"Treading Light on Black Saturday" Makes a Contribution

About two weeks ago, I received a heartwarming comment regarding my post on my travels during Black Saturday of 2008. I traveled to the northern part of Negros Occidental and visited some local spots. One of them is the Dome House of Escalante City. Let me share my entry:

Escalante City is located in the northeastern tip of the Negros island approximately about 95 kilometers away from Bacolod City. With its close proximity to the island of Cebu, the language of the locals is mixed Cebuano and Hiligaynon with the majority on the former.

In 2005, the city enjoyed some limelight in national and local papers as well as in many travel and general interest television programs. It became host to the first earth bag shelter system in the country. This is the “sole” purpose of my proverbial travel itch: to finally see the dome “houses”.

A House and Not Houses
The 95 km bus ride took me about 1.5 hours and PhP85.00 to finally step on the official city streets of Escalante. I took some time to look around before going to my destination. I went into their public market. The market impressed me. It was the cleanest public market I’ve been into in all of my documented and undocumented travels.
After buying some bottled water, I hailed a tricycle and asked to be taken to the site where the dome “houses” are situated. I opted to speak Cebuano because all personnel in the store where I bought water and the persons I have overheard in the public market were conversing in Cebuano. The driver looked confused and asked me for further description in halting Cebuano. I discovered he speaks Hiligaynon. And so I switched language and asked him again, this time giving description of the “houses” – with domes as roof rather that the usual galvanized iron. With the spark of recognition, he said he knew of only one house that fitted my description. I insisted that I am referring to a number of houses, a village even, with such dome structures. He responded that he knows of the recent housing projects but knew nothing of what I am referring to aside from the single house he knew. In order not to keep the debate any longer, I asked him to take me to the house he is referring to.

Much to my chagrin, the driver was indeed correct in saying that there is only one structure with a dome in Escalante. The house stood with its faded paint and with ferns sprouting in its now parched dome near the hall of Barangay Fe, just beside the national highway leading to the city proper. I instantly recognized it from the television shows I’ve seen where Illac Diaz (the proponent of the dome house) was shown coming out of its door unto the gravel yard. 

“House of the Future” Becomes “House with Structural Failures”
With the hype it was into in 2005, in my mind I assumed that the project of the earth bag shelter or dome house was successful and was eventually proliferated into a village of dome houses. I was embarrassingly wrong. The house now is a picture of a structure crying out with impending structural failure.

After the media hype for this dome house, I wondered what could have gone wrong. I could sense that the intent was good but it seemed that this project lacked the proper follow through and no proper maintenance procedures were set. This is after all, a prototype (refer to this article: First Earth Bag Shelter) whose failure or success could spell out proliferation or termination.

The domes are parched, with layers of cement slowly flaking off and the exposed layers becoming brittle through weathering. Cracks in its walls are visible even at a distance with signs of water ingress reaching its iron structural frame due to the presence of rust stains outside of the walls. Add to the demise these factors brought is the rich presence of ferns growing on top of its domes. The natural acids in the roots of these pteridophytans may contribute to the progressive cement disintegration of the dome structure.

Kelly Hart of earthbagbuilding.com was pointed by a reader (probably the one who collects pictures of dome houses and draws inspiration from the philosopher Rumi) of my blog to this entry. She is involved in documenting earth bag buildings all over the world. She has then re-written her original project page about the Philippine clinic to include some of my observations, with the hope that others would be aware of the potential pitfalls with finishing earthbag domes.

So what went wrong with the first earthbag building in the Philippines? You may want to check this site .

This project has been once again a victim of the "ningas kugon" attitude (fiery at the start but easily gives up) that afflicts most Filipinos. After all the publicity and media hype, no follow through was made to check whether this project has really served its purpose. There was a school in Siargao Island that was also built using the same concept as this project. One may wonder what happened to it. This writer also wonders what the hype and publicity has generated: better public imaging of the persons and organizations involved or an innovative housing solution...