The main secret of this technic is the elastic character in the system. Normal houses are sattled on beton ground and this is a strong but not elastic thing.


Earthbaghouses have a foundation made from little stones without any cement and these stones can move in the deepness of the earth.


The shaking vibration of an earthquake is compensed in the flexible underground and so the swinging building get the swing in the bottom and not in the top like a normal building.

The first layers are filled with stones not fixed with cement. They also can absord the water and the next layers are these Polypropylen bags filled with a mix from 75% earth and 25% clay.


The bags can stay for fivehundred years if they no get sun, the UV light would kill the strongness of all. The job is to mix a good filling and to fill the bags with several technics, bring them into level and with heavy tools you press the filling in the bags. Weeks after this the filling gets hard and strong like bricks.

The connection between the layers is made with metal barbed wire. The needles in it keep the things together, not any cement. The bared wire is installed always in a full round for each layer, no cut.


This gives an ernormous strength to the full construction, holding the thing together. For doors and windows openings there are special technics to keep the wire still in a round.


What you can see on the right pic are the special corners

and this is the next secret of giving shakable strength to the full building.

For the doors and the windows there are special made things to connect the bags and the wood in a proper way. They have to be integrated during the setting the layers at special points.


There are rules for the distance between the corners and the openings for the doors etc. which keep the stability of all and ther is no loose of strongness.


Because of the roof which goes up in the middle the walls are not so high. We speak here about a house for farmers, simple house and the earthbaglayers top the wood only with one layer.

Its also possible to make a first floor on the building, the upper part will be made from wood to keep it light.

On top of all the layers a cement-beton ring is made in a full round. This gives weight to the construction and keeps it even more together. Because of the weight the full thing can not ,fall down‘ during the shakes of an eartquake.


The mix from flexibel gound, the wire ring around the house in each layer and the cement up, gives the character that the building can shake ... strong like a bunker !!!


In a normal house the swinging walls have the top swinging on top of the building, the arthbag technic takes the swinging already in the ground and let the WALLS NOT SWING ...

Good Earth Nepal is an organisation founded in New York and they made already more than 50 buildings here in Nepal according to the system from the founder of all Mr. Owen Geiger. Good Earth Nepal is making special technical things for earthquake resistant houses. They are using plastictubes, which are even more strong.


Earthbaghouses are also called nature houses or green houses because they use local things. The strong plastic  we can get here in Kathmandu, the tools are also available in Nepal and the earth ... is everywhere and no stones have to be carried from somewhere up to the mountains. They are more cheap but contains more work than a brick house.

This is Falame, the destroyed village closed by to Melamchi and 4 teens from Melamchi joined the workshop and will help to rebuild the broken house(s). In october two boys from Germany will enter the story on their way through the world to support Nepal and the earthquake victims. Thanks to all !!!!!!!!

Please feel free to donate some money for the realization of making these houses and rebuilding Falame village near Melamchi.

The government is not really well supporting them ...