SPATH

Society for the Promotion of Appropriate Technology and Housing, Cameroon

Experiments and Experiences with Alternative Techniques and Adapted Building Methods
Friday, November 25, 2022

Background – Examples – Affects / Conclusion

Professor Doctor Norbert Pintsch

Architect, Civil and Industrial Engineer

IPC, FBTC, FPAC, RUC


BACKGROUND

Various activities were undertaken in the Berlin period by the IPC (Charly, Johnny, etc.), which can be disregarded in the present consideration. A special project was the Power Box, a joint effort between Germany and Malaysia (see: www. ...).

With increasing international activity from 1990, which started in Pakistan and then continued into Cameroon, Colombia, etc., new challenges were encountered in the field of construction methods and technology.

EXAMPLES

In the TTTC of the AeFeA (NGO) in Pakistan, solar cookers, solar dryers, windmills (Savonius principle), hot water heaters, also a power box, for applications in rural areas and able to be locally produced, i.e. also without electricity and special tools, were made available and accessible not only to the villagers, but also to student visitors for educational purpose.

The objects were made in small quantities, distributed and sold and explained in lectures and workshops - from Adamkot in the south to Bahawalnagar to Abbottabad.

In the case of building methods, foremost the “women's center”, a competition for building samples was carried out, with a jury, awards and an exhibition. Not only experiences from excavations in the ancient city of Harappa by M. Kenoyer (three-layer wall construction used 5000 years ago, today referred to as passive solar architecture) were used, but also tests carried out in the wind tunnel of the TU Berlin before building, in order to ensure natural ventilation and air circulation cycles; The village and the planned development were modeled in accordance with the results of the study.

Different materials were used for the buildings (mud bricks, hollow bricks, solid wall and combinations with insulating material, also upside-down clay pots). The temperature was measured regularly at fixed points in order to use the experiences for later buildings (Lahore, D.I.K.). The experimental buildings in Lahore (PCC and BNU) were financed by the German Embassy and the IPC, the one for DIK (flood victims) by the Rotarians and with the help of the SES. The objects for the flood victims also considered results of developments in adapted technology. The building experiments in the BNU led to establishment of an Institute for Experimental Buildings (IEC, see www. ...).

The requirements for AT (alternative technology) and AB (adapted, climate-friendly construction) were different in Pakistan, Cameroon, Colombia, but similar in prevailing conditions (lack of tools, lack of electricity, etc.).

In Bamenda/Cameroon a permanent exhibition for AT and AB was created in the Center for Adapted Techniques (CAT, NGO), with workshops, lectures and presentations from Douala to Bafoussam to Maroua. A cooperation with the BUST led to the founding of the IAM; CAT's work has received several awards and it has been praised in press articles, the crown was thereby the establishment of RUC / Royal University Centre.

With the support of the then GTZ, as well as the IPC, also with the support of the SES, Misereor, etc., CAT-clubs were established in the districts of the former NW province; the Kids-Club in Bamenda conducted and still conducts environmental workshops, despite the turbulent situation in the English-speaking areas.

In Colombia, TM (ONG) Saboya was able to bring awareness about AT to the people in the town; Through cooperation with a workshop in Chiquinquira, equipment was manufactured for schools (to explain and raise awareness of the students about AT) and remote Fincas (independent of power supply) and introduced for use. A particular success was the branch in Leticia on the Amazon with the assistance of the National University in Bogota (including a course for environmental technology as a run-up to an exhibition in the Museum Leopoldo Rother with material from Germany ). IdEpeT, an institution for like-minded people, was established in project and partner locations. In Colombia, the project work was supported by IPC, DGFK, Misereor and SES.

EFFECTS

If one asks about the achievements of the activities outlined, then, according to spectacular reports in the media, they are visible in everyday life. Everyday life includes coping with the normal demands of life and dealing with other developments. People in rural areas in particular are subject to enormous information pressure from the cities. In order to appear open minded, ideas are being adopted which are usually not compatible with the environment. There is a certain tragedy in the subsequent realizations of the townsfolk, whose previous influence on the rural population had already had a negative impact on the environment. A certain traditional conservative attitude can be helpful here, but it will be difficult for the willing and affected to maintain it.

A remarkable example was the experience in a Pakistani village - one lived there, in today's sense very environmentally friendly, was economical with water and fuel! And all this without much dependence on the urban areas.

CONCLUSION

All in all one can say: Good ideas require the right point in time and a minority that lives what it considers right and environmentally friendly!


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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:54 AM, ,

Digitization is eating away at its creators and helpers / La digitalisation ronge ses créateurs et ses adeptes
Saturday, May 22, 2021

When reality and pseudo-reality alienate each other

by Norbert Pintsch

INTRODUCTION

Literature and quotations are deliberately avoided here

So that it becomes easier to ignore

One can confidently dedicate oneself to pleasant things of the virtuality.

The short text is dedicated to the few students and open minds in the RUC.

SCIENCE AS SUPERFICIALITY

Sensitive or explosive topics attract interested parties. They want to learn more and the especially the good ones want to have a list of publications in order to control, discard, expose the author of a challenging article, to accuse of unscientific approach, - and by the way to convey; everything is in the best of order, and if not, then it will be soon!

EARLY CHILDHOOD WEANING

Children should learn to use the tools of the future as early as possible. The fascination of the virtual world has captured all areas. Its implementation in industrial production process is evident. Use of computers for designing, constructing and developing work is very common, previously income generation tools for freelance professions such as lawyers, tax consultants, auditors, - in the industry you get used to the use of algorithms (Industry 2.0).

ERRORS AS IMPOSSIBILITY

It is inevitable that the curious - wise ones are hardly available in this branch and they have no voice in business life - good and enthusiastic develop further. Economic success counts and what can then be consumed. Scenarios are developed unrestrainedly, but also lived, so that the thought of a wrong approach becomes impossible to imagine!.

STUDY AS CONSUMABLE ITEM

What you don't know, you can't forget, and so you live in vegan nirvana as a novelty, which has long been known to the wise. Digitization covers all the differences on the planet. This is industry-friendly, therefore economical and, if you firmly believe in it, also environmentally friendly and resource-saving.

NO THEORY WITHOUT PRACTICE

No names are deliberately given here, but the model of permanent alienation from reality should stimulate thinking: each period of time relates to previous, practical experiences and development of a new theory. If the practice level is omitted, then a theory level develops which is falsely taken to be practice, etc. The production of errors becomes so immense that recognizing them is increasingly difficult!

NETWORKING AS A FLOSCLE

The euphoric nerds and Knights of Unworldliness, hardly have they gotten to know real life, have moved from one country to the next, without having gained experience with the peculiarities of the respective cultures.

UNIFORMITY REPLACES INDIVIDUALITY

Without having touched a piece of material in reality, they develop on the screen, have robot-friendly products calculated, test drugs without knowing life, they feel themselves qualified to advise others on conflicts, without ever having experienced a real conflict!

INTELLECTUAL EMPTYNESS AS TOOL FOR EVALUATION

Do the developers and their helpers notice how they are embedded in consumption themselves? - Why is that so? There is no need or interest for reflecting on their behaviour, besides, there is no time!

Terms like morality and ethics do not appear in the world of program developers and improvers, which makes intellectual cannibalism easier.

The attentive reader will have definitely discovered parallels in his environment!

Introductory lecture in the IPC, on the occasion of the pandemic development

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:14 AM, ,

About the Think Tank Project
Sunday, January 20, 2019

by Norbert Pintsch IPC, FPAC

TTP / FBTC and FPAC are networked with SPARC-SPAET-SPATH-SPOCA-SEMOL-SUTOL

After sketching the topic HOUSING in three publications (Housing, Population and Housing, Systems and Housing), TTP is now entering a new phase.

Although the topic of communication and information has been treated in various essays over the years, experience has also been gained with contemporary techniques, but now the problems arising from the cultural model and its inter-dependencies, as well as system considerations on general housing meed to be discussed.

There are misunderstandings from small groups to large groups, and it is more than a miracle that an exchange is possible at all.

It is not only the basic communication, which is a problem.

If one were to orient oneself towards Wittgenstein (which one is not supposed to talk about, one has to be silent about it), then hardly any communication and information should be taking place.

In the assumption of better understanding, new terms are invented, which instead of closer definition create still new questions and thus new answers with new terms and for improvement with the same, similar or different concepts or ideas.
Already the analogue exchange of ideas on earth is more than problematic, but when the digital exchange comes into play with additional time or distance factors, then arise the real problems!

Housing in the closed system is the protection, the material protection, - the immateriality that demands the traditional humanity!

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 2:33 PM, ,

Informal Think Tank
Sunday, January 6, 2019

By Norbert Pintsch, IPC, FPAC

The idea of cooperating with others, i.e. to exchange ideas with others and to stimulate each other, this thought is not exactly new!

In the United States of America (USA), company representatives came together and established privately funded socalled Think Tanks!

In the 20th century, this idea was implemented under president Franklin Roosevelt and a new form of advice emerged.

In politics, technological and economic interests are transferred into governance process in a lobby-like manner.

Such examples are presently implemented in many countries for selfish interests and they influence politics, usually with a certain lobby in the background.

The DGFK is an altruistic example of an informal Think Tank in which SUTOL, SEMOL, SPARC, SPATH, SPAET, SPOCA, but also FPAC and FBTC exist; however they operate in a subtle and discreet manner!

An interesting project is the so called Closed System, which outlines possibilities and tendencies, also of an uncomfortable kind, which is characterized by financial independence and the personal refrain from self-projection by the co-thinkers.

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 4:46 PM, ,

Development of art through digital technology and biochemical adaptations
Monday, November 5, 2018

Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, SRF / FPAC

As already often mentioned, it is not about either this ... or this, but about both; this-as well as this. This does not mean that from now on a new form of art is available, but rather: it is still in the phase of development, maybe the effects of this are unimaginable to contemporary critics, but this is always the case with imminent upheavals in approach.

We had already written "About the End of the Arts and Crafts" - in means here that unique items will gradually disappear and will play a role only with certain collectors in the high-price segment, - for the masses remain increasingly only copies, that is: mass produced products , This may not be understandable to the contemporaries, but it is so.

We have already written about "Polycrystalline and Bio-Molecular Structures in mobile and Immobile Towns (Architecture and Urban Development)" - this runs parallel to the upcoming art, whereby the term art is to be understood in a comprehensive sense, with painting, literature , Music - all in the traditional sense.

What awaits our children and grandchildren, if they are not already infiltrated in this direction?

Creative interactive consumption, with -Virtual theater, where one can play classics with friends, but also let yourself act with "stars", -Virtual design, with classic role models, but also by experiencing neural highways, -Virtual experience in games and sports in animated roles including traveling through the cosmos, as well as movements in, through and on the planet.

The reference to already existing infiltration refers to the computer-assisted film and music productions, computer simulations, - ultimately, all areas of life are at least affected, even if it is not perceived as such. It is valid here: we see what we want to see, - hear what we mean to hear, think what we like! What can be thought, if the thinking subject is also the object at the same time? The Artificial Intelligence (AI) is immune to this problem!

The question of why and for what reason we had already discussed under the topic

"Regarding the development of housing in a closed system".

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posted by S A J Shirazi @ 2:37 PM, ,


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