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- Country of residence: Palestine
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Engineer Heba Mansour Wafi, 25, from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, did not hide her joy after her idea of introducing 3D technology in making stone from natural environmental components met with local and Arab success.
She explains that the (hybrid local building) is based on integrating smart technology into local building materials based on traditional architecture techniques.
Speaking to Al-Rou’a, Wafi said: “Through this technology, I tried to find solutions to housing problems and revive traditional architecture, but in a modern way that is accepted by the individual and takes into account his needs, in addition to taking into account the limited availability of cement mainly and construction materials in general in the Gaza Strip in a way that causes Its high price."
"The goal of the project is to reduce construction time and effort, find solutions to environmental construction problems in construction and demolition processes, and reduce the cost of obtaining construction materials, maintenance and operational costs of buildings," she added.
Wafi stresses that the sector is rich in natural resources that can replace cement in construction operations, such as "compounded soil".
About this technique, Wafi says: "It is one of the compatible construction techniques and depends mainly on soil and water, and it is possible to use a little cement, lime or karkar, but this is not necessary."
Wafi explains that the compacted soil technology allows the use of all types of soil at the construction site, while the environmental aspect is that the building is a thermal mass that does not need air conditioning in summer or heating in winter, and provides sound and moisture insulation, and buildings do not need external or internal finishing.
Previously, Eng. Wafi received the Hassib Sabbagh and Said Khoury Award for her graduation project entitled “A residential neighborhood using “rammed earth” technology, as the best graduation project for 2019, and in 2020 she received an award from the Business and Technology Incubator (BTI), and the project is being worked on until right Now.
As for the mechanism of producing these stones, she says: "The process is done by adding the mixture in a three-dimensional printer, or through a machine that is designing it to cast stone, which differs in its manufacture and working mechanism from the normal machine."
She points out that this method is one of the oldest construction methods, environmentally friendly and low in cost in countries that have cheap labor. It also gives an aesthetic shape to the walls without the need for painting, which helps reduce the cost of building large houses to about 40% of the total cost.
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