Cheap House

Plan For

New Guinea

Like much of the Western world, many Pacific territories have a hous ing problem. But theirs is hardly one of shortage, but rather the need for something more permanent than their traditional attractive wood and thatch structures, able to stand up to the vagaries of tropical weather.

With finance a problem to most of them, the cost must be low. Perhaps that is why the expression “low cost housmg” is so popular in many of the Islands groups.

FIJI has its popular low-cost ctesiphon, designed by a Catholic priest, and based on ideas used by th e ancient Greeks. Papua-New Guinea may soon be in the swim, but with something a little more con ventional.

A Port Moresby builder, Mr. T.

Dirkin, has evolved a process, known as “gunite”, under which he can build houses to sell at not more than £5OO. These houses comprise a bedroom, toilet, shower, living room and a kitchenette in a floor space of 12 ft by 24 ft.

Mr, Dirkin claims that under his process he will build in a fraction of the time required for standard type houses.

The first step is to erect a plywood frame, after which a mixture of crushed rock and cement is placed in a gunite machine. Under air pressure the mixture is forced through a long tube, and exploded on to the frame of the walls at a pressure of 35 lb to the square inch.

A second coat is sprayed on an hour later, and a third and final coating with coloured cement an hour after the second layer.

The plywood frame is removed when the cement is dry. Each frame can be used about 100 times The finished cement walls are 3 in. thick. The five windows and two door frames are built into the frame work before spraying starts. Window frames are fitted later with glass louvres.

The roof of the house comprises sheets of curved corrugated iron bolted to the walls, with an 18 in. overhang on each to form eaves. The roof is- then lined with sheets of white styreme foam, a material with a smooth surface.

Mr. Dirkin erected the first demon stration house on his property at

Boroko. The Public Works Dep* ment has given him a contract build nine similar houses as a t project at Hohola, a low-cost nat residential area at Port Moresby.

Mr. Dirkin plans to finish the terior walls of this project in < ferent colours—white, light gr blue, red and green. The inter walls have a smooth finish which householders may paint themselv

These P-NG official pictures show the in framework of one of the new-type hou[?] together with the outside before, during after the final coat of concrete. The[?] is still to be added.