Anatomy of a Project (Vol. 5.2) - Materials and Design Elements

Let’s look at the materials we’re using here in Nicaragua to reproduce the inkawasi design.  One of the reasons this particular stove works so well as a community development project is that all of the materials can be found relatively easily and cheaply within the community.  The materials used in our project are:

Cement

Sand

Water

Rebar

(1/4" smooth and 3/4" corrugated)

Metal strip

(3/4" wide)

Wire for tying

Piedra Cantera

(blocks commonly used in construction - 40cm x 60cm)

Bricks

(15cm x 30cm)

Ashes

Barro

(clay)

Paste

(a kind of Spanish moss that grows abundantly in trees)

Concrete tubing

(chimney width - about 4")

Keep in mind that some of these materials can be substituted and switched out.  For example, maybe instead of concrete tubing, you want to use zinc or aluminum sheeting for the chimney, or maybe you have a different size of brick available…that’s perfectly fine.  You can play around with the raw materials themselves as long as you understand the role each item plays in the general functioning of the stove and stick to the exact measurements of the stove structure as defined by the inkawasi design.

A continuación, the inkawasi stove has four basic parts that also seem to translate directly into four stages of stove construction:

Stage One

(where the pots go)

Stage Two

(the base for building the stove)

Stage Three

(where the magic happens)

Stage Four

(where the smoke goes)

In the next four posts we’ll look closely at each part of the stove design and each stage of the construction.  I’ll also share a bit about how we’re handling construction logistics.  This is super important in this project since we have to coordinate between two separate communities to build seventy stoves at the same time.  Next up, The Stovetops.


    • (Vol. 1) – Intro to Economical Stoves
    • (Vol. 2) – Community Development…The Goal
    • (Vol. 3.1) – The Key Players
           (Vol. 3.2) - The Designers/Facilitators
           (Vol. 3.3) - The Community
    • (Vol. 4) – The Problemática
    • (Vol. 5.1) – The Stove Design
           (Vol. 5.2) - Materials and Design Elements ***

           (Vol. 5.3) - The Stovetops

           (Vol. 5.4) - The Table

           (Vol. 5.5) - The Stove Itself

           (Vol. 5.6) - The Chimney

    • (Vol. 6) – Community Workshops
    • (Vol. 7) – The Budget and Funding
    • (Vol. 8) – Designing for Sustainability