Congratulations goes to Herb Nordmeyer for his continued work to help the recovery effort for the built environment in Haiti. Nordmeyer has been working tirelessly for several years to teach people how to build disaster resistant affordable homes, working with crews throughout Haiti he has lifted bar for quality affordable housing across the island while also ensuring a properly trained workforce will continue to construct communities using proper concrete mix designs and building techniques to withstand future natural disasters. Nordmeyer will receive the Four Chaplains Award February 4th, 2017 at the St Francis Episcopal Church in San Antonio.
For the last four years, Herb Nordmeyer along with an outreach crew from his home church, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church and Mission Haiti, have been visiting Haiti and helping local communities build concrete dome homes and community buildings. Herb has begun teaching a college-level course on concrete inspection and building techniques to withstand a variety of natural disasters including hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. He also published a book about his experiences in Haiti called Homes for Jubilee.
Under Nordmeyer’s guidance, the local crews have built a number of dome structures using balloon forms from Monolithic Dome Institute and a basalt rope rebar to reinforce a custom structural concrete mix. The balloon form is placed over a circular concrete slab 30 feet in diameter and remains expanded until the various layers of concrete and basalt rebar are thick enough to support itself. Final thickness is designed to be 2 ½ inches with slight variations across each project.
Nordmeyer will continue visiting Haiti throughout 2017 to oversee the ongoing construction projects and continue teaching at the American University of the Caribbean. His goal is to complete a second book before the end of 2017 which will be a form of training manual focused on quality concrete mixing and installation for regions prone to seismic activity and natural disasters.
The need continues for expert volunteers to provide training to skilled and semi-skilled crews throughout Haiti as well as donations of used, fully-operational equipment and tools. To provide donations or inquire about volunteering contact:
Mission: Haiti
2269 S. University Drive, No. 227
Davie, FL 33324
(954) 868-8218
After Herb and I finished the most interesting and informational hour-long tour of the Alamo, we scuttled downtown. At random intervals I would notice Herb was not by my side. After looking around, I usually found him examining a portion of stucco on the side of a building. When I walked up to Herb, he would start to explain what the angle of the crack in the stucco meant. Or what mix the stucco was made of. He always did this with a humorous and educational twist. It is these types of facts and tidbits that are included in this wonderful stucco book. Herb has accomplished writing the most informative series about stucco and plaster that has ever been published. If you’re interested in how to stucco, how to mix stucco or even learn some of the history of stucco, this book will become the very best tool in your toolkit.
Earthen hand construction offers natural building classes. These include EarthBag construction, natural plastering and passive solar design. July 23-26, EarthenHand in Portland Oregon will host the first of several workshops this summer. This workshop will use the newest kind of mesh Earthbags which EarthenHand have found to be superior of others they have tried. This workshop will also include an introduction to Passive Annual Heat Storage combined with