Hey, I'm Rob, I volunteer, travel, and build things out of earth

in #introduceyourself8 years ago (edited)

 Hello Steemit, I’m Rob, I like to volunteer and travel.   

I’ve been lurking in the shadows of facebook for quite some time now, getting slowly bored of scrolling through a sea of shallow sentiments. I first joined when I started University 10 years ago, but the excitement of seeing a new notification wore off a long time ago.  

As an introvert, telling people about my life is not something I particularly like to do, whether it’s a fear of criticism, or a fear of being egotistical, I don’t know. But facebook, for me, only deepens the issue. No longer am I simply quiet in front of the people I meet, I’m now quiet in front of everyone I’ve ever met, and everyone they’re ever met, all of the time. So I don’t post on Facebook. 

But I have a lot to share, and for some reason, sharing it with the entire world on a transparent platform is less daunting than sharing it with everyone I’ve ever met. I’ve probably never met you, I will probably never meet you, so let’s give it a try. 

I’ve used Wordpress for years to share my photos, but this platform is the one I’ve been waiting for. A decentralised, open source, crypto based blogging platform that pays its users for their creativity. 

Thank you for making this and sharing it with the world, I hope it continues to grow, that the hackers/ debuggers continue to strengthen the system and that wealth is fairly distributed to those that create valuable content. My only worry is that people will be paid to post things that they haven’t created, but I guess that’s inevitable, until creators come here first!  

I love building houses out of earth, and I spent 3 years volunteering on a tiny farm in the mountains of Ecuador. The 9-5 office routine barely paid enough to continue living the 9-5 office routine, so I decided that if I wasn’t saving any money, I’d rather be doing something I love. 

The first time I visited the farm was in 2010, I was there for 9 months and I built a tiny underground hobbit house.  

 

The 2nd time was in 2013, and I spent 2 years building a community centre, which I did a TEDx talk about! 

 

I love photography, and I have thousands of photos of the projects, as well as tens of thousands of photos waiting to be made into timelapses. Hopefully this site will motivate me to do some editing. 

I also love 3D printing, anything to do with permaculture, 2nd hand shops and DIY projects.  

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Thanks for sharing. Great super-adobes. I must say you are exactly what I was looking for here https://steemit.com/steemit/@samether/100-steem-to-solve-a-clay-problem. I wanted to build an oven with exact spiral/fractal/constructal shape on your video.I wish I was on that farm in Ecuador right now.

Before I was in crypto I was fulltime obsessed with Timbrel Vaulting. https://steemit.com/sudan/@samether/travel-sudan

Exactly what most the communities in the developing world need.

I look forward to see more of your works.

You might not believe this but I'm currently working on the design of a rocket stove, which I'll be 3d modelling and printing. I've been spending the past months researching castable refractory cements, perlite insulation and stove dimensions. If you dont know, rocket stoves are super clean efficient wood burning stoves. I'm sure a griddle could be incorporated into the design.
I like your idea for interlocking terracotta tiles, it would allow the stove to expand and contract with the heat and not crack. I'm not sure about the 1kw heating element though, people who already use wood would... could continue using wood with a rocket stove, without the smoke problems of conventional stoves.
I'd love to build a vaulted ceiling one day, really beautiful, tell me more!
Oh and your link didn't work because of the full stop, took me a moment to realise, i'll post it again :)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@samether/100-steem-to-solve-a-clay-problem
Thanks for the inspiration, I'll get some stove stuff on here ASAP!

You have interesting life)

Thank you. I would recommend it to anyone who is bored of their job, at least for a holiday. I volunteer my time in exchange for food and a bed.

Those places you've built from the earth look awesome. They look like they should belong on some festival grounds.

That would be a dream come true! Thanks

Nice, very cool construction Rob. What's the feedback like from the zoning and planning and development people like? Just Curious.

Good question. As these are experimental building techniques, it's very difficult to find any guidelines or regulations. We followed US codes, which have some allowances for super adobe, for example connecting the walls together with a reinforced concrete bond beam. These codes are outlined in Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques, which was pretty much our bible.
The problem with experimental building is that you simply cant do it if you follow standard codes, which gets us nowhere fast, you have to do it to prove it - preferably on top of a mountain somewhere and not in the centre of a town. We were visited by multiple architects and engineers during the building process; we over engineered and are continuing to do so.

Hi Rob! Excited to have you on Steemit! I'm looking forward to reading more about your earth building. I have built some permaculture huts before and my dream is to make something similar to the mushroom houses in new york: http://www.mushroomhouse.com/

Woah, nice. I love that these building techniques bring such random shapes with them, it would be impossible to design the texture on the walls, or the curves of the edges, but by smearing earth on the walls that is exactly what is achieved, infinite detail! It's a welcome step away from perfectly formed white boxes. I look forward to reading about your huts!

shares on facebook with this description:
"ok...this dude is awesome. Read this."

Welcome Rob! Your life is colorful indeed!

Hey Rob! Welcome to the party. Cool house btw!

looks great. the world needs talented engineers.

You are crazy!) Welcome!:)

Its the craziest photo I have :)

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