Toilet trials

Posted by admin on Feb 5, 2012 in Environment, Projects, Sanitation, Shelter, Volunteer | 0 comments

We need to build 75 toilets using local materials, and maximize the number of toilets per square foot. We first tried a square design with a diagonal piece for bracing.

Box design with a diagonal brace

Then that fell down.

small teepee

That was a little cramped inside…

a bit small

So then we jacked it up about 16 feet in the air and attached the top pieces together with a bolt.

bigger pyramid design

Now the structure seems to hold well, but there still isn’t enough space to fit in enough toilets. Now, we are back to square 1 and are leaning more on copying a design created by SOIL, a composting toilet/system in Haiti. Read more about them at www. oursoil.org. More on the toilet once we build our prototype… !!!

Bernard's design

This last design is actually the structure of a earthquake resistant house designed by Architect Bernard Fredette. Go here to see the design plans online.