincial Housing Institute, despite the fact that it is resisted by some engineers. “This type of construction is an effective response to global warming,” said Bertrand Pahaut, a Belgian who settled in Mendoza five years ago and created an SME focused on this method. The houses are cooler and cheaper. The National Housing Institute delivered in December 2022 the first social house built with the quincha system to a family from San Carlos. The prototype was generated with the company Hornero Tec de Pahaut and its partner Fabio Álvarez, under the orbit of the Housing Laboratory, and for a year measurements and tests of its efficiency will be carried out. “This system seemed new to us. The chosen company adapted the construction system to the new codes and also has the industrialized process, said the head of the IPV, María Marta Ontanilla, who stated that the function of the laboratory is to investigate and analyze new construction systems that promote energy efficiency and that are socially and environmentally sustainable. In this context, in June 2022, the provincial body granted a house built with the New Pannel system in the Flores Olivares neighborhood of the City of Mendoza. The house made with the quincha system provided by the IPV. The benefits To adapt to the codes of the province, the company developed the QMS system (systematized improved quincha), which consists of manufacturing houses with a cane or wood structure and filled with raw mud. They are seismic resistant and subject to legal construction requirements. However, only some municipalities have approved this modality, such as San Carlos, Las Heras and Lavalle. In this sense, Ontavilla clarified that suppliers must submit a technical folder for the communes to approve the construction system. The mix is ??made of straw, sand and clay. The mixture is made of cut cereal straw, coarse sand and pure powdered clay and with it the BTA (lightened earth blocks) are assembled, a kind of brick that serves to fill in the wall. The property, which was delivered to a family from San Carlos, was directed by the architect Adriana Saua. It has a reinforced concrete base, while the load-bearing structure is made of solid pine columns and beams that are attached to reinforced concrete columns. From the 40 centimeter foundation, it was filled with BTA and the wall was then plastered with thick and fine clay on the inside and with lime plaster on the outside and in wet areas. Source Hornero tec. Due to the thermal insulation offered by the material, they are cooler in summer and warmer in winter. You can save up to 70% on heating and you dont need to use air conditioning because of the materials used, the design and orientation of the property that make it more efficient, Pahaut said. The cost According to the last measurement carried out during the first ten days of January by the Center of Engineers of Mendoza, the cost of a square meter of affordable housing under the traditional system is 1,027 dollars (at the official price of Banco Nación) or 184,078 pesos. While a medium quality one costs 1,534 dollars or 274,881 pesos per square meter. Meanwhile, Pahaut indicated that the cost with the quincha system is $200 per square meter. Roof insulation details with its steam brake surround. The resistance Daniel Dimaría, president of the Center for Engineers of Mendoza, was against the return of thatch, assuring that in the globalized world, with so much technology, development of materials and scientific progress, it does not seem logical to return to thousand years ago. The interior of the house that delivered the IPV. “I am very critical and there are engineers who must agree. It could be a very particular solution for someone who is in the middle of the field and has no other possibility”, clarified the engineer, who questioned the durability and the studies on its resistance. “There is no physical, numerical analysis that professionals can do to establish resistance. In the world, with the occurrence of earthquakes, the greatest number of deaths occurs in adobe houses, this is not the same, but it is going back to the past. It does not have a clear justification,” concluded Dimaría. |
