Housing Fo Sample

African Holding Share Company GODO VILLAGE SHEGER CITY
MODREN SMART VILLAGE

NEIGHBORHOOD
VILLA, APATERTEMENT, COMMERCIAL,
ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL CENETR
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
HOUSING PROJECT TO SHEGER CITY BY APPLAYING MODERN

INTERLOCKING BRICKS, EARTH BLOCK, HCB AND FIBER –RENFORCED
CONCERTE SYSTEM MASS HOUSING VILLA AFFORDABLE HOUSING
TECHNOLOGY, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION .
SHEGER CITY, OROMIA
OWNER: African Holding Share Company
PREPARED BY: JASPER ENGINEERING GROUP AND PARTENERS
ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERING PLC.

INVESTMENT, DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNICAL CONSULTANT
JULAY, 2023
Oromia, Ethiopia
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Contents
SHEGER CITY, OROMIA.......................................................................................................................................i
OWNER: African Holding Share Company..................................................................................................................i
General Introduction.................................................................................................................................................9
Sustainability of a large-scale.......................................................................................................................................11
Shegr city, oromia, Ethiopia......................................................................................................................................14
Cities Restructured.....................................................................................................................................................15
Oromia Regional State Urban Development and Housing Bureau........................................................................15
Village Development Plan:................................................................................................................................16
What is a smart village?........................................................................................................................................16
Why is a smart village approach needed?............................................................................................................17
Empower the region, support entrepreneurship, and attract skills................................................................................18

In this model, local agents and public administration play complementary roles:..............................................19
ENERGY EFFICIENCY HUB PROJECT. THE SMART MANAGEMENT NETWORK...............................19
Project Beneficiaries............................................................................................................................................20
Project Activities...................................................................................................................................................20
Marketing Objectives.................................................................................................................................................21
Marketing Strategies..................................................................................................................................................21
ECONOMY & LABOUR MARKET........................................................................................................................22
Technical Study...........................................................................................................................................................22
Land Use Plan.............................................................................................................................................................23
Construction work and Technology..........................................................................................................................25
Construction schedule..........................................................................................................................................25
Architectural Design & Layout.................................................................................................................................26

Organizational Structure...................................................................................................................................26
Organization and management........................................................................................................................26
Man Power...................................................................................................................................................... 26
Organizational Structure for housing smart village administration............................................................26
Building Administration Department.......................................................................................................................29

The marketing Department.......................................................................................................................................30
Technical and maintenance manager........................................................................................................................30
Financial Requirement and Analysis............................................................................................................30
PRPARED BY JASPER ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS PLC Smart city village and Affordable Housing system project
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Pre-service Expenses...................................................................................................................................................31
Capital Investment...............................................................................................................................................32
Design and consultancy Costs....................................................................................................................................32
Construction Costs......................................................................................................................................................33
6.3 Summary.................................................................................................................................................. 33
Monitoring and Evaluation........................................................................................................................................34

Environmental impact of the project........................................................................................................................34
Noise and Dust emission during Construction.........................................................................................................35
Problem on workers on construction...................................................................................................................35
Swages during operation......................................................................................................................................35
Construction Plan and Process..................................................................................................................................35

Definitions of Terms and Concepts...........................................................................................................................36
What are Interlocking Bricks?...............................................................................................................................36
Interlocking bricks are compressed and stabilized earth bricks which contributes to strength of the structure.
They are usually not subjected to baking. Interlocking bricks come in various sizes and locking systems depending
on the supplier. A typical brick size is 230x100x75mm (9x4x3 in)....................................................................37
Benefits of Inter-locking Bricks.................................................................................................................................37
Earthquake resistant..................................................................................................................................................37
Minimizes cost.............................................................................................................................................................37
Time Efficient..............................................................................................................................................................38
Disadvantages of Inter-locking Masonry..................................................................................................................38
Punching Shear Failure............................................................................................................................................38
What is Punching Shear?...........................................................................................................................................39
Design for punching shear.............................................................................................................................39
How to solve the problem of Punching Shear??......................................................................................................40

Now the question which comes in our mind is how to solve this problem. There are many
methods to solve this problem. Some are...............................................................................40
1) Increasing the thickness of slab............................................................................................ 40
2) Drop Caps.................................................................................................................................. 41
3) Shear reinforcement.............................................................................................................. 41
Does not require plaster work................................................................................................... 42
Provides cooler interior.............................................................................................................. 42
Unskilled / Fewer Labors........................................................................................................... 42
Definition of Shear Wall.........................................................................................................................................43
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Functions of Shear Wall:..................................................................................................................................43
Load Transfer Mechanism:..............................................................................................................................43
Calculation of Building Loads.....................................................................................................................................44

Advantages & Benefits of Synthetic Fibers in Concrete Flooring & Plastering Applications.....................................44
Drawbacks of use of Concrete in Flooring Works............................................................................45
Drawbacks of using Plain Plastering.....................................................................................................45
Development of Fiber Reinforcement..................................................................................................46
Comparison with Various Types of Fibers..........................................................................................46
Working of Fibers in Concrete................................................................................................................46
Advantages & Benefits of Using Synthetic Fibers in Plastering..................................................48
Advantages of Using Synthetic Fibers in Concrete Flooring Works..........................................48
Bleeding in Concrete | Control Bleeding | Governing Factors......................................................................48

What is bleeding in Concrete?.................................................................................................................49
How to Control Bleeding............................................................................................................................49
Factor Affecting Bleeding in Concrete..................................................................................................49
Waterproofing using Membranes.............................................................................................................................51

Waterproofing Membranes........................................................................................................................................51
Sheet Based Membranes.............................................................................................................................................52
Liquid Applied Waterproofing Membranes............................................................................................................52
Fiber-Reinforced Concrete.....................................................................................................................................53
Historical Development..................................................................................................................................53
General Considerations for Workability of Concrete.............................................................................................54

General Considerations for Workability.....................................................................................................55
Water content................................................................................................................................................ 55
A/c Ratio...........................................................................................................................................................55
Size of Aggregate...........................................................................................................................................55
Shape of Aggregates.....................................................................................................................................56
Surface Texture.............................................................................................................................................56
Grading of Aggregates.................................................................................................................................56
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Use of Admixtures........................................................................................................................................56
Concrete Properties and Mix Design | Mix Proportioning..................................................................57

Performance-Based Concrete Pavement Mix Design System......................................................57
Mix Design?.....................................................................................................................................................57
The primary considerations in mix proportioning include:........................................................57
A typical laboratory testing plan includes the following mix characteristics:......................58
Methods for Proportioning Concrete Mixes.......................................................................................58
Scaffolding | Scaffold Components | Type................................................................................................................58

Scaffolding........................................................................................................................................................... 58
Functional requirements.....................................................................................................................................58
Scaffold components...................................................................................................................................................59
Toe boards.......................................................................................................................................................... 61
Housing in Ethiopia.....................................................................................................................................................64
Present Ethiopian........................................................................................................................................................69
Quality of housing.......................................................................................................................................................70
Major role players on quality of condominium housing.........................................................................................76
Contractors Roles........................................................................................................................................................76
Measuring housing quality.........................................................................................................................................77
Benchmarking quality of housing..............................................................................................................................78
Internal benchmarking...............................................................................................................................................80
Competitive benchmarking........................................................................................................................................80
Generic benchmarking...............................................................................................................................................81
Common quality problem in low-cost housing.........................................................................................................81
Conceptual framework...............................................................................................................................................82
Motivation to improve quality of housing.................................................................................................................84
Quality standard technical manual for condominium housing..............................................................................87
Project awarding system of Oromia housing office................................................................................................88
Quality standard guidelines related to low-cost housing.........................................................................................89
Technical perspective..................................................................................................................................................91
Oromia housing unit office endeavor to develop quality of housing.......................................................................92
Interlocking Brick Machine.......................................................................................................................................94
The Advantages of Interlocking Blocks....................................................................................................................97
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Preparing the concrete:............................................................................................................................101
Producing interlocking bricks with the machine:..................................................................................................101

Delivering the pallet containing the interlocking bricks to the drying section:..................................................102
Double-Layer Paving Blocks...........................................................................................................................103
Interlocking Brick Machine Price............................................................................................................................104

Local example of smart village idea...........................................................................................................................105
Some expansion smart future city project idea and sample.................................................................................108
Communication and controlling quality of housing...........................................................113
4.1.1 Capacity building for SMEs and contractors by AAHDPO.....................................114
Quality Summary......................................................................................................................................................116
Towards Affordable Low-Cost Housing: Strategies of Low-Cost Housing Development for the Low-Income117
Conceptual Abstract...........................................................................................................................................117
Introduction to interlocking housing system..........................................................................................................117

Literature Review.....................................................................................................................................................118
Actors and practices of low-cost building materials and technologies.......................................................................118
Land:................................................................................................................................................................119
Infrastructure:.............................................................................................................................................119
Financial resources for housing...............................................................................................................................119

Public-private partnership in housing delivery.....................................................................................................120
Investment in affordable housing supports multiple social objectives................................................................120
Methodology..............................................................................................................................................................121
Strategies in place of driving to words low-cost affordable housing....................................................................121
Figure 1: Low-cost affordable housing model...................................................................................................122
Possible Ways of achieving low cost and affordable housing in Ethiopia, Oromia............................................122
Interlocking blocks....................................................................................................................................................124
Strategy 2: Make land affordable:..........................................................................................................................125
1. Land as equity:........................................................................................................................................125
2. Concessionary land:..............................................................................................................................125
3. Land banking/Flipping land:.............................................................................................................125
Strategy 3: Alternative Technologies:.................................................................................................125
Strategy 4:......................................................................................................................................................125
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Strategy 5....................................................................................................................................................... 126
Building subsidy into your model:.......................................................................................................126
Strategy 6: Design:.....................................................................................................................................126
Strategy 7: Incremental construction:...........................................................................................................126
Strategy 8: Self construction..................................................................................................................126
Strategy 9: Community supported labor:..........................................................................................127
Strategy 10: Avoiding speculation:.......................................................................................................127
Strategy 11: Develop contracts with suppliers:................................................................................127
Housing supply: challenges......................................................................................................................................128

Challenge 1: Availability of finance...................................................................................................................128
Challenge 2: Volatile economic environment..................................................................................128
Affordable interlocking housing Recommendations.............................................................................................128

Interlocking Building System...................................................................................................................................128
Interlocking Block making using Hydra form hydraulic block making machines:...........................................129
Major Benefits of Hydra form Interlocking Masonry to Clients.........................................................................129
Reduced Transportation Cost......................................................................................................................................129
Versatile Construction Technique...............................................................................................................................129
Easy Construction.......................................................................................................................................................130
Eco-friendly Construction...........................................................................................................................................130
Load Bearing And Framed Structures...................................................................................................................131
BLOCKS....................................................................................................................................................................132
INTERLOCKING BRICKS....................................................................................................................................135
Advantages of Interlocking Block...........................................................................................................................136
The advantages of interlocking Block are:.............................................................................................................136
Market Potential:......................................................................................................................................................137
Raw materials:..........................................................................................................................................................137
Manufacturing Process:...........................................................................................................................................137
USES OF C½B’S IN THE ASSEMBLY OF INTERLOCKING BRICK –........................................................138
PIERS.........................................................................................................................................................................138
Advantages of interlocking blocks...........................................................................................................................138
Limitations of interlocking blocks...........................................................................................................................139
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION INRERLOCKING...................................................................139
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WALL........................................................................................................................................................................142
Bricks have been developed using varies methods for centuries..........................................................................143
The ICEB production...............................................................................................................................................145
Performance of the ICEB............................................................................................................................................146
Compressive Strength........................................................................................................................................146
Water Absorption and Moisture Content...............................................................................................................147

Density........................................................................................................................................................................147
Energy Efficient, Economical and Environment-Friendly Material...................................................................148
1.5. Smart real state city concept..................................................................................................................151
Improve the efficiency of the city as a system........................................................................................................151
Achieve a sustainable & resilience development....................................................................................................151
Increase the quality of life of its citizens.................................................................................................................151
Smart City Dimensions............................................................................................................. 153
Dimensions................................................................................................................................. 153
1-SMART GOVERNANCE.....................................................................................................................................154
2-SMART ECONOMY...........................................................................................................................................154
3-SMART MOBILITY............................................................................................................................................155
4-SMART ENVIRONMENT...................................................................................................................................156
6-SMART LIVING.................................................................................................................................................158
SMART CITY PROJECT’S CHARACTERISTICS......................................................................................159

SMART CITY CHARACTER...................................................................................................................................161
1- INNOVATION..............................................................................................................................................161
2- INTEGRATION.................................................................................................................................................161
3- INCLUSION......................................................................................................................................................162
The Godo Housing and Smart Real Estate City agenda entails improving the citizens’ quality of life, strengthening
and diversifying the economy while prioritizing environmental sustainability through adoption of smart solutions.
162
TAXONOMY................................................................................................................................ 164
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General Introduction
Concept of smart villages is a global modern approach for off-grid communities. Vision behind
this concept is to assist the policy makers, donors and socio-economic planner for rural
electrification worldwide.
The concept has received much attention in the context of Asian and African countries, although
it is also found in other parts of the world such as Europe. Smart village’s concept is engaged in
efforts to combat the real barriers to energy access in villages, particularly in developing
countries with technological, financial and educational methodology. A major focus of smart
villages is the adoption of renewable resource in place of fossil fuel, which is seen as the best
approach that can be developed through off-grid systems or communities.
The implementation of public tasks is associated with expenditure from local government
budgets, so it is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the actions that are taken. In the public
sector, this means the requirement of achieving the best results from a set level of expenditure,
or seeking to minimize costs at an assumed standard of meeting public needs. The concept of
the smart village, understood as the application of innovations, and digital technologies to
provide public services, as well as to improve the quality of life of inhabitants, may be a valuable
instrument when implementing these principles into the practice of local government units.
In the context of budget constraints, the question arises as to how and to what extent public tasks
are implemented. Traditionally, local public services have been provided by local government
units, either directly or through specialized units that they own. At present, the ways of providing
public services that are commonly present in the literature and put into practice include
outsourcing, privatization, hybrid organization, co-production and co-creation. Many of these
solutions use modern organizational (concretion of public services) and technological structures.
Some of these solutions are also included in the smart city concept, which, in relation to rural
areas, takes the form of the smart village concept.
The smart village concept takes advantage of these experiences to use modern
technologies for the production and delivery of goods and services, including information and
communication technologies, to achieve a higher standard of living for the inhabitants and
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reduce negative environmental impacts. In relation to public tasks of a technical nature, carried
out by local government units, this also includes the application of smart solutions in public
transport, which adjust their availability and quality to the actual demand to minimize the need
for inhabitants to use their own means of transport. Thus, it will also influence rational energy
management, both in terms of the means of obtaining energy (energy-efficient means of
transport and lighting or bus shelters) and limiting the negative effects of its use, as evidenced by
reduced emissions of, e.g., sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and dioxide, or waste
and sewage from flue gas desulfurization plants. In another area of local government activity—
the implementation of tasks of a social character—the use of smart village solutions may promote
the implementation of the latest methods and teaching techniques (including remote learning) in
the area of education. In terms of water and sewage management, smart solutions will enable the
rational management of environmental resources by analyzing changes in the level of demand
for these municipal services. The smart village concept includes and advocates for a real increase
in the efficiency of management and service provision, with the aim of increasing the
competitiveness of rural areas while respecting the economic, social and environmental needs of
current and future generations.
Difference between rural and urban: Village is undeveloped area or it is away from the city.
It is also say remote area. In village we can’t get easily many facilities like as a city. It is
undeveloped area but it is nature of beauty .in the village we can see many natural things like
mountain, hills, ever green forest, lakes etc. In the village area many people are farmer they
product many food items like Mize, corn, wheat etc. And other vegetables like potato, cabbages,
ladyfingers, cucumber, tomato, pumpkin, chills etc. They also keep many wild animals’ goat,
buffalos, cow, hens, ducks, etc. to eat meat, meal and to produce fertilizer. Some people do small
business, shopkeeper, furniture shop and other small size of business. So the village is called
remote or undeveloped area where people life style is different from urban areas people they
were simple cloths, they cook a food by fire, almost foods item were produce by themselves.
As the construction sector is a significant contributor to climate change, changing industrial and
societal practices is central to a successful transition to sustainable construction globally.
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Constructing a new building not only involves a highly resource-intensive process, but also
entails paying a heavy upfront toll in terms of carbon emissions. In addition to operational
emissions caused by fossil energy consumption, embodied carbon stemming from the extraction,
processing or manufacturing, transportation, construction or installation, and disposal of
materials makes up a high share of a building’s climate impacts. In Ethiopia, the construction
industry is responsible for approximately 2% of carbon emissions. The country recently has been
undergoing a rapid economic growth which has been attributed mainly to the building
construction boom. The construction industry is expected to continue to flourish, since
developing an international competitive construction industry is among the prioritized
development goals for the Ethiopian government to achieve the status of a middle-income
country by 2025 (Ministry of Urban Development and Construction, 2012; Taffese and Abegaz,
2019). This is likely to affect the carbon emissions related to the sector significantly. This
situation is further exacerbated by poor management of building materials and generated wastes
in building construction sites. In the Ethiopian construction industry, wastage of materials is
more than twice as much as in countries of the Global North (Taffese and Abegaz, 2019).
Renewable, sustainable and local materials with low carbon footprints hold enormous
opportunities and enable carbon reductions on a large scale. To keep the global temperature, rise
to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, potentials of sustainable construction materials need to be
explored further and sustainable practices implemented in the sector. To draw on the leverage of
low-carbon construction, the quantifiable impacts in terms of reduced CO2 e emissions need to
be explored further and reliable studies on CO2 e reductions of climate friendly materials are
scarce. Rapid Assessment of Poverty Impact.
Sustainability of a large-scale
Housing development such as the City Block is primarily dependent on integration of several
spheres: spatial, environmental, economic and social sustainability, as well as institutional
sustainability. Sound policy and governance structures are required to implement projects of
such scale, especially when resettlements of informal dwellers form part of the project’s
development. Integration of those aspects into the development process at an early stage is
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indispensable for its overall sustainability and the development’s long-term success. While this
study focuses primarily on sustainable material use, other spheres of sustainability will be
discussed in the section below. In general, compact settlements such as the envisaged City Block,
with short distances between public modes of transportation, education and employment
facilities as well as to public and open spaces, are considered an important aspect for sustainable
neighborhoods. Apart from increasing a project’s financial viability and having other
economically desirable effects, compact and dense settlements diminish environmental impacts
through efficient resource use, for example, by reducing soil sealing and distances in
transportation. Increase of density in the area implies different impacts for either low- and
higher-income settlements. S.B. Patel (2007) suggests that while in more affluent areas, higher
densities could result in an increase of available living space per capita, in poorer areas, and it
could stress existing transport connections. Significant uncertainty surrounds any quantitative
interpretation of alleviation regarding urban green, income inequality, health, and well-being
especially in context of such large-scale developments in countries of the Global South. Further,
it needs to be considered that especially for informal dwellers that have been accustomed to live
in more “horizontal”, high-density, low-rise settlements, a high-rise development could prove a
constraint. Extensive consultation of local communities could support dwellers getting used to
the shift, also instructing on potential maintenance of collective areas in the building. The most
used construction materials in the Ethiopian building construction sector are cement, sand,
coarse aggregates, hollow concrete blocks and reinforcement bars. These materials also are
prime sources of waste generation during construction. Studies on example projects in Ethiopia
show that cement, hollow concrete blocks (HCB), and reinforcement bars are the major
consumers of energy and major CO2 e emitters and account for more than 90% of the embodied
energy and CO2 e emissions (ibid). Studies have shown that the wastage of materials such as
sand, cement or rebar’s ranges between 13% and 18% of total building materials .This shows how
the arising waste of the construction materials intensifies the embodied energy and the
subsequent CO2 e emissions considerably.
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Shegr city, oromia, Ethiopia

The Oromia government announced on 27 February that it has restructured the administration
of major cities in the region, merging six with neighboring towns.
After the popular uprising from 2014 that was triggered by protests against the
now defunct Addis Ababa master plan, Oromia’s government now appears to be implementing
similar policies.
This move has sparked protests in Oromia and claims of illegality partly as the law allowing for
the restructuring, merging, and renaming of cities was scrapped in 2016, a year after its
enactment, due to vehement Oromo opposition.
In an already tumultuous Ethiopia, the Oromia government’s restructuring may further
exacerbate the crisis in Oromia, where government forces have been trying for years to crush the
Oromo Liberation Army insurgency.
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Cities Restructured
As part of the administrative restructuring, Adama, Shashemene, and Bishoftu have been
expanded to integrate surrounding towns and converted into regiopolis cities.
Bishoftu, most notably, has been merged with its neighboring towns, including Dukem, and
restructured into three sub-cities and ten city districts.
Furthermore, Robe and Maya have been promoted to major cities, while nine smaller towns have
been upgraded and placed under the direct administration of the regional government.
These changes are in line with Ethiopia’s 2021-2030 Development Plan and the National Urban
Development Spatial Plan.2 The latter aims to develop big cities and enhance secondary urban
centers and industry.
However, the restructuring bears a resemblance to the contentious 2014 master plan, which
lacked transparency and was devised without consulting the public, leaving the fate of farming
communities uncertain.
Oromia Regional State Urban Development and Housing Bureau
The Oromia Regional State Urban Development and Housing Bureau serves as an Ethiopian
government body. It is in charge of urban planning, development, and housing issues in the
Oromia Regional State.
Oromia is the largest of the country's nine regional states regarding both land and population.
The Oromia Regional State Urban Development and Housing Bureau is responsible for
overseeing the region's urban regions, including infrastructure design and implementation,
housing solutions, and guaranteeing orderly growth in urban centers.
The bureau's tasks and duties can involve the following: Creating detailed urban development
plans, zoning rules, and policies regarding land use to steer the growth of cities and towns in the
area. Supervising the building and upkeep of roadways, transportation systems, water supply,
sewerage, and other vital urban infrastructure. Supporting the construction of affordable housing
structures and carrying out housing initiatives to solve housing shortage issues and enhance
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people's living conditions. Implementing building rules and regulations to ensure the safety and
quality of urban structures.
Village Development Plan:
A village development plan is a written document. It identifies issues of concern to that village.
Opportunities, strengths, threats and weaknesses of a village are defined. It also provides
practical actions that will result in an improved village. It provides opportunities for resource
mobilization. A village plan does three essential things. It provides a VISION of what you would
like your village to look like, sets out clear GOALS to achieve that vision, and gives you an
ACTION PLAN to reach those goals. The objective of Village Development Plan is to develop the
selected village in an integrated manner. This would include economic development,
infrastructure development and other aspects of human development i.e., education, health,
drinking water supply, etc. The Plan should aim at developing the selected village in such a
manner that it becomes a replicable ‘model’ for holistic development.
What is a smart village?
A smart village is a community in rural areas that leverages digital connectivity, solutions and
resources for its own development and transformation towards attaining the SDGs. “Smart
villages develop smart solutions to deal with challenges in their local context. They build on
existing local strengths and opportunities to engage in a process of sustainable development of
their territories. They rely on a participatory approach to develop and implement their strategies
to improve their economic, social and environmental conditions, in particular by promoting
innovation and mobilizing solutions offered by digital technologies. Smart villages benefit from
cooperation and alliances with other communities and actors in rural and urban areas. The
initiation and the implementation of smart village strategies may build on existing initiatives and
can be funded by a variety of public and private sources.”1 Connectivity alone cannot deliver
optimal rural citizen services. Strong leadership, political will, strong partnerships, multi-
stakeholder engagement, citizen-centered programmers are among the critical ingredients that
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will ensure that the digital network infrastructure can deliver sustainable development of
inclusive and equitable services. Figure 2 shows a range of services that can be provided to
citizens in such an inclusive networked smart village.
Why is a smart village approach needed?

Traditional approaches have failed to solve some of the most pressing problems in the world’s
rural areas. A smart village approach is a socially-driven initiative that departs radically from
traditional design and implementation mechanisms of rural development projects. Table 1
illustrates ways in which a smart village approach differs in design and implementation
approaches to rural development.
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Empower the region, support entrepreneurship, and attract skills.
Up to now there have been two contrasting models in public investment for regional
development that we can use to explain our idea. On one side there's the bottom-up rural
development model, with the Leader funds managed by the Local Action Groups. On the other
side there's top-down large investment Smart-City pilot models. It cannot be assumed that any
private initiative that fits with the objectives, axes and actions included in a local development
strategy is actually going to make substantial progress in reaching its goals, trusting and waiting
with open arms for the arrival of entrepreneurs and their specific projects. The current subsidy
process framework, even though necessary, is not enough, and very few times the projects that
do get help, do make an overall impact in the territory, as the depopulation of many areas clearly
shows. Depopulation that is in constant growth regardless of the subsidies received. Neither does
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work the financial model for smart cities – huge investment in pilot projects that are run by big
enterprises which have no connection to the region or to any concept of sustainable local
development.
In this model, local agents and public administration play complementary roles:
• Local agents that know the territory's needs, resources and opportunities are the ones looking
after the:
◦ Design of a comprehensive sustainable and intelligent development strategy for the

territory in accordance with European priorities and guidelines. ◦ define hub projects according
to the priorities established in the strategy and setting the eyes in future opportunities that those
projects may open.
◦ Start-up coordination, since many times there will be multiple financing sources (local,
county, regional, national, European...), where an effective leadership will be needed.
◦ Boosting entrepreneurship associated to each hub project.
• Public Administrations are the ones responsible for the financing of the hub projects start-
up with the municipal, regional or European budgets.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY HUB PROJECT. THE SMART MANAGEMENT NETWORK.
The transition to sustainable energy it’s a priority in the fight against climate change, which at a
municipal level means a need to:
• Use and produce energy from renewable sources and promote its use by the community.
• Improve energy efficiency in public lighting and buildings.
• Promote sustainable transport initiatives.
The renewal of public lighting is an urgent and necessary need for all municipalities, as much to
cut down expenses as for the need to fight against climate change reducing CO2 emissions, being
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an opportunity to take the path to the Smart Village model. Using open tele management
technologies such as Wi-Fi or other wireless technologies and open source platforms instead of
proprietary ones allow to create an open and multifunctional telecom network, the Smart
Management Network which will probably be the new municipal infrastructure, as at the time it
was the lighting networks, water supply, etc.
Project Beneficiaries
The project has direct and indirect benefits. Direct benefit recipients are the
immediate users of the smart eco city such as: shareholder, Community,
Apartments owner, Gov; t, NGOs shop owners, commercial banker, insurance
companies and other tenants of shops in the center and the union office.
Individuals that will be employed in these rented shops are other beneficiaries of
the project.
In addition, contractors, engineers and daily laborers, those who get the opportunity to construct
the smart eco city and also benefit from the project. The indirect beneficiaries are residents and
guest of sheger cities and town who will get the opportunity for modern and all-in-one shopping
services. The project promoter will generate substantial profit from selling, renting and service
sector like hotels, offices, mall, entertainment center, playground and high scale shops part of
which will be paid as tax for the local government.
Besides, the citizen’s beneficiaries through getting job opportunity; it will provide temporary and
permanent work opportunity when the complex center starts operation.
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Project Activities
At the beginning, the project will be implemented phase by phase. In the 1st phase, the design
and bid activity will be made. After construction contract agreement would be made then the 1 ST
phase will be planned to construct from Landscape work, rods, site system work Ground up to 2
floor in the first construction phase the 3000 villa house and G+4 +T floor Buildings and
shopping and entertainments floors and conference and community social center will be
constructed during the second phase of construction.
Therefore, after the above procedures full operation of the project would start and strategic
planning and annual planning of activities follows. In general, the considered areas of operation
activities are
 Consulting the international smart eco city by legal consulting firm

 Constructing the international smart eco city by legal contractor
 Finishing and furnishing the international smart eco city and
 Organizing management of the building and commence services
Marketing Objectives
 




 

 


 

21




 



Marketing Strategies
Godo Housing and smart real state property renter marketing will be the most difficult portion of the
marketing strategy. This task will be accomplished through the business’s broad marketing campaign
throughout its targeted market. Primarily, the proposed project intends to use local brokerage firms to
place tenants with the center’s retail focused building. In addition to using a broker, the project intends to
develop its own marketing strategies that will further increase the visibility of the business’s retail store
units.
This is especially important with the current market environment. The Godo Housing and smart real
state property will also use local mouth to mouth advertisement. This is very important as many firms
seeking for rent use through communicating with friends and relatives during interpersonal
communication. Besides, the center will maintain a sizable amount of print and traditional advertising
methods within local markets to promote the property that the center is renting.
ECONOMY & LABOUR MARKET
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Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It has had double digit economic
growth for the past decade. However, it is still one of the least developed countries in the world
and the economy dominantly depends on rain fed agriculture. Urban areas such as Addis Ababa
contribute close to half of the national GDP with economies based in non-agricultural sectors.
Addis Ababa is by far the strongest economy of all Ethiopian cities.
Technical Study
Description of the project Service/ Product mix
The envisioned housing smart village and mixed purpose building will provide different housing and
rental services to the different customer groups for different purpose. The building will have landscape,
parking, playground, ground and 1floors and commercial and entertainment floor. The purpose of the
building explained as follows;
 The ground floor, first floor and second floor up to fourth designed for different business centers
like banks, supermarket, beauty salon (man and women), Computer center, pharmacy, internet
café, boutiques, different shops and other business activities,
 The ground and first floor for housing designed for living and bedrooms.
 Besides, the buildings will have enough parking facility for its customers and green area in its
compound.
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Land Use Plan

The total land required for the envisioned project is estimated to be 150,000 m 2. The total area for the
construction of the building will be 120,000 m2, as revealed below.
Table land utilization Plan for smart housing village and service building.
SN Description Land M2
Ground 1ST-4TH- Park Commercial and

and Ground up to 1 st
and entertainment
floor
play service unit and
ground terrace
1 Housing villa block Building Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
1.1 Ground Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
floor ,living ,dining ,modern n
kitchen ,traditional
kitchen ,toilet ,maids
room ..etc
1.2 First floor ,bed room and Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
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toilet n
1.3 Roof and water tanker Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
1.4 Commercial and Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
entertainment ground up to n
4th floor
1.5 Communal service and play Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
service n
Parking & Green area Ref.plan Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
Total REF.SITE Ref.plan Ref.pla Ref.plan
Construction work and Technology
Construction schedule
The construction project is proposed to be started on if land issue is solved Sep, 2023, and is
expected to be finished on January 2024. as seen in the abbreviated construction schedule above,
a majority of the schedule’s time is made up of five major activities; Concrete, building
Enclosure, masonry, mechanical &HVAC and Electrical install. Concrete activities include
processes such as placing foundations and slab on deck. The Building Enclosure Phase includes
erecting the scaffolding that will allow for exterior sheathing installation and bricklaying.
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Mechanical and Electrical install coincide with each other due to the need for coordination
between the two divisions. There are several periods of construction during the schedule in
which there are multiple construction activities occurring at the same time.
The construction site must be organized accordingly as these processes take place. As with any
construction project, the goal of the schedule was to complete all construction activities before
the required Date of completion.
This date of completion is practical based on the time of year in which the building will be
completed. The team allowed a two-week contingency for any setbacks. Typically, winter
construction tends to cause unforeseen delays that negatively impact a construction project.
These conditions can and will almost undoubtedly impact the project schedule by causing
unforeseen delays and project inefficiency.
Architectural Design & Layout
Although functional spaces for the project were laid out in significant detail, the rest of the
building had designated spaces but n set layouts. It was at the discretion of the project promoter
to devise typical layouts for the non-detailed commercial and office spaces. To make sure that the
building’s layouts were practical, the project owner researched typical architectural layouts for
laboratory and executive office spaces.
The walls and partitions throughout the floor were congruent with the structural frame
and column locations.
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Organizational Structure
Organization and management
The organizational structure should be in a way that the company able to achieve its objectives as
well as the satisfaction of standard requirement. In addition to this, the structure should fit the
dynamics of all customers in the building ranging from small business to large tenants.
Man Power
The Total Manpower required for the Building will be 5850 persons. The
manpower list and the corresponding labor cost are shown in part of this
document.
Organizational Structure for housing smart village administration
The organizational structure of the project is designed by including all the necessary personnel
under the right division. At the top of the organizational structure, there will be manager with the
responsibility of supervising the overall activity of the building. Depending up on the nature of
the center and the amount of work to be performs; there exist auxiliary units under the general
manager.
Employees under each unit will be supervised by the department head that is accountable for the
general manager. General Manager is appointed by owner.
Owner and CEO

AFRICA HOLDING GROUP SHARE COMPANY
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Management’s board and General Manager
Building Admin Marketing and Technical and professional

Builders team and
Office and Labors Promotion departments architectural and engineering
consultant’s manager and
team
HRM and finance Architectural, structural, electrical, Material Managements and

sanitary , mechanical, special import and export
Internationals and local
engineering unit, quality
Team
engineering, quantity engineering,
façade unit, landscape team,
Interior unit, Equipment’s and
furniture unit
Purchasing and Cashier Departments Labor for
job opportunity for local
Service for employers and and industries link and
projects process fee technology departments
Customer service and information Managements sector and

public relation with governments and community
Fig: organization structure of the building
As clearly shown in the organizational structure, the center organization has one management’s
board and general manager and different sections. Under the general manager there are the,
marketing Department, maintenance and building administration department. Under building
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admin dept. there exist two sections i.e., HRM & finance and general service. Further sub
sections are also organized under technical and maintenance manager. The following section
deals with the duties and responsibilities of each department.
A. The General Manager’s Duties and Responsibilities
 He/she will plan, organize, direct and control the overall activities of the building.
 He/she will devise policies and strategies that will enable the center to be profitable.
 He/she will incorporate modern technological innovation that will facilitate the service
delivery of the building to increase customer’s satisfaction.
 He/she will plan, organize, direct and control the human and non-human resources of the
building so as to achieve the short and long run objectives of the organization.
Building Administration Department
The building Administration Department of the multipurpose building has two main sections
(HRM and Finance and General Service section). It has responsible for undertaking the following
activities;
 Manage the human resources and control employee’s activity
 Well non-human resources of the project, which include; effective handling of the
different resources of the building, and devise strategies of controlling against fraud and
damage.
 Will provide the right material or inventory to the center with right price at the right time.
 Will plan, organize direct and control the financial transaction of the building by using all
the necessary documents.
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 Accountant and casher that will collect money from the customers.
 Will develop sound financial control system by developing modern financial control
systems.
 Will prepare the annual financial statements and prepare condensed reports for both the
General Manager and other concerned government body.
 Follow the overall status of the business and provide maintenance and repair services
The marketing Department
 Will handle the overall marketing activities of the organization which include planning,
organizing, directing, and controlling.
 Will develop the marketing strategies for future multipurpose building development
 Will develop effective customer handling strategies.
 Execute the promotion methods.
Technical and maintenance manager
 Will handle the overall physical maintenance and related issues
 Will make sure electricity and back up is organized.
 Follow up security issues and educate tenants
 Works in collaboration with general service to make sure tenants are well served
Financial Requirement and Analysis
30
The financial resource is a prime resource for undertaking any activities. Hence for
implementing this GODO INTERNATIONAL SMART ECO CITY VILLAGE AT
SHEGER CITY, A SECTION ONE (A) OF 5,000,000,000.00 ETB is required.
From this 50% 2,500,000,000.00 ETB will be covered by the promoter of the
project while the rest 50% will be covered through loan from bank at the prevailing
interest rate.
Therefore, the said amount of finance is needed for undertaking the following.
TOTAL SMART HOUSING PROJECT COST: SHEGR CITY SECTION
A SMART HOUSING VILLA UNIT, STANDARD, MIDDLE AND LUXURY
COMPUNED AND COMMERCIAL COMPLEX PART AND ENTERTAINMENT
BUILDING. ALSO PLAY GROUND, COMMUNAL SPACE, SPORT CENTER AND
OTHER SOCIAL CENTER AND SERVICE SYSTEM CLINIC AND POLICE STATION,
SHOESHINE CENTER, SHOP, MODERN TECHNOLOGICAL INTEGRATED
ADVANCE SYSTEM AND LIVING ENVIRONMENT.
TOTAL COST FOR PHASE ONE = 5,000,000,000.0 ETB.
Pre-service Expenses
SN Description Cost in birr

1 Project proposal 5,000,000,000.00 birr.
2 Licensing fee and others Including others fees
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Total 5,000,500,000.00 Etb.
Capital Investment
THIS BUDGET ASSUMES THAT THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDING(S) FOR
SMART HOUSING VILLAGE PHASE ONE, PHASE TWO, PHASE THREE AND
G+4+T AND 3DH+T COMMERCIAL AND ENTERTAINMENT, GODO HOUSING
AND SMART REAL STATE , GODO COMPLEX CENTER AND EXPANSION
APARTMENT BLOCK AND OTHER INFER STRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT AND
AFFORDABLE INTERLOCKING BRICKS AND NEW TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM
COMPLIMENTED SERVICES IS BASED ON THE COST ESTIMATED AND DETAIL
COTS BREAKDOWN PER ACTIVITIES SPECIFIED BELOW. TOTAL CAPITAL
INVESTMENT COST IS TOTAL PROJECT COST REQUIREMENT WHICH
COMPRISES DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION, CONSTRUCTION SUPERVISION AND
OPERATION COSTS.
Design and consultancy Costs

Table2: Costs and types of design activities
Item Remark
Description Price (Birr)
No.
5,000,000,000.00
1 Design and consultancy cost
Birr
It depends on
5,000,000.00
2 Construction Supervision construction
birr/month
period
Total 5,005,000,000.00 BY ADDING
32
ONE MOTH
supervision Fee
Construction Costs
Table3: Costs of construction
Item No. Description Price (Birr)
Villa compound village ,commercial l,

1 apartment Building construction for GODO 5,000,000,000.0 birr
HUSING UNIT
Other government and other service
2 10,000,000.00 birr
fee
Total in birr 5,015,000,000.00birr
6.3 Summary
Table4: The sum of Design, consultancy and Construction costs
Item No. Description Price (Birr)
Total Design and consultancy cost and 15,000,000.00

1
government fee birr
5,015,000,000.00
2 Total Construction cost
birr
Total
Including Contingency and Vat 15%
Total investment capital BIRR 5,015,000,000.00
33
birr
Monitoring and Evaluation
There will be a continuous process of assessment to monitor the progress of the project
(1) There will be a monthly reporting of all activities of the project.
(2) The project owner will organize consultant that will supervise the construction activities
(3) The project owner, the contractor and the team will have regular meeting to discuss the
progress of construction
The international smart eco city project will installs continuous evaluation System of monthly,
quarterly and annual reports to the relevant government and funding agencies will be carried out
every year. This will facilitate ongoing monitoring throughout the life of the project. Monitoring
will verify if the project is being implemented as planned and ensure that project targets and
objectives are met.
Environmental impact of the project
The EIA of the project activities was determined by identifying the environmental aspects and
then undertaking an environmental risk assessment to determine the significant environmental
aspects. The environmental impact assessment has included all phases of the project namely
construction phase and operational phase.
The building has both positive and negative impact
Positive impact of the project
The positive impact of the project is:-
 Generation of employment opportunity

 Source income for the government through business income tax
 Income generation for the promoter
34
 Being exemplary for other investors who want to engage in the same business line.
Negative impact of the project
The project has the following negative impacts:
Noise and Dust emission during Construction
There are some noises during the construction due to the construction operation and the
company will use construct the construction during the day time. Again there is the emission of
dust which will be mitigated by sprinkling water on the service.
Problem on workers on construction
During construction there are some problems that will materialize on workers. These are:
damage on operation by using machines, construction materials and others. To mitigate such
impact the company will provide safety insurance and safety equipment’s.
Swages during operation
During operation there are some wastes emitting from the apartment mixed-use building. These
are wastes from the latrine and will be mitigated by using modern waste treatment technology.
Construction Plan and Process
The project team developed a coordinated project schedule and construction plans that would
reflect the expectations for an actual construction project. The project schedule was developed
using the preliminary designs given to the project team.
Additionally, the group considered typical construction activities and durations taken from
similar construction projects as well as realistic constraints on building development. For
instance, it is necessary for the structural frame to be completed before concrete can be placed
35
for the slab on deck. Hand drawn construction plans detailing site entrances and storage areas
were coordinated with the project schedule to give the reader visualizations of the construction
site set up through various periods of the construction process.
The construction process for this project is normally a disjointed three mages development by
which the conceptualized need of the promoter of this project is translated into a functional
facility that will meet their needs in terms of time, cost and quality.
Based on a general program of the project owners the consultant who is going to be hired makes
site studies, develops structural designs, prepares drawings and specifications, determines
quantities involved and estimated the resultants costs. All these activities will be done in the first
phase of the project which is the design stage after the document are produced by the designers
have been received, and the works secured the project is supposed to enter the tendering stage.
At this stage contractors study the project document analyze and subsequently determine the
construction methods, built up their unit rates and submit their bids for the works. The promoter
of this project intends to compare the bids and award the contract for the lowest responsible
bidder. This, is of course, presupposes that the favorable proposal does not exceed the allocated
budget.
Definitions of Terms and Concepts
What are Interlocking Bricks?
Typically, the construction process and masonry can be tedious, time consuming, and expensive.
To overcome the hardships and issues encountered during construction, varied methods of
construction is being considered and developed. Simultaneously, materials and equipment used
for construction are also being fabricated to enhance the quality of construction and furthermore
minimize the time and cost. Interlocking bricks is one such advancement in the construction
industry.
36
Interlocking bricks are compressed and stabilized earth bricks which contributes to
strength of the structure. They are usually not subjected to baking. Interlocking bricks come in
various sizes and locking systems depending on the supplier. A typical brick size is
230x100x75mm (9x4x3 in).
High quality interlocking bricks are made of cement, sand and Stone dust mixed together in
appropriate proportions. The required materials are batched and mixed proportionately. Once the
required mix is prepared, it is then compressed to form bricks with desirable interlocking patterns.
The compression is achieved by using hydraulic compression system. The bricks are then subjected
to curing for about 7 days.
Benefits of Inter-locking Bricks
Earthquake resistant
During earthquakes, there are various stresses acting on the structure. Conventional bricks are
not fully equipped to transfer the seismic loads throughout the structure since the only
medium of load transfer is the mortar. If the mortar fails then the whole structure fails under
seismic forces. Interlocking bricks are an effective and
proven Seismic resistant construction materials. The self-locking pattern of the bricks enables
the seismic forces to travel across the whole structure equivalently.
Minimizes cost
Since there is no use of mortar in the construction process, the cost of buying cement,
sand, mortar and stone dust can be neglected. Also the cost for transportation can also be
immensely reduced along with the cost on skilled labor. It does not require plasterwork, minor
bar bending work, lesser cement and fewer laborers hence contributing to the overall cost
reduction of the construction project.
Time Efficient
37
It is proved as the most time efficient way of construction. The normal conventional bricks has to
be cured for about 21 days whereas the self-locking bricks require only 7 days of curing. In
addition to that, time required for setting and curing of the structure can be diminished
completely. By eliminating all the time consuming tasks, the project can be completed faster.
Disadvantages of Inter-locking Masonry
There are a few disadvantages as well to this method of construction. Since there is
no plasterwork provided, rain water might into the lines making it a hostage for insects and other
undesired things. Due to the action of weather, disintegration of the bricks might also occur
(especially in the corners). The color of the brick changes if the rain water enters through the
gaps.
Punching Shear Failure

In previous article we have discussed about the punching shear in flat slabs. If you have not read
that you can check it at what is Punching Shear? Punching Shear in Flat Slabs. In this article we
are going to discuss about the design of members for the punching shear.
38
What is Punching Shear?
As the name suggest punching shear is the mode of failure that occurs when a column or
compression member ‘punches through’ a flat member such as slab. This is a particularly a big
problem in the post tension slab, column footings, flat plates and flat slabs. The punching shear
is a type of two-way shear. It is a common concern in thin structural members such as slab,
footings, etc. which should be solved. This can be done by proper designing of structural
member.
Disadvantage: It is very expensive as the special reinforced which is required for this purpose
are quite expensive as compared to the conventional reinforcement. It is a complex process and
have long lead time. This type of reinforcement is also not easily available in some areas. It also
required skilled labor for this construction.
Design for punching shear

From the above discussion we can see that the providing the shear reinforcement is the best method
to solve the problem of punching shear. So for effective control of punching shear the design is
necessary. Punching stresses generally arises when a concentrated load is applied to a small area of
slab. The punching stresses act along the loaded perimeter. The shear force, VEd acts over an area
udeff, where
u = the length of the perimeter. The basic perimeter, u1 is at 2deff from the column.
39
Deff = the effective depth of the slab taken as the average of the effective depths in two orthogonal
directions.
How to solve the problem of Punching Shear??
Now the question which comes in our mind is how to solve this problem. There are many
methods to solve this problem. Some are
1) Increasing the thickness of slab

The easiest way to solve this is problem is increasing the thickness of the slab. This method is
generally used where other effective or more appropriate methods are not
available. Disadvantage: The main disadvantage of this method is that it increases the dead
load of the structure which is not appropriate.
40
2) Drop Caps
Drop cap is the small thickened area that is provided at the top of the column and under the slab.
Its main advantage is it does not affect the weight of the slab. It also provide more area for the
load to be applied by the slab. Disadvantage: It is a labor intensive and an expensive process.
The aesthetic appearance of the structure is also affected by this process.
3) Shear reinforcement
Shear reinforcement is also provided around the column to reduce the effect of the punching
shear. Some special types of reinforcement are also available in the market for this purpose.
Example: Deacon Stud rails, LENTON steel fortress. This system behaves similarly to a drop cap.
The effective moment transfer at column or slab junction should also be ensured in the punching
shear design. At the column perimeter: The design steps are:
 First we have to check that maximum punching shear stress is not exceeded, i.e. vEd <
vRd, max at the column perimeter
 Then we have to determine whether punching shear reinforcement is required, i.e.
whether vEd > vRd, c at the basic perimeter, u1
 Then we need to establish uout = the length of the perimeter where vEd = vRd, c.
Perimeters within 1, 5 d from uout need to be reinforced.
 If VEd>VRd, cs we have to provide reinforcement vEd ≤ vRd, cs.
Where
 VEd = applied shear stress. The shear force used in the verification should be the effective
force taking into account any bending moment transferred into the slab
 vRd, max = design value of the maximum punchy shear resistance, expressed as a stress
 vRd, c = design value of punching shear resistance of a slab without punching shear
reinforcement, expressed as a stress
 VRd, cs = design value of punching shear resistance of a slab with punching shear
reinforcement, expressed as a stress.
 vRd, cs is taken as 0.75 vRd, c + 1.5 (d/sr) Asw fywd, ef (1/u1d) sin a
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Where:
 Asw = area of shear reinforcement in one perimeter around the column (subject to Asw,
min)
 sr = radial spacing of perimeters of shear reinforcement
 fywd, ef = effective design strength of reinforcement (250 + 0.25d) ≤ fywd
 d = mean effective depth in the two orthogonal directions (in mm)
 u1 = basic control perimeter at 2d from the loaded area
 sin a = 1.0 for vertical shear reinforcement
Does not require plaster work
Plastering can be time consuming and costly in case of conventional wall construction.
Plastering of walls can be completely eliminated by using fair faced bricks of your choice
available in the market. If required the walls can be given a smooth finish by applying a thin layer
of paint. Since these bricks are self-designed that gives a neat finish, the maintenance cost is
minimized.
Provides cooler interior
High compacted bricks generally result in higher density, which in turn converts itself into high
thermal mass. Henceforth, the walls made of high compacted bricks typically furnish warm
interiors. Interlocking bricks are less heat intensive. The tests have shown that interlocking
bricks provides a much cooler interior (3oC – 5oC). This enables lesser/no use of air conditioners
resulting in minimized energy consumption and more cost saving.
Unskilled / Fewer Labors
In case of Conventional brick laying, skilled labor is required for checking water level, spirit level
and various other operations. Therefore a layman or an unskilled labor may find it difficult to
learn the conventional methods of construction. Whereas interlocking bricks construction
enables an unskilled labor to easily follow up on the construction procedure. It also provides
various opportunities for an entrepreneur.
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Definition of Shear Wall

Shear walls are the vertical structural element which resist the horizontal forces acting on
a building structure. Shear wall can also be defined as a wall which are reinforced & made of
braced panels to carry lateral forces. The thickness of the shear wall for regular buildings can be
generally in the range of 150 mm to 400 mm.
Functions of Shear Wall:
The main functions of a Shear Wall can be described as follows:
 Providing Lateral Strength to building: Shear Wall must provide lateral shear
strength to the building to resist the horizontal earthquake forces, wind forces and
transfer these forces to the foundation.
 Providing Lateral Stiffness to building: Shear Walls provide large stiffness to
building in the direction of their orientation, which reduces lateral sway of the building
and thus reduces damage to structure.
Load Transfer Mechanism:
Shear walls carry Horizontal Seismic forces downwards to the foundations. The overturning
effects on shear walls are quite large. Thus, design of their foundations requires
special foundations. If, the Shear wall is an exterior wall, then it will also carry the wind load &
then it should also be design to resist the wind load and this load also get transfer to the
foundation of the shear wall.
The various walls and co-existing frames in a building are linked at the different floor levels by
means of the floor system, which distributes the lateral loads to these different systems
appropriately. The interaction between the shear walls and the frames is structurally
advantageous in that the walls restrain the frame deformations in the lower story, while frame
restrain the wall deformations in the upper story. Frame-shear wall systems are generally
considered in buildings up to about 40 stores.
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The load attracted to each component is a function of position and relative stiffness. Compared
to cantilever shear walls, stiff frames and short shear walls when subjected to horizontal load
deform with a pure shear behavior, with a concave shape in the upper region and convex in lower
region. Whereas cantilever shear walls has a flexural behavior, the deflection is convex like a
BMD of a cantilever beam, throughout the height of the wall.
Calculation of Building Loads
The loads on building, may be a residential or any type of structure, are mainly classified into
vertical and horizontal loads. The vertical loads are the dead and live load. The horizontal loads
are the earthquake and the wind loads. This is the general classification of loads. In this article,
some of many other important loads are also explained.
Advantages & Benefits of Synthetic Fibers in Concrete Flooring &

Plastering Applications
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Use fibers in concrete or concreting materials as an additive, dates back to Romans & Egyptians
period. Romans included bits of horse hair in the construction of Roman Colosseum which was built
in 80BC and the Egyptians used straw in their bricks for constructions. There are other historical
places like Tipu Palace at Sriranganapatna, where fibers were used in mortar.
Drawbacks of use of Concrete in Flooring Works
Plain concrete is prone to plastic shrinkage and settlement cracks. Usually, these floors will have very
less abrasion resistance and impact resistance. Construction joints are often left as weak joints after
casting. All these issues leads to periodic maintenance of floors due to less durability and earlier
wearing of top floor surface.
Drawbacks of using Plain Plastering
Plastic shrinkage cracks are often developed in the initial stage of plastering. Segregation, High
rebound loss of mortar & High water and moisture absorption from the atmosphere are other issues.
Thermal and drying shrinkage cracks can be developed in the hardened surface of plastering. It
demands more maintenance in terms of periodic waterproofing and painting of the buildings.
Synthetic Fibers
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Development of Fiber Reinforcement
In olden days vegetable Fibers, Straws, Jute and Cotton, Coconut Fiber known as coir were
widely used as fiber. Later Horse hair, Sheep’s Wool replaced the demand. In current industrial
and construction practices Glass, Polyester, Nylon, Polypropylene and Steel fibers are used as
additive in the concrete.
Comparison with Various Types of Fibers
Glass fibers are expensive, unsafe and unprotected use causes itching is hazardous to human health.
Steel fibers are prone to Corrosion and it increases Dead Weight of the structure which is not
favorable. Steel is also expensive compared to other fibers. Mixing of steel can be another problem.
Nylon fibers on the other had are Very Expensive
Working of Fibers in Concrete

Fiber holds the aggregates and prevents separation of coarse aggregate due to vibration /gravity
ensuring better bonding within the matrix. This provides a uniform mixture of concrete and fiber
allows slow transfer of water to surface thereby reducing cracks in the concrete.
Nowadays, synthetic fibers widely are added to concrete to reduce plastic shrinkage cracking of
reinforced and structural plain concrete and to reduce shrinkage and temperature cracking in
structural plain concrete slabs on grade. Consideration to be given to the volume, size and type of
fibers used for mixing. These fibers are considered as admixtures and are used in addition to any
structural reinforcement, shrinkage and temperature reinforcement and joints. The fibers may
be used in concrete over steel deck construction. In addition to this, fibers may be used in fire
resistant construction on steel decks.
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Fi
bers in Concrete
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Advantages & Benefits of Using Synthetic Fibers in Plastering

1. Fibers reduced shrinkage cracks
2. Rebound loss of the mortar has been reduced to 10 % instead of 30 to 40 % without fibers in
the mortar
3. No Dampness and leakage of plastered walls
4. Better finish of wall surface
5. Increased durability due to Increased strength of mortar and thus longer life of constructions
6. Savings due to economic mix designs and more durable plastered surface
7. Compressive strength of plaster was increased by over 15-20%
8. Results in Cement savings up to 3%
9. Increase in labor productivity by over 5%
Advantages of Using Synthetic Fibers in Concrete Flooring Works
1. The use of fibers has improved the abrasion resistance of concrete floors to moving loads.
2. No appearance of plastic shrinkage and plastic settlement cracks on the concrete floor surface.
3. Service life of the floor is enhanced due to high durable concrete produced with synthetic
fibers.
4. Improved impact resistance of floors to point loads.
5. Concrete mix with fibers was cohesive with better workability.
6. Compressive strength of plaster was increased by over 8-10%.
Synthetic Fibers can be used in all construction applications, different types of fibers should be
developed to address each specific construction applications. Construction industry should
encourage new technologies like fibers reinforcement in construction to a larger extent for improving
the durability and serviceability of the building and structures
Bleeding in Concrete | Control Bleeding | Governing Factors
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What is bleeding in Concrete?

Excessive displacement of water by solids in fresh concrete mixture, after the compaction process
is called Bleeding in Concrete. Concrete in fresh state is a suspension of solids (aggregates and
cement) in water, and after compaction there is a tendency for the solids to settle. This
sedimentation displaces the water and water is pushed upwards. If the process is excessive, the
water appears as a layer on the surface. On hot or windy concreting weathers, this bleed water
may not be noticed, as it may evaporate faster than bleeding rate.
Bleeding in concrete is caused when surplus water rise to the surface when concrete is vibrated.
The bleed water brings with it a small amount of cement and fines. Such particles are left on the
surface of the concrete casting after the water has evaporated. A weak layer of laitance is formed
and, as being porous and not watertight, it will lead to poor bond for fresh concrete.
How to Control Bleeding

The phenomenon of bleeding in concrete are controlled by materials in concrete and their
proportions. To reduce bleeding, the cohesiveness of concrete has to be increased. This can be
achieved by
 Increasing cement content

 Increasing sand content
 Using finer sand
 Using less water
 Air-entrainment & Using admixtures
 Using a rounded natural sand rather than an angular.
Factor Affecting Bleeding in Concrete

 Rate of bleeding will be influenced by drying conditions (wind, and cold days).
 Slower stiffening rate of the concrete, concrete containing a retarder bleed for a longer
period of time, increasing the risk of plastic cracking.
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 Concrete mix design – Concrete mix design can be adjusted in pumping concrete to
minimize segregation or bleeding.
 Sands deficient in fines also tend to increase the bleeding characteristics of the concrete.
 Retarding admixtures in concrete needs careful proportioning to minimize bleeding. Due
to the longer initial setting period, concrete remains fresh and can increase bleeding.
 Flowing concrete are more susceptible to segregation and bleeding, it is essential that mix
design and proportions take into account the use of a super plasticizer.
Plastic settlement cracks and plastic shrinkage cracks are related to the rate and extend to which
the fresh concrete bleeds.
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Bleed water on concrete surface.
Waterproofing using Membranes
Waterproofing Membranes
Waterproofing Membranes. A water-proof membrane is a thin layer of water tight material that
is laid over the surface. Stagnated water is likely to seep into the structural slab overtime. In flat
roofed terrace, the membrane is laid over a filler material that is sloped to ensure that water is
drained away by drainage pipes. The membrane is then placed over this layer of filler material.
Tiles can be added over the membrane. This will ensure that water does not seep into the roof
slab.
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Membranes are made of thin layers of water-proof materials usually 2-4 mm thick. Membranes
can be of two types: sheet based or liquid based.
Sheet Based Membranes

Sheet based membranes come in the form of rolls. These are unrolled and laid on the firm
surface. One of the most common sheet based membrane is the bituminous waterproofing
membrane. This membrane is stuck to the roof surface by melting a tar based adhesive on the
membrane using blowtorches.
These membranes can be measured and cut to the surface area requirements of the roof.
Adjacent membranes should overlap using the same tar based adhesive. The overlapping width
can be around 100 mm. This will prevent vulnerable joints and water from seeping in through
the gaps between the membranes.
Liquid Applied Waterproofing Membranes
These are the kind of membranes that come in the form of liquid that can be sprayed or brushed
onto the surface. By spraying, the liquid forms a monolithic membrane, with no laps, welds or
seams. Unlike sheet based membranes, the thickness of liquid applied waterproofing membranes
are not predetermined. Hence, the thickness can be controlled as per requirements, by varying
the amount of liquid applied per unit area. However, care must be taken to provide the right
thickness as a layer that is too thin can easily break.
The application process is quick and can be finished within a day. However, for large areas that
are to be done on successive days, cold joints can be introduced by overlapping new membrane
to the old. Liquid applied waterproofing membranes usually have the ability to stick to itself.
Hence, cold joints can be entertained.
The key advantage of liquid applied waterproofing membrane over sheet based membrane is the
absence of joints, which usually tends to compromise the waterproofing.
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Fiber-Reinforced Concrete
Historical Development
Fibers have been used to reinforce brittle materials from time immemorial, dating back to the
Egyptian and Babylonian eras, if not earlier. Straws were used to reinforce sunbaked bricks and
mud-hut walls, horse hair was used to reinforce plaster, and asbestos fibers have been used to
reinforce Portland cement mortars.
Research in the late 1950s and early 1960s by Romualdi and Batson (1963) and Romualdi and
Mandel (1964) on closely spaced random fibers, primarily steel fibers, heralded the era of using
the fiber composite concretes we know today.
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In addition, Shah and Rangan (1971), Swamy (1975), and several other researchers in the United
States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Russia embarked on extensive investigations in this area,
exploring other fibers in addition to steel. By the 1960s, steel-fiber concrete began to be used in
pavements, in particular.
Other developments using bundled fiberglass as the main composite reinforcement in concrete
beams and slabs were introduced by Nawy et al. (1971) and Nawy and Neuwerth (1977), as
discussed in Section 22.8 of this chapter. From the 1970s to the present, the use of steel fibers
has been well established as a complementary reinforcement to increase cracking resistance,
flexural and shear strength, and impact resistance of reinforced concrete elements both in situ
cast and precast.
Summary The concretes described in this chapter have demonstrated that the strength,
ductility, and performance of concretes and cement-based composites have and will continue to
achieve higher plateaus. A new era in construction materials technology has commenced that
promises to have a revolutionary impact on constructed systems in the 21st century.
Considerable work must be done to enhance the practicability of these materials and make them
cost effective. It is only with simplicity and practicability in application and the achievement of a
cost-effective competitive end product that these developments in the science of materials
technology can gain universal acceptance and large-scale application.
General Considerations for Workability of Concrete

Workability
Workability represents consistency & cohesiveness of concrete
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Workability of concrete
General Considerations for Workability
Water content
 The higher the water content, the higher will be the fluidity of concrete, which is one of the
important factors affecting workability.
A/c Ratio
 The higher the aggregate/cement ratio, the leaner is the concrete
 In lean concrete, less quantity of paste is available for lubrication, per unit surface area
of aggregate and hence the mobility reduce
 In case of rich concrete with lower aggregate/cement ratio, more paste is available to
make the mix cohesive and fatty to give better workability.
Size of Aggregate
 The bigger the size of the aggregate, the less the surface area hence, less water is required
for wetting the surface and paste is required for lubricating the surface to reduce internal
friction
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 For a given quantity of water and paste, bigger size of aggregates will give higher
workability
Shape of Aggregates
 Angular, elongated or flaky aggregate makes the concrete very harsh when compared to
rounded aggregates or cubical shaped aggregates
 Being round in shape, the frictional resistance is also greatly reduced
Surface Texture
 Total surface area of rough textured aggregate is more than the surface area of smooth
rounded aggregate of same volume
 Rough textured aggregate will show poor workability and smooth or glassy textured
aggregate will give better workability
 Reduction of inter particle frictional resistance offered by smooth aggregates also
contributes to higher workability
Grading of Aggregates
 Better the grading, the less is the void content and higher the workability
 When the total voids are less, excess paste is available to give better lubricating effect
Use of Admixtures
 Use of air-entraining agent being surface-active, reduces the internal friction between the
particles
 Air bubbles act as a sort of ball bearing between the particles to slide past each other and
give easy mobility to the particles
 Plasticizers and super-plasticizers greatly improve the workability many folds
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Concrete Properties and Mix Design | Mix Proportioning
Performance-Based Concrete Pavement Mix Design System
Mix Design?
It is the process of determining required and specifiable characteristics of a concrete mixture.

Prescriptive approach (limits on materials). Performance approach (desirable characteristics).
Mix design requirements are based on intended use, environment, etc. Mix design is the process
of determining the quantities of concrete ingredients that meet the mix design criteria.
The primary considerations in mix proportioning include:
 The ability to continually meet or exceed specifications (durability and strength).

 Economy.
 Readily available supply of raw materials.
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A typical laboratory testing plan includes the following mix characteristics:
 Workability.
 Strength.
 Plastic air content.
 Unit weight.
 Permeability.
 Coefficient of thermal expansion.
 Others depending on the mix design requirements.
The relative size and importance of a project determines which of these tests are performed.
Methods for Proportioning Concrete Mixes
 Water-cement ratio method.

 Weight method.
 Absolute volume method (ACI 211.1).
 Field experience (statistical data).
 New methodologies currently under development
Scaffolding | Scaffold Components | Type

Scaffolding
Temporary support required to provide a safe and convenient working surface is known as
scaffold or scaffolding. There is a limit to the safe working height at which a worker can access
the building work from ground level.
Scaffolding is used on new-build projects and for work to existing structures, including
maintenance and repair work. The temporary structure needs to be structurally safe yet also
capable of rapid erection, disassembly and reuse.
Functional requirements
 Provide a safe working horizontal platform

 Provide safe horizontal and vertical access to buildings
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Scaffold may be owned and maintained by a contractor, although it is more common for the
scaffolding to be hired from a scaffolding subcontractor as and when
required. Temporary structures must be designed to suit their purpose by a competent person
(e.g. certified structural engineer)
A competent person must inspect the whole of the scaffolding and associated temporary
supports, including the tying in and sections that are welded, bolted and fabricated off site, prior
to use. The inspection must be recorded in the site log. Subsequently the structure must
be checked on a regular basis to ensure it remains safe throughout its use.
Scaffolding and temporary works should always be checked before use following extreme
weather conditions, e.g. strong winds.
Scaffold components
The scaffold is usually constructed from aluminum or steel tubes and clips, with timber or metal
scaffold planks used to form a secure and level working platform. Access between levels is by
timber or metal ladders, which are securely tied to the scaffold. Other common components are
scaffold boards and edge protection.
Scaffold boards
A standard scaffold board is 225mm wide by 38mm thick with a maximum span of 1.5m.
The board is made from sawn softwood. Lightweight metal scaffold boards are used in some
systems. Greater spans can be achieved by using thicker boards; the distances between transoms
on which the scaffolding boards span must not exceed the maximum span allowed for each
board.
Each board must be closely butted together so that there is no chance of the board slipping off
the supporting tubes. Each board must overhang the ledger by 50mm, but the overhang must not
exceed four times the thickness of each scaffolding board.
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Scaffold board
thickness and span
Scaffolding boards are butted together to make a working platform; the minimum working
platform depth is three boards. When materials are loaded onto the platform, the clear passage
for workers should be at least 430mm. If the materials are to be maneuvered on the scaffold, a
distance of 600mm clear pedestrian passage must be maintained at all times.
When laying bricks, the scaffold platform should be at least five boards wide (1150mm). Hop-up
brackets may be used to increase the working height of the lift and to increase the working width
of the scaffolding platform. When using hop-up brackets, care must be taken not to overload the
scaffold. The cantilevered bracket induces bending moments in the standards.
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Hop-up brackets
Toe boards
Toe boards must be used at the end of the scaffolding to ensure that materials and tools do not
fall off the scaffold. The toe boards must be a minimum height of 150mm. The boards also
prevent the possibility of people slipping off the edge of the platform. Toe boards may be
removed to allow access for materials and workers, but must be replaced
immediately afterwards.
Safety for pedestrians
When scaffolding is positioned in areas accessed by pedestrians it is necessary to use high

visibility warning tape and lighting. Lagging and padding can be placed around the standards to
reduce the risk of injury from accidental impact with the scaffold. Close boarding, netting and
sheeting must be used to prevent objects from falling onto anyone below.
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Housing in Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s construction sector is one of the most robust in Africa. Conditions are ripe for a
surge in building across the country. The updating and building of new infrastructure links,
residential developments and so on is of considerable interest to the Ethiopian Government.
Indeed, development of these areas features heavily in the nation’s Second Growth and
Transformation Plan.
The GTP five-year plans lay out the blueprint for Ethiopia’s continued economic growth. As
such, construction will play a key role towards achieving the country’s economic prosperity
goals. According to the NBE, construction accounts for half of all the nation’s industry.
What’s more, the industry is expanding rapidly. Data from the NBE also suggests that
during 2013/14 the building sector grew 37%.
In Ethiopia the concept of Condominium house as a separate form of ownership was not
familiar until 2003. In 2005, the government of Ethiopia considering provision of houses as
one of the major developmental tasks to reducing poverty and improving the livelihoods of
slum dwellers; and thereby bringing sustainable socio-economic development, established a
National Integrated Housing Development Program under the then MWUD later renamed
as the Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Construction.
Oromia housing bureau is a government-led and financed housing provision program for
low-and middle- income households in Ethiopia. Projects are undertaken on either brown-
field sites or slum areas that are cleared and residents re-housed. The common attribute of
each project is that it has developed different typology of condominium housing: multi-
storied housing units for several households where communal areas are jointly owned and
managed.
The Ethiopian low-cost housing policy has two primary objectives; first, it aims to extend
market for low-income households that are not covered by the private housing market
through increased supply of affordable low-cost housing. In many developing countries, the
64
great majority of lower income households cannot afford the lowest priced houses in the
formal housing market. This is particularly problematic in developing economies where
urban growth is predominantly driven by in-migration by rural households that often lack
the financial wherewithal to participate in formal housing markets.
65
66
67
68
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Present Ethiopian
In the present Ethiopian context, at prevailing housing price and financing mechanism, only
households above the 95th percentile of the income distribution can afford to become home
owners in the formal private housing market. The only choice opens to lowest income
households in such economies is to rent under precarious and uncertain tenure terms,
double up with relatives, or build some form of shelter in unauthorized sectors that
exacerbate the proliferation of slum areas. Consequently, lower-income households not only
live in sub-standard housing conditions, but also have limited access to basic public services
as well as access to finances as they are often considered not creditworthy either due to their
employment, which is often in the informal economy and or lack of collateral for mortgage
lending when available .
Second, the housing policy aims to stabilize rental markets in urban Ethiopia through the
increased construction of low-cost housing units that target lower income households as well
as by increasing the general housing stock. It is estimated that Ethiopia’s current housing
deficit in urban areas is about a million units, and that only 30 percent of the current
housing stock is in “fair” condition, with the remaining 70 percent in need of total
replacement. The housing deficit is even more severe in major urban areas like Addis Ababa,
where the deficit is set to increase concurrently with rapid population growth. Consequently,
this has placed significant upward pressure on the demand for rental housing in urban
areas, which in turn is pushing rental prices and creating affordability challenges to working
class households. Housing affordability challenges in the private market are occurring
largely due to the limited rental housing options for renters. To ensure stable and affordable
rental housing prices, the supply of new housing stock has to increase to match the rapidly
growing urban housing need.
Different housing construction technical manuals was prepared by the support of GTZ-IS in
collaboration with MH Engineering Consulting Engineers P.L.C. (Advisor of the program)
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and the Ethiopian Ministry of Federal Affairs prepared technical manuals to be used as a
guideline during the implementation phase of the program.
Volume I of the technical manual describes a modular building system introduced by the
Low- Cost Housing Project. It has four parts the first part describes machines and special
tools for the pre-fabrication process and simple handicraft-techniques, the second part
introduces modular system - measurement basics and the standardized building parts. The
third part visualizes a typical building process based on a model to illustrate the order in
which the building parts should be assembled. The fourth part consists of models of
condominium buildings.
Volume II is a continuation of the first technical manual published with the objective to
inform the development of low-cost housing in Ethiopia. Furthermore, the manual includes
a construction guideline “step by step” meant to guide site supervisors and site engineers to
organize construction sites and control the quality as well as the implementation of the
technical requirements. It is a very practical guide, which includes checklists for the
different tasks that need to be accomplished. It goes through the whole construction process
from excavation, earthwork to slab construction.
Volume II is a continuation of the first technical manual published with the objective to
inform the development of low-cost housing in Ethiopia. Furthermore, the manual includes
a construction guideline “step by step” meant to guide site supervisors and site engineers to
organize construction sites and control the quality as well as the implementation of the
technical requirements. It is a very practical guide, which includes checklists for the
different tasks that need to be accomplished. It goes through the whole construction process
from excavation, earthwork to slab construction.
Quality of housing
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Some researchers like use the term quality instead of project performance to indicate the
effect. Quality project refers to a project, which is completed on time within budget and
meets its functional requirement.
What is quality?
Define quality as the integration of all functions and processes to achieve continuous
improvement of the quality of goods and services to meet customer satisfaction. According
to Quality is meeting the requirements of the stakeholders: designer, contractor and
regulatory agencies as well as the owner. To ensure project quality implementation of a Total
Quality Management System (TQMS) is necessary. TQMS is an effort that involves every
organization in the industry to improve performance and focus on process improvement,
customer and supplier involvement, teamwork, education and training to achieve customer
satisfaction defect free work.
There are two widely used terms in TQMS namely Quality Assurance (QA) that covers
activities Necessary to provide quality in project work and Quality Control (QC) that is set of
procedure to Meet QA. The activities in QA involve establishing project related policy,
system necessary to Produce quality, standards, training and guidelines whereas the
procedures in QC involve planning, coordinating, developing, checking, reviewing and
scheduling of work .The training in QA includes instruction in the basic TQM cause
and effect analysis, team problem solving, interpersonal communication and interaction
and cost of quality measurement
Also identify the importance of teamwork in the implementation of TQMS. The team, which
is responsible for establishing joint goals, plans, and controls should include all members of
the parties involved in the project. The teamwork provides a mechanism for listening to
and communicating with the owner, thus useful for measuring the level of customer
satisfaction.
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As the customer's perspective of quality levels is important, performance should be

measured and informed to all stakeholders involved .The next Subsections then address
stakeholder involvement, performance measurement and customer Satisfaction.
The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines defects as „lack of something essential,
imperfection, shortcoming, failing. A defect is defined in ISO 8402 as the non-fulfillment of
intended usage requirements. It means lacking and not meeting the required standard. A
defect is present when there is a difference the required standard and the actual delivered
standard. The concept of Zero defects is performance to agreed specification.
It literally means 100% error free. Is it attainable, or is it good enough to achieve a certain
percentage of acceptable defects? The zero defects concept became popular when Crosby a
quality manager developed a concept based on his beliefs that product should be defect-free
when delivered to the customer (Harrington 1998). This concept was neither a technique nor
a methodology; it embodied an attitude that Crosby sought to instill in every individual. It
focused on an individual’s commitment to always meet the engineering specification.
Defects may appear as a building is constructed or after an element of work is completed. In
most standard forms of buildings contractors, there are usually provisions that require
rectification of defects by the contractor at his own costs.
The defects Liability Period (DLP) is a period of a number of months’ stated in the contract,
commencing from the day a project is certified practically completed and handed over to the
client (Sikan 2001). Defects in construction can result in very large costs. Even with minor
defects; the operations of a quality may be impaired, resulting in increased costs and delays.
Generally, construction industry players believe that to achieve zero defects in construction
is not possible. However, it must be highlighted that the concept of zero defects in not only
about achieving zero effects as an absolute goal, but also generating a different attitude
towards work. It is about looking at projects from a customer’s point of view and catering
for their needs. It is about getting the work right the first time and delivering the project on
time (Costain 1998). However, defects occur either because of poor material quality or poor
capacity of the contractor. These causes may operate singly or in combination and result in
73
defects indicated by changes in Composition of materials in the construction itself; in the

size, shape or weight of materials or parts of a building; or simply in appearance.
Ethiopia currently is faced with many problems, housing being one of them. The quality of
housing and the aspects which contribute to it leaves much to be desired. The key purpose of
this research study is to suggest that by systematic focus on implementation of quality of
construction condominium housing projects skilled workmanship (small contractor) and
SMEs results in effective quality product. When placing emphases on the word quality it
may be described as the degree of excellence (Croome and Sherratt 1977). However, (Barrie
and Paulson 1984) mentions that quality assurance is considered generally to be a broader,
more nearly all-encompassing term for the application of standards and procedures to
ensure that a product or facility meets or exceeds the desired performance criteria. (Powell
1976) further mentions that quality in housing construction demands functional soundness
and also demands subjective acceptability for it to be a marketable product.
According to (Griffith 1990) as well as (Levey 2002), at present quality within the
construction industry is fraught with difficulty. The relatively unique aspect of each
construction project and its temporary nature make the continuity and development of
approach across projects far from easy. (Griffith 1990) further postulates that quality should
try to address science and technology aspects of construction as well as manage the physical
and psychological aspects of the human element. Quality in construction therefore
represents a complex socio-technical managerial challenge (Griffith 1990). In order to
overcome these challenges, considerable efforts need to be made to achieve perfection at the
very first attempt (Bennett 1991). Therefore, by focusing on the quality of implementation in
conjunction with the quality of conformance to these designs, quality to the constructed
facility is made possible (Barrie and Paulson 1984).
(Griffith, 1990) contends that in recent years the need for well-formulated, structured and
formal systems of construction management to take into consideration aspects of quality
performance has increased as a direct result of capacity of contractors, materials and
74
components provision. Quite a number of problems, such as contractors, which have been
experienced in the building process, seem to be inadequacies ranging from small technical
and aesthetic aspects to the major building defects.
(Levey 2002) further states that the growing shortages of skilled workers, be it designers or
construction managers and their labor, which began to appear in the 1980‟s in the United
States of America, has reached dangerously low levels in today’s construction industry. This
concern remains one of the major challenges facing the industry, ultimately jeopardizing
quality. (Powell, 1976) adds that quality would also be jeopardized due to the fact that there
are no acceptable quality criteria for middle management and site management in
speculative housing. These problems are known to cost the building industry hundreds of
millions of dollars annually due to mismanagement. Therefore, it is said that many of these
difficulties might be dealt with through greater care and attention to standards of
performance and quality at the client briefing, design and construction stages which form
part of the building process (Griffith 1990).
The cost of the housing is also determining the quality of the house, but there is a way to
control (Lewale 2011), also points out areas where cost can be minimized: to reduce plinth
area by using thinner wall concept, use locally available material in an innovative form like
soil cement blocks in place of burnt brick, and use energy efficient materials that consume
less energy like concrete block instead of burnt brick. Additionally, use environmentally
friendly materials that are substituted for conventional building components, pre-plan every
component of a house and rationalize the design procedure for reducing the size of the
component in the building have an effect to reduce construction cost.
Thus, cost-effective and alternative construction technologies reduce construction cost by

reducing quantity of building materials through improved and innovative techniques. Apart
from reducing construction cost the technology can play a great role in providing better
housing methods and protecting the environment. Building material accounts for 60-70% of
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the total building cost (Lewale 2011). Therefore, reducing material cost results in a vital
change in the overall construction cost.
Low-cost housing supply also has certain constraints (Moavenzadeh 1987) financial
problems due to late payment and withholding portion of payment as form of guarantee,
high cost of equipment and unavailability of access to credit are the main ones. The
problems are worse for small-scale contractors in developing countries. They face idleness of
equipment due to unavailability of consistent work, transportation of building components,
lack of technicians and
Supplies for spare part of equipment, inefficiency of equipment, and inadequate supply of
skilled construction labor. (Moavenzadeh 1987) also suggests remedial action to the
specified constraints. Timely payment, upon arrival or even in advance payment for material
and facilitate access to the loan are remedial actions associated with finance. Remedial
actions concerning technical support for contractors include, training workers for the
construction and building materials industries- especially crafts people, managers, engineers
and other professionals and apprenticeship systems for skilled workers and managers,
which remains the best bet for mitigating shortage of technical and managerial talent. In
addition, incorporate workers in the informal sector since they are already experienced in
the manufacturing, use of domestic materials and the construction of low-cost housing. Any
program to improve the housing conditions of the poor would profit by their inclusions. At
last policies that favors small-scale production and institutional mechanisms will not only
promote the social and economic welfare of the poor but also generate growth and
employment in nearly all sectors of a developing nation (Moavenzadeh 1987).
Quality controlling system in housing construction project plays a great role in the low-cost
housing sector. Quality controlling system, in short refers to a program for systematic
monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects such as construction processes and input
provide based on the characteristics of a project, to ensure that standards of quality are
being met Quality Assurance (Harrison, 2005).
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According to (Harrison, 2005) the quality systems currently implemented in the low-cost
housing sector are:
Document Control: To ensure employees have the correct procedures and that the
procedures are properly maintained.
Audits: To verify that quality procedures are being followed.
Non-conformance Tracking: To monitor and track quality issues and that defects
are kept from customers.
Management Review: Reviewing quality systems data quality metrics to

determine if the quality system is working and if it is not, taking the appropriate
action to improve the system.
Major role players on quality of condominium housing
The main participant who are involved during the construction phase are AAHDPO,
contractors SMEs and consultants. The small contractors are the general contractors who
are responsible for major construction activities. MSEs are the other major role player, who
manufacture and provide prefabricated building components, install electrical and sanitary
works, and manufactures metal window and door frames.
Contractors Roles
Contractor performance has a direct impact on project quality for instance poor contractor’s
performance can lead to poor project quality. From the SWOT analysis made in European
construction sector, small contractors have low productivity, little interest in education and
training than other construction companies.
The other factor that negatively affects contractor performance is that contractors are not
customer oriented and focused. Contractors can be rated in terms of various aspects such as
management, claims orientated, site offices, safety, relations with site neighbors, plant and
77
equipment condition, administration, worker skill, and quality (Latham 1994). Latham
further added factors that negatively affect contractor’s performance in terms of quality for
instance workers' skills, out of sequence work, late information, emphasis on production,
project duration, poor specification, design change, employer change, bad weather, and late
information and procurement system.
Jobs created. AAHDPO Mobilizes and prepare 8.8 billion Birr required for the housing
construction project (Alebel, et.al 2016).
"The utilization of housing as an instrument to promote urban
development, create jobs, revitalize the local urban economy through
MSE development, encourage saving and empower urban residents
through property ownership, and develop the capacity of the domestic
construction industry" (MUDHC 2005 E.C.).
OROMIA housing office has tight costing and quantity surveying mechanisms that aim to
minimize construction costs. The office is responsible for purchasing all construction
materials, in bulk and therefore at low prices. Contractors are engaged on fixed-cost
contracts, which reduce the burden of soliciting for, receiving, and choosing tenders for each
job. The material requirements for each condominium block are calculated and the exact
material quantities are given to contractors. This centralized system minimizes wastage,
helps to keep records for material supplies and distribution, and enables any surplus
materials to be used on other site (UNHBITAT 2010).
Measuring housing quality
Measuring quality enable managers to know how close they are to their target and how to
make the right decisions for improving work process (Oztas 2005). Continual measuring of
project performance for further improvement also helps in meeting customer expectation on
the project outcome. (Deming 1986) also affirms that the customer's perspective of quality
78
levels is critically important. Hence it is important for the project team to understand what
customer satisfaction means.
Quality should be measured on a regular basis throughout the project, which helps the team
to review progress and identify opportunities for further improvement (Thomas & Thomas
2005). Benchmarking allows a project team to learn from best practice by comparing its own
performance with others (Chan 2004). Without clear measurement of performance against
benchmarks, it is difficult for any teams to determine how well they have done and what
improvement they need to make (Chan 2004).
Accurate construction planning is a key determinant in ensuring the delivery of a quality

housing on schedule and within budget. A contracting organization needs a sound time-
planning and control system which allows not only efficient and effective management of an
individual project but also the likely need to manage multiple projects simultaneously
(Griffith 1990).
Benchmarking quality of housing

The philosophy of benchmarking has proliferated in many manufacturing industries;
relatively little attention has so far been drawn to its potential value in the construction
industry. Benchmarking is the search for the best practices that will lead to superior
performance of an organization (Chan 2004). Researchers in construction management and
practitioners in the construction industry have begun to realize the importance of
developing best practice benchmark measures, say for instance, of construction quality
performance to be used by clients, consultants and contractors (Chan 2004).
According to (Alarcon and Serpell 1996) there is still a consensus around researchers and
the construction industry experts, that one of the principal barriers to promote
improvement and sustainability in quality construction projects is the lack of appropriate
quality performance measurements. (Alarcon and Serpell 1996) further mention that for
continuous improvement to occur it is quite pivotal to have quality performance measures in
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place in order to check and monitor this quality performance, to also verify changes and the
effect of improvement actions, to understand the variability of the process and in general it
is a necessity to have objective information readily available in order for any construction
company to make effective decisions.
(Mohamed 1996) confers that the ever-rising customer requirements and expectations have
increased demands for continually introducing improvements in quality of housing. With
competitors in construction increasing at a vast rate, construction organizations all around
the globe are enhancing their competitive position by improving their performance and in
addition setting new operating targets and standards for the national market. This dynamic
mechanism and the well-known fierce national competition have raised the awareness of
quality performance measurement known as benchmarking among the majority of
contractors.
According to (Alarcon and Serpell 1996) benchmarking is considered to be a new topic

within the construction industry. (Alarcon and Serpell 1996) further mention that to this
day there is
Almost no available information that describes the potential that benchmarking offers to
quality of housing.
However, (Kyro, 2003) states that benchmarking has established its position as a tool to
improve contractor’s quality performance. (Kyro 2003) defines benchmarking as the
process of evaluating and applying best practices that provide possibilities to improve the
quality of work. (Kyro 2003) further mentions that benchmarking is an evolving concept
that has developed since the 1940‟s towards more sophisticated forms. He proposes that it
has undergone five generations. (McCabe 2001) adds that many of the techniques directly
associated with benchmarking may have their roots in the so-called quality movement of the
1980‟s, but the concepts which underpin them are a lot older.
(Mac Cabe 2001) explains that records show that the Egyptians used benchmarks in
construction work, by cutting a notch in a lump of stone at accurately determined points,
80
while a flat strip of iron would then be placed horizontally in the incision to act as the bench
for a leveling staff. Using this as a reference further heights and distances could be
measured. While the term benchmark may have changed to a more contemporary meaning,
at its heart it is still the fundamental principle of being able to measure in a definitive way,
in order to improve quality standards (McCabe 2001).
(Mohamed 1996) mentions that in housing quality benchmarking is not a straight forward
task due to both the very nature of the industry which lacks solid data gathering and the
remarkable fluctuation in productivity. In housing quality benchmarking attempts always
run a risk of facing certain difficulties such as incomplete or non-existing data (plans
incomplete). Even if the data was complete or did exist, benchmarking would be highly
dependable on project size, type and budget. Therefore, it is difficult to use it effectively as a
basis for comparison. Benchmarking only works if consistent methods of measuring the
quality performance of operations can be developed and introduced.
(Mc George and Palmer 1997). State that there are three types of benchmarking; they are:
internal, competitive and generic benchmarking.
Internal benchmarking
Internal Benchmarking is where a contractor aims towards identifying improvement areas

within its structure through comparing its business operations with those of others who do
things better, thus setting new targets to meet (Mohamed 1996). (McCabe 2001) confers that
internal benchmarking is the most straightforward of the three types, because it is carried
out inside the organization. When focusing on internal benchmarking, it may be discovered
that a particular department is able to perform better than others. (McGeorge and Palmer
1997) further state that internal benchmarking allows best practice that exists within the
organization to be identified and installed contractors-wide.
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Competitive benchmarking
Competitive benchmarking is a comparison between the processes of companies operating

within the same industry (MSc George and Palmer 1997). Therefore, if a competitor of the
same industry suddenly gains a competitive advantage for example selling goods at a
cheaper rate or to a higher specification, other companies will be forced to follow or meet the
same standard (McCabe 2001). The problem however with competitive benchmarking is
that because it deals with the companies operating in the same industry, best practice of a
competitor is not necessarily good enough. For example, a construction company can have
an excellent reputation for construction process and material use, due to no direct follow-on
from this; this does not mean their estimating processes are any better than others
(Mohamed 1996).
Generic benchmarking
According to (Mohamed 1996) generic benchmarking is when the industry as a whole

attempt to increase quality through tools and techniques developed and successfully used by
other industries applicable to construction. The advantage of generic benchmarking
however that is it breaks down the barriers to thinking and offers a great opportunity for
innovation. The disadvantage is that it can be difficult, time-consuming and expensive (Mc
George and Palmer, 1997).
Common quality problem in low-cost housing
Quality problem in newly completed buildings is becoming a serious phenomenon as lower

cost and medium cost house are being built (Alsadey et.al. 2010). Construction defect
according to (Alsadey et.al. 2010) is lacking and not meeting the required standard that may
reveal as a building is constructed or after an element of work is completed. Defects usually
include any deficiency in the performing of the design, planning, supervision, inspection,
construction or observation of construction to any new home or building. The defects
usually are start to appear after 2 years of occupancy (Chong & Low 2006)
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Housing quality defect affects society or end-users due to possible danger posed and direct
and indirect cost of repairs imposed. Some of the most common construction defects involve
leaking roofs and windows, cracked and heaving concrete, cracks in walls and joints,
defective plumbing and improperly installed electrical equipment shown below (Alsadey
et.al. 2010),
o Cracking
o Loose plastering of ceilings
o Delaminating
o Surface appearance (Surface abrasion & Surface etching)
o Corrosion
o Physical appearance Dent age (Deflection & Warping and buckling)
o Water penetration
o Sealant defects
o Staining
Conceptual framework
A number of different participants are contributed for housing quality challenges. According
to the unique characteristics of this project, the identified main quality role players of 20/80
condominium housing are SMEs, contractors, AAHDPO, and consultants. In addition, this
extensive review encompasses all the identified quality of housing problem identified and
discussed in previous sections of literature review.
Common attribute to the major sources of quality challenge of 20/80 condominium housing
problem stipulated in the figure below;
Figure 2.1 conceptual framework
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Consultants
Oromia housing office
SMEs
Quality challenges
Contractors
of 20/80
condominium
housing
84
Motivation to improve quality of housing
All respondents of contractors agree that lack of access to finance has negative impact on
their motivation to work and in addition, long time payment processing and insufficient
profit also sometimes budget problem from AAHDPO the project also affect.
SMEs were asked about what factors affect their motivation most often, the majority of
SMEs reply that the profit is too small only 19% are satisfied, and when they try to request
AAHDPO for unit rate revision, they never get an appropriate response. Besides around 54%
of SMEs states that the idleness of equipment, delay in delivery of raw material, contract
type, payment condition, accessibility to finance, and a dividend of profit among members in
the enterprise, has a large impact on their motivation to work. Due to AAHDPO attention
now largely diverted to newly recruited SMEs, the existed SMEs are worrying about losing
their jobs; the survey shows that about 61% of SMEs are worried about the sustainability of
their job.
Figure 4.9: Problem to motivation to quality of housing
Negative effect in %
120% 100%
90%
100% 78%
80% 41%
31%
60%
Negative effect in %
40%
Access to Insufficient Payment Inspection Contract
finance total processing condition
projec
t profit
As with most construction projects, each stakeholder has their own priorities. AAHDPO
officer criticize contractors because of their priority to maximize profit at any cost. Even if
85
51% of contractors agree profit as their priority, also 49% of respondents agree completion
on time and gaining experience are their highest priority.
From the survey made on customer satisfaction, more than 51% of Inhabitants are not
satisfied with the quality of the houses they are living in. Yet there is no independent office
to report them
The researcher raises the coordinator whether tests are available for prefabricated materials
or not. The coordinator replied that it is not necessary to undertake tests since the raw
materials are delivered by their office. He further explains that in the previous projects they
sometimes undergo tests, however, since SME-1 in this project are new the chance of SMEs
to cheat on mix ratio to get money is less rather they have technical problem to produce
quality product.
The Oromia housing department stated that the consultant is responsible for the approval
of material delivered and for supervision of quality works. The procedure the project follows
to ensure quality is rather easy upon completion of work AAHDPO check the work and give
the remarks to the consultant for correction. The officer added that even if there is no quality
control team established independently, we have a weekly management meeting held on site
to discuss about the progress of work and any problem encountered during the week. The
meeting is led by the consultant and involves consultant’s project coordinators and
management personnel from Oromia housing department
As per Oromia housing department project coordinator of the consultant found it difficult
to conclude there is no quality control team. He argues that in the weekly meeting they
discuss what they observe concerning material delivery, and work progress. In principle
there are also meetings which involve contractors and SMEs especially sanitary and
electrical workers every two weeks concerning of the project progress.
86
From the interview made with the Oromia housing department O officer and the project
coordinator, performance of contractors and SMEs measured and give rewards for good
work and penalizes for failure to comply with the contract. The reward is to give contractors
and SMEs more jobs and the penalty is to terminate them from the work they were engaged.
The performance is measured weekly based on the progress of the work with mainly focus on
physical progress.
The contractors and SMEs were also asked the availability of Total Quality Management
(TQM) in their respective work. Around 65% of respondent from contractors and 70% from
SMEs assured there is TQM system in place and its objective and focus is clearly stated.
However, around 55% of both respondents affirmed that there is no quality control team
independently established. The majority of the respondents (contractors) also added that
they promote quality construction through quality workmanship, performance
measurement, and through implementing quality assurance system.
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Quality standard technical manual for condominium housing
Oromia housing department encompass equipped standard on 20/80 condominium

housing in 2004, it also comprises quality standard of condominium housing, following to
the standard the office equipped with technical manual of volume 1 to volume 4 on April,
2005. The technical manual is prepared with participation and collaboration of ministry of
federal affaire, Addis Ababa city government, GTZ/low-cost housing project, AAHDPO and
MH engineering consulting plc. From the four technical manual volume 2 is focusing on
quality standard of low-cost housing.
The manual has put standard for concrete work including mixing, hollow block concrete,
metal work, electrical installation, sanitary installation, pre-fabricated construction
material, flooring, painting, plastering, and ceramic tile laying.
According to the study, 61% of SMEs, 39% of contractors and 12% of consultants have no
information about technical quality standard manual of low-cost housing. Nonexistence of
testing mechanism for raw materials and prefabricated building components this expose to
use in inappropriate materials to the housing construction projects.
Figure 4.10: Respondents have no information about quality standard technical manual
70
61
60
50
39
40 SMEs
30 Contractors
20 12 Consultants
10
0 Percent of respondents have no information about technical
quality manual
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Project awarding system of Oromia housing office
Most widely used procurement method in the construction sector of Ethiopia is tendering.
Sometimes the direct award is used for special type of projects. For instance, if the project is
urgent and to avoid time spent in a tendering procedure, if the project is too small, if eligible
participants are few, or if the project is unique in its character direct award is used. The
tendering procedure follows the Ethiopian construction laws for procurement of services or
procurement of works and the selection is normally based on technical or financial
capability of the participant or both.
The Oromia housing department considered as a special type of project because it was
formulated through a policy. The policy has two intentions, one is obviously to construct
houses with low cost and the other is to create employment. No tendering procedure was
necessary because the price is already set by the office and the intended participants are
already available.
Any contractor who has a construction license of less than grade-6 can register to participate
in the construction of condominium houses in Addis Ababa. Civil engineers who have the
educational background related to construction and the necessary work experience have the
right to get a construction license from their respective Sub-Cities. However, the type of the
license varies from Building Contractor/General Contractor of grade 9 to grade 1 (BC/GC 9-
1) based on the educational level of the manager, educational level and number of key
employees, and own capital of the company.
Up on registration, interested contractors are only expected to present their company

profile, VAT registration and renewal certificate together with their license. After
registration, the housing Development Office prepares training program for 3-5 days. The
training is prepared to give insight and knowledge about the project. Following the training,
the contractors are assigned to different project sites through the lottery drawn at the
AAHDPO main office. Contractual agreement for works contract are then signed between
AAHDPO and the contractors.
89
Complaint. Thus, customer satisfaction is addressed in the survey because meeting customer
satisfaction is one of the performance indicators. The consultant stated that they are trying
to meet customer satisfaction through undertaking performance measurement and give the
feedback to contractors every two weeks. The construction officer from AAHDPO added that
it is difficult to satisfy all the customers with all the constraints the project has. He also
argues that not all the defects inside the houses are caused by construction fault, it could
sometimes cause by misuse of the utilities and fixture by the household.
Quality standard guidelines related to low-cost housing
In construction, the most possible sources of quality defects are poor quality construction
materials and poor workmanship. The construction projects in Ethiopia usually follow a
number of procedures to ensure the quality production. The most widely used procedures
include technical specification prepared as a guideline for detail of the works, undertake
tests for major construction material at the time of delivery, close-up inspection, risks
allocates and clearly.
In the project most construction materials are supplied by AAHDPO itself, for instance
cement and prefabricated material supplied to the main contractor. All material except sand
is delivered to SMEs-1 for the production of prefabricated materials. The responsibility of
approving the quality of the material is consultant. While conducting site visits it was
observed that three types of gravel with similar grain-size dumped side by side in front of
one of SMEs-1 (responsible for the production of pre-cast beam) production sites. Concrete
mix needs different sizes of gravel to ensure bondage between different materials used.
However, what was observed on the site was similar large size gravels and the SMEs were
manufacturing pre-cast beam using what is available on site. The supervisor explains the
situation that it is difficult for them to reject the material delivered because the client itself
supplies the material. He also added that we tried to notify the client (AAHDPO) about the
quality of construction material so many times but the situation never was improved.
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Conversely the AAHDPO SMEs coordinator argues that they are satisfied with quality of
material they are supplying thus the office believe there is no need to undergo any tests.
A total of 44 contractors were assigned to "Addis Ketema and Nifas Silk Lafito" project and
only 38 are proceeding to work and the rest 6 contractors got terminated. AAHDPO
indicate the contractors as a defaulter for the termination. From their explanation, many
contractors ceased the work because of their incapability (financial constraints or lack of
management) to cope with the project.
On the other hand, In Ethiopia, there are no specific criteria to establish SMEs and it is done
voluntarily. Any interested citizens who wish to participate in the project can register
individually in their respective sub-cities based on their area of interest. No educational
background is required to select an area of specialization except for electrical works, which
sometimes require some experience or vocational school certificate. After registration, the
MSEs, development office prepares training program with the intention to build technical
and management capability of MSEs. The training is given for only 3-7 days based on their
selection of specialization, upon completion of the training, the sub-cities give certificate for
the participants. The trainees then form an association, which consists of two to twenty
members or can start working individually. The sub-city's SMEs development office then
certifies and gives recognition to the association formed.
The Mses Development office then forwards the lists of the certified SMEs to the project
office upon request. Based on their area of specialization the MSEs are assigned to different
blocks through the lottery drawn on the project site.
91
Technical perspective
Oromia housing department were asked for their observation on the technical capability of
contractors and SMEs. Accordingly, both project coordinator and construction officer
responded that the technical skill of the contractors is different among different contractors;
some have good technical knowledge while others struggle to apply quality system because
of lack of technical skills. Technically majority of contractors have problem in following up
on the project as required.
Consultants found the technical skill of most SMEs inadequate. The coordinator of the
AAHDPO by its representative explains that when MSEs start to work they need to train and
guide them. Thus, the engineers from the consultants of and the client (AAHDPO) do most
of the job to show techniques and methodologies in the construction processes to the SMEs.
The knowledge transfer also depends on SMEs interest and readiness to learn and
accept. The
Construction officer from Oromia housing department also added that for most SMEs it is
difficult to even read drawings and understand the moulds of construction material they are
producing.
AAHDPO rate technical know-how of the majority of SMEs and some contractors as poor.
What do the contractors and SMEs say about their own technical skill? To find out this the
survey uses indicators of technical skill adapted from the literature review as a checklist. The
most important indicator is how well they understand the contractual and technical
documents they are required to use while executing their work.
Contractors have the required educational background and work experience of similar
nature. As this is the case, the majority of the respondents (contractor) find the contractual
and technical documents clear and easy to understand. On the other hand, in relation to
their less educational background and lack of work experience, the majority of SMEs found
it difficult to understand the contracts and technical documents. (Figure 4.11) summarizes
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the difference in the number of contractors and SMEs agreement on the clarity of different
types of contractual and technical documents.
Figure 4.11: Technical quality of SMEs and Contractors
90%
78% 80% 81%
80% 75% 71%
70% 59%
60% 42% 43% 39% MSEs in%
50% 31% 27%
21% Contractors in %
40%
30%
Contract Drawing Specification Quality Quality Bidding
document Assurance control documen
procedur
Oromia housing unit office endeavor to develop quality of housing
Housing development in Oromia office agree that many contractors lack quality
management skill. One of the Oromia housing department management members points
out that there are different types of contractors; some contractors used to be employees and
few have some experience in fieldwork before joining this project. Thus, there is knowledge
and experience gap between the contractors themselves. Contractors.
Who have experience perform well and carry out their task with due care and diligence. On
the contrary, there are contractors who do not feel responsible and may disappear ignoring
the contract agreement they signed. The Oromia housing department officer added that
many contractors do not check quality of material request and work progress and many are
not well organized in their working methodology and keeping data. Furthermore, MSEs also
have a problem with quality of work for condominium housing at large.
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94
Interlocking Brick Machine

The interlocking system is used almost in all fields of industry including the construction
industry, this is for both concrete block types and paving blocks.
This article discusses interlocking brick machines. It covers their capabilities, levels of
automation, and prices. If you already know what these machines are and want to find out their
prices, you can skip to the end of the article.
95
To understand everything, let's start with the basic meaning of "interlocking." It's when two or
more things fit together like puzzle pieces, either by overlapping or by being placed snugly side
by side.
This interlocking method is widely used in many industries, especially in construction, for
making different types of concrete blocks like concrete blocks or paving blocks.
Hollow blocks or paving blocks that are interlocked with each other are called interlocking bricks
or blocks and the machine that produces these blocks is called the interlocking brick machine.
96
This machine uses molds to shape interlocking blocks and to shape them, pressure and vibration
are applied to the mold.
Interlocking bricks offer numerous benefits. Among them, a key advantage is that when
constructing a wall, there's no requirement to use concrete to connect each layer to the one below
it.
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Instead, concrete is only needed for the wall's base and top portions. This interlocking feature
significantly minimizes the concrete quantity used and accelerates the construction process. As a
result, labor costs are substantially lower compared to traditional hollow blocks.
The Advantages of Interlocking Blocks

1. Enhanced Stability: Interlocking design provides strong connections between blocks,
resulting in increased structural stability and load-bearing capacity.
2. No Mortar Needed: These blocks fit together snugly without requiring mortar, which
saves time and money in construction while promoting precision.
3. Reduced Concrete Usage: Only the base and top layers require concrete, leading to
significant concrete savings compared to traditional construction methods.
4. Faster Construction: The ease of assembly due to interlocking design speeds up
construction, reducing project timelines.
5. Cost Efficiency: Reduced concrete usage, faster construction, and decreased labor
requirements contribute to cost savings in both materials and labor.
6. Minimal Skilled Labor: Interlocking blocks are easy to work with, requiring less skilled
labor for installation, further lowering labor costs.
7. Eco-Friendly: By using less concrete and requiring minimal excavation, interlocking
blocks have a smaller environmental footprint compared to conventional methods.
8. Variety of Applications: Interlocking blocks can be used for various structures
including walls, retaining walls, pavements, and more.
9. Flexibility: The blocks' modular nature allows for adjustments and modifications during
construction without extensive time or cost implications.
10. Durability: The robust interlocking connections contribute to the long-term durability
and strength of structures built using these blocks.
11. Aesthetically Pleasing: Interlocking blocks often have appealing textures and designs,
adding to the visual appeal of constructed structures.
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12. Ease of Maintenance: Repairs and maintenance are simplified due to the block-by-
block assembly, enabling specific sections to be addressed without affecting the entire
structure.
13. Cold Weather Resilience: Interlocking concrete blocks can endure freezing
temperatures without compromising their structural integrity.
14. Snow Removal Convenience: The surface of paving bricks allows for easy removal of
snow, making maintenance in snowy conditions simpler.
15. Design Versatility: Interlocking blocks offer a wide range of styling options, catering to
various architectural preferences from traditional to contemporary aesthetics.
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Now after having a general background, we can talk more specifically about interlocking brick
machines.
In fact, the interlocking brick machine is the hollow block machine or paver block machine. The
only difference is by changing the mold you can produce different shapes of concrete blocks.
There are almost 600 shapes that this hollow block machine can produce only by changing the
mold. If you are interested in learning more details about this machine you can also read our
article ''brick making machine price and details''.
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Here you can see an interlocking hollow block produced by Bess machines. You can choose
your desired interlocking block shape based on your market demand. In each country, 3 or 4
interlocking shapes are more popular than others. Choosing the most popular interlocking
mold is preferred because it is easier to sell the products.
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Preparing the concrete:
To form the mortar, it's crucial to combine the mentioned materials in precise proportions.
Normally, a ratio of one part cement to three or four parts of raw material is utilized. Afterward,
water should be added to the mixture. However, caution is necessary, as excessive water can lead
to excessively liquid mortar, while insufficient water might undermine the desired impact
resistance when the blocks dry.
Subsequent to this step, the mixture should be thoroughly blended until it reaches a consistent
texture. To streamline this process, a mixer comes into play.
Producing interlocking bricks with the machine:
First, the mortar is poured into the mold filler to fill the molds. Then, the mold filler initiates a
back-and-forth movement to accomplish the initial mold filling.
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Subsequently, the first round of vibration is activated to close gaps within the mortar, causing the
surface of the mortar in the mold to compact.
Ultimately, the hydraulic press comes into play, compressing the mortar within the molds. This
action occurs on the pallet's surface and is accompanied by simultaneous vibration. The
hydraulic force exerted by the interlocking brick machine typically exceeds 120 bars, while the
vibration power reaches 15kw or higher, ensuring the creation of robust interlocking blocks.
Delivering the pallet containing the interlocking bricks to the drying

section:
For this purpose, you have different choices
A. Collecting pallets by hand (semi-automatic machine)
B. Collecting pallets by forklift (automatic machine)
If the capacity of your interlocking brick machine is high you are recommended to buy the
forklift system. With an automatic pallet delivery system. In automatic machines, a smaller
drying section is required compared to the semi-automatic as well. In this way, the land required
for the whole plant can be 1000 m2 smaller than the land needed for the semi-automatic pallet
collecting system.
But if your capacity is low and your plant area is big, the manual collecting system will do the job.
Bellow you can see PRS1000 semi-automatic block making machine in action
When we talk about Interlocking blocks, we mean different types of them.

Here is a list:
 Interlocking paving blocks

 Interlocking hollow concrete blocks
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 Interlocking bricks
 Interlocking Lego blocks
 Special interlocking blocks for special purposes
Consider that in different countries there are different names for this machine. When the
machine is producing interlocking paver’s people call the machine an interlocking paving block
machine. But in countries like Ghana, Ethiopia, and Uganda where people use it to produce
interlocking hollow blocks they call it an interlocking hollow block machine.
Don't get confused when you hear different names for the machine. They all refer to the same
machine. Here are a few sample products of the machine.
Double-Layer Paving Blocks
The block-making machine has some optional equipment that can be added to them if the
customer wants. For example, a second hopper can be added. This machine is called a double-
hopper interlocking brick machine this hopper enables you to add a colored thin layer to the
surface of the interlocking paving block. By this method, you can have colorful paving blocks for
your streets and pavements. This machine is also called the paver block machine.
Coloring the interlocking paving block is also possible with the single-hopper machine but you
will need to add a lot more color because you should color the whole block when using a single-
hopper brick machine. This machine is also called the hollow block making machine.
The coloring system is only logical for interlocking paving blocks. For hollow blocks that form
walls, coloring is not applied because the wall is later covered with plaster or other materials.
The smallest machine can produce 4000 interlocking hollow blocks and 12000 interlocking
paving blocks in 8 hours (one shift).
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There are larger capacities of interlocking brick machines such as 6.000, 8.000, 10.000
interlocking hollow blocks and 16.000, 20.000 25.000 interlocking paving blocks, and even
higher.
Interlocking Brick Machine Price
For buying an interlocking brick machine you need to know your desired production capacity,
your working hours in a day, and your pallet delivery system. Of course, you will need at least
2000m2 of land as well.
You also need to find a machine manufacturer as well. There are a lot of manufacturers around
the globe. Turkish, Chinese, German, and American companies produce these machines with
different types and capacities. It doesn’t matter which one you choose, the important thing is the
quality of the machine that they produce.
For the first year, you might not face a problem with your machine but for long-term use, you
will face lots of problems if your machine has low quality.
Our recommendation after a few years of experience in this field is not to buy the cheapest
machine but to add a logical amount to your budget, in the beginning, to avoid unnecessary and
serious problems in the future. The price is also important because you don’t want to spend your
whole budget on the block making machine you need to save some for the construction of your
site, buying aggregate, and providing cement as well. So it is logical to buy a high-quality but
logical-priced machine.
For this reason, you need to physically meet the interlocking brick machine manufacturer, their
company, and their products, or at least go to one of the machines that they installed near your
city or country.
About the pallets, one unit of the pallet is not expensive but when you order them
in bulk, there will be a considerable change in your interlocking brick machine price
list. It is recommended to produce the pallets yourself locally instead of buying
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them from the manufacturer. You only need a sample from the factory to produce
them. Important things you need to have in mind are wood quality, length, width,
and thickness of the pallets. These are provided by the manufacturer.
Here is the price for two interlocking brick-making machines that we have. For more
information, campaigns, and technical details please contact us.
Local example of smart village idea
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Some expansion smart future city project idea and sample
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Communication and controlling quality of housing
As the project involves so many stakeholders, it is necessary to identify the type of

relationship and flow of communication among project participant. From the survey data
collected to find out when and how often each stakeholder usually communicates, the
majority of (more than 65%) SMEs affirm they communicate with AAHDPO for payment
follow up, material request, and for other type of meetings (out of the issue of housing
quality).
Nevertheless, only 46% and 40% of respondents communicate to AAHDPO when there is a
problem and when they have complaints concerning the project respectively. During the
communication 54% of SMEs found the AAHDPO supportive.
All contractors also communicate with AAHDPO for the same reason as SMEs SEs, in
addition, contractors do communicate with AAHDPO during provisional and final
acceptance. Of the respondents 70% of contractors found AAHDPO response supportive.
The other most important communication is between contractors and SMEs s because they
have a tied relation with each other to build quality housing. In the eyes of the contractors,
communicating with the SMEs s is difficult while SMEs perceive they have good relation
with the contractors. These varying opinions of stakeholders in the communication flow
reveal that there is a communication gap between stakeholders involved in the project.
Contractors were asked to identify the type of relationships exists on site. According to the
majority of the respondents 80%, blaming culture between them and the MSEs does exist
but they work jointly with the rest of the stakeholders. The AAHDPO also confirm the
existence of blame culture between contractors and SMEs.
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Thus, when problems arise on site project offices need to solve it at the lowest level as
possible. However, 65% respondent of the contractors complains that whenever there are
problems or issues that need immediate measures and decisions they always need to wait
long. Thus, according to them effective problem-solving mechanism is not practiced on site.
4.1.1 Capacity building for SMEs and contractors by AAHDPO
Training support for contractor is 85% take the training and the remaining 15% area not
taken the training (see figure 4.12). The contractors receive different types of support from
HDPO. For instance, prior to the beginning f the project, AAHDPO organized a 3-4 days
training mainly concerned with improving management skill and introducing the program
to contractors.
Figure 4.12: Training support for small contractor
percent
15%
yes
no
85%
One of the support programs by AAHDPO in order to improve the performance of the
contractor is types of training to improve capacity building. According to respondent data
less wait is given to Quality management training type (figure 4.13 show you below).
Figure 4.13: Type of training support for contractor by AAHDPO
Type of Training in Percent

80% 65%
60%
40% 10% 10% 10% 5% Type of Training in Percent
20%
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The training which was given by AAHDPO, the change on their quality performance (80%
disagree and neutral only 10% are agree) of their quality performance.
The contractors even argue that there has been no training instead it was just the orientation
of the program thus; it does not have anything to do with capacity building. They added that
the training organized is too short and not quality performance oriented. Most of them
criticized the training that it is mainly focused on introducing to the program. AAHDPO also
confirm that due to the limited budget and professionals, they are only able to prepare 3-4
days training.
There is a SME development office in every sub-city, which are responsible for recruiting
and facilitating training services for newly recruited SMEs. The training organized in
collaboration with AAHDPO and TVET. The training given is two types one is managerial
and the other is technical. The theory part of the training delivered by sub-sites focus on
management aspects that includes administration, accounting, profitability, and saving and
it takes up only 4-5 days. The duration for technical part is different for different
specialization. For instance, pre-cast beam production takes 5-10 days and electrical and
sanitary installation take about 10-30 days.
The findings reveal that they are quite a large number of SMEs who found the training not
easy and difficult to understand 52%. In addition, many SMEs found the training not
adequate to assure quality of housing; even it could not be applicable to this project.
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From the survey made to find out the effect of other supporting schemes (financial, material
and equipment), the majority of the respondents either disagree or neutral in their opinions.
In the overall analysis, while 20% of SMEs confirm the supporting schemes have a positive
effect on their quality performance, 40% of SMEs believe it has neither minor nor moderate
effect. Especially for equipment support, only 12% agree the support has no effect on their
quality performance. One of the reasons some of the respondents give for disagreeing is that
the equipment they have been provided with through loan gets broken so easily and needs
continuous maintenance.
Quality Summary
Quality, in housing projects should be regarded as the fulfillment of expectation of those
contributors involved in such projects. Although a significant amount of quality practices
has been introduced within the industry, attainment of reasonable levels of quality in
housing projects continues to be an ongoing problem. To date, some research into the
introduction and improvement of quality practices and stakeholder (contractors, SMEs and
consultants) management has been undertaken, but so far, no major studies have been
completed that comprehensively examine how greater consideration of stakeholders‟
perspectives of quality can be used to contribute to final project quality outcomes. This
paper aims to examine the requirements for development of a framework leading to more
effective involvement of stakeholders in quality practices thus ultimately contributing to
higher quality outcomes for 20/80 condominium housing projects. Through an extensive
literature review it highlights various perceptions of quality, categorizes quality issues with
particular focus on benefits and shortcomings and also examines the viewpoints of major
stakeholders on project quality. It proposes a set of criteria to be used as a basis for a quality
practice improvement framework, which will provide project managers and clients with the
required information and strategic direction to achieve their own and their stakeholders‟
targets for implementation of quality practices leading to the achievement of housing
quality.
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Towards Affordable Low-Cost Housing: Strategies of Low-Cost

Housing Development for the Low-Income
Conceptual Abstract
The issue of affordable housing remains to be interested to the researcher’s all-over the world.
Like elsewhere, in Ethiopia, Oromia the modern technology is being used in housing building
towards more affordable house low cost. However, the constraints to obtain affordable houses
are still experiencing on Rwanda market and can be regarded as financial, cultural, social,
historical and institution framework. The high cost of capital, the high price to rent and to own
affordable houses remains to be the main challenge for younger professionals and new tenants.
On other side, high loan and mortgage interest rates hindering ownership of affordable houses
for the middle- and low-income household sectors. As illustrated under section of discussions,
consumer attitude/culture and level of income are the main factors towards affordable house.
However, the Rwandan government may attract foreign investors such United Nations agencies,
development banks, international NGOs, public and private partnership, World Bank and
derivatives in their program to fund affordable housing in order to reduce the cost of capital and
make it easier for all categories towards affordable housing.
Introduction to interlocking housing system
When it comes to the health and vitality of our communities, affordable housing is the key. The
need for quality, affordable homes is an important part of Sustainable Development Goals and
the Ethiopia, Oromia vision as it seeks to evolve into a sustainable community. With the
economic issues the world is facing the demand for affordability is greater than ever before.
The issue of housing affordability is becoming a more concern for several researchers in many
worlds in Africa as well as in Ethiopia, Oromia. The poor management of the growth of housing
cost has been affecting negatively any African society in terms of finance. Therefore, reducing the
effect of housing issues could be a potential benefit to both low- and middle-income households.
One of the social problems includes housing where it brings issues due to various social,
economic and cultural implications. As seen above, the matter of housing issues is threatening
low- and middle-income society. In these circumstances the housing issue is one of the most
disturbing structural and functional social problems, with certain cultural aspect. This has been
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becoming a constraint for some middle-income groups, whereas it had previously mainly been
an issue for those on lower incomes.
Thus, the aim of this paper is to identify the actual challenges and way forward related to the
affordable and low-cost housing. Based on secondary data from previous studies, this study
measures different issues namely loan availability, housing affordability, housing scheme’s
policy, consumer attitude, neighborhoods, housing quality, economic development. Therefore, it
is hoped that the results and discussion of this paper would help to instill more understanding of
the real issue related to housing. Because proper knowledge in identifying the main issue of
affordable housing can assist the government of Rwanda and stakeholders to handle and
effectively resolve these issues, which might affect the citizen as well as the whole county health.
Indeed, it clear that though may require more effort from both public and private sectors but
working together could lead to low-cost affordable housing. For instance, government should
provide grants as subsidiaries to soften high loans and mortgage interest rate which would
encourage actors to borrow money and invest in affordable housing on low cost.
Literature Review
The modern technology has been involved in housing building towards more affordable house
low cost. This simple house has more advantages of a concrete block construction without the
cost. Furthermore, low-cost materials are locally available, affordable and therefore, because of
innovation and technology the poor families who constitute high portion of population can afford
low-cost houses. Indeed, most architects have received some training in design solution for
building and construction that use conventional approaches, including low incoming project.
Actors and practices of low-cost building materials and technologies
More research and development have been conducted for low-cost building materials and
technologies all over the world by involvement of many organizations both national and
international, as well as non-governmental organizations.
The general speaking here was to lowering construction costs, especially in regard to housing in
order to make it affordable to more people who predominantly in the low-income households.
Challenges in the provision of affordable housing
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The main constraint to obtain affordable houses can be regarded as financial, social and
institution framework. The financial factors tackle middle economy in the country, high cost of
infrastructures, low level investments, difficulties in accessing financial resources and escalating
cost of building materials. All these factors illustrated above make it tough for poor and middle
class to afford house. The challenges do not only include financial factors but also social factors
such as population explosion, rapid-rural to urban migration and high poverty levels. As cited by
institutional frameworks including housing policies in place have failed to help a conclusive
environment for investment in affordable housing. Indeed, the land in urban areas in Ethiopia,
Oromia has been raised in recent years. The speedy influx of people to the urban areas has
generated high demand for land causing prices in residential areas to increase so fast. In order to
identify the key challenges in the provision of affordable housing in Ethiopia, Oromia the study
will consider the key aspects involved in the provision of affordable housing, as discussed below:
Land: In urban areas, land has been highly valued and is mostly in hands of the central
government and the local authorities. The other landowners are speculators who looking to make
a quick cash.
This has made land inaccessible to the more people including poor and middle class who need it
most but cannot afford premium price. Indeed, according to government data the high demand
of land with competing interest groups and individuals has pushed prices up.
Infrastructure: The opening of new land for housing development or the improvement of
current information settlements require installation and maintenance of infrastructures like
water, road, electricity and security. These infrastructure facilities provide crucial component of
shelter provision.
Financial resources for housing
The financial bottle neck is a major limitation factor in housing development. The sources of
funds are few and the funds are on high price. Getting qualified for mortgages are still too severe
despite the fact that housing is still in short supply. Renaud estimated that Inappropriate fiscal
policies on real estate financing, inability to finance house loans to groups, low affordability due
to poverty, high interest rates on mortgages, absence of graduated payments of mortgages and
lack of access to the large deposits of retirement benefit funds have hindered the development of
the housing sector.
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The financial set up in the housing market in Ethiopia, Oromia as indeed elsewhere is such that
those offering funding seek to make a profit and declare dividends for the shareholders because
that is what they are in business for. The money market is expensive due to relatively higher risks
that raise interest rates.
Public-private partnership in housing delivery
The common objective of public-private partnership in housing delivery is to boost the

productivity of housing sector, increasing housing affordability and improve access to basic
infrastructure. Ethiopia, Oromia mentioned that in order to achieve the desired output of public-
private partnership, the discernment of the housing sector as a vast arena of social problems and
a drain on the economy must change. Housing must be considered as significant economic sector
with vital linkages to the overall economy of a country.
Investment in affordable housing supports multiple social objectives
The evidence shows that investment in affordable housing supports multiple social objectives.
This includes improvements to individual outcomes such as employability, crime, health and
wellbeing and community cohesion. It is particularly important to assess the socio-economic
impact of building affordable homes in light of the large set of households where demand for
affordable homes cannot currently be met.
Indeed, this wide set of desirable socio-economic outcomes cannot be achieved through Housing
Benefit or other operating expenditure on affordable housing alone. This is because many of
these benefits are the result of affordable housing being better able to meet tenants’ needs than
alternatives such as housing in the private rented sector. Therefore, public investment in
affordable housing is vital.
As result of investing in affordable housing, it will generate more opportunities for both actors
and tenants. For instance, more unemployed people can get job opportunities and tenants could
benefit from poorly insulated private sector home to a good quality, insulated affordable home
would be less at risk of suffering from hygienic diseases and therefore, could save household
expenditure that would be spent on those diseases.
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Methodology
The study has used primary and secondary data affordable and low-cost housing measurements
that collected from previous studies. Affordable housing and its trends were illustrated in details
through critical review of literature. This study focused on the different criteria for affordable
and low-cost housing assessment. The same study arranged these criteria that indirectly impact
affordable housing by examining each of their functions.
Strategies in place of driving to words low-cost affordable housing
The proposed strategies will be vehicles to enable affordable housing providers to access lower
cost debt for longer terms unlocking desperately needed “fit-for-purpose” funding into the sector
in Ethiopia, Oromia.
To access the lower cost capital it requires the government, private sector, institutional investors
and non-profit organizations to work together in new and collaborative ways.
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Figure 1: Low-cost affordable housing model.
This model is a viable solution that, with Government support and institution investors in the
line of Public Private Partnership could greatly contribute to increasing the stock of affordable
housing across the country. The model would allow housing providers to access funding at lower
interest rates and for longer terms. The benefits of this financial model include:
1. Housing providers would have access to cities and towns which is more fit-for-purpose, that is
over longer term (of 15-25 years) and on lower cost terms.
2. Institutional investors will have a financing vehicle to achieve long term secure and stable
returns as part of their portfolio whilst also supporting the affordable housing. The fund would
have investment characteristics such as a government-backed credit rating with appropriate risk
adjusted returns that are similar to other asset classes that institutional investors are familiar
with.
Possible Ways of achieving low cost and affordable housing in

Ethiopia, Oromia
This section offers a set of strategies that can be used in Ethiopia, Oromia to increase
affordability while maintaining commercial viability. These strategies are not a formula, but
suggested ingredients that we expect will improve the chances of success.
Strategy 1: Using simple materials and simple construction techniques: Currently, in

Rwanda, some Actors are using simple materials and simple construction techniques to afford
low-cost houses. Indeed, with compressed earth block technology, people can construct a simple,
efficient, cost-effective house as it shown below:
This house will have all the advantages of concrete block construction without the costs. To
achieve good results, however, some new construction techniques have been learned and simple
machines and some tools are used to compress blocks are shown below.
There are many different types of block presses. Some are manually operated and others are
powered with electricity or petroleum. Manual presses are operated by semi-skilled workers,
whereas powered machines need more skilled operators and are more expensive to run.
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Figure 4: Manual presses machine.
Figure 5: Electrical presses machine.
Bricks are either square or flat faced and they may interlock.
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Interlocking blocks
These Interlocking blocks offer an advantage of requiring less (or no) mortar in joint of
blocks. Square blocks are more versatile for making curves or intersection walls, as are
conventional bricks.
However, in case no machine is available, a simple compressed earth block is produced with the
help of a mold and a tool to ram the earth into the mold. If an appropriate mix is used and the
bricks are well mixed and uniformly compressed, better strength is achieved than using
traditional molding techniques. However, this technique is not consistent and does not achieve
the same results as a machine press. Furthermore, this method has some downside of being very
slow and only producing flat faced as shown in the picture below (Figure 6):
Figure 6: Priced out; the challenges for young professionals.
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The affordability issue continues to be a serious problem for people who keep the Oromia region
cities and towns and other cities running such as cleaners and students and other people with
low-income jobs. But it’s also becoming a problem further up the income scale.
Strategy 2: Make land affordable:
Land is so expensive in urban area that it alone can make affordable housing unviable. Therefore,
creative methods often need to be used to secure land in a way that makes sense for the project.
Below are a few possibilities:
1. Land as equity: Find a land partner who can come in with the land as equity. This means
eventually paying for the land in the form of dividends, which may align nicely with cash flows
since revenue comes in first and the whole payment does not need to be made at once.
2. Concessionary land: Find an organization or government agency with an interest in low-

cost housing and receive the land at a concessionary rate. A low-income housing development is
being planned on their land, enabling the project to have much more flexibility with pricing than
is typical because the land is free. This same scenario could be replicated on government land or
land belonging to individual owners with an interest in affordable housing.
3. Land banking/Flipping land: Buying more land than is needed for the project and
reselling it at an increased price can dramatically reduce the net cost of the land. Assuming
significant appreciation of land value continues to be the trend, this can even make the land
essentially free. However, it does not solve the challenge of financing the land since the initial
purchase still needs to happen upfront.
Strategy 3: Alternative Technologies: Using alternative technologies can be challenging in

the Rwandan market, but if done correctly it has the potential to be an essential piece of bringing
down the cost. The most important aspect to be aware of is ensuring that the look and feel of the
home is similar, if not the same, as traditional techniques. When someone purchases a home,
whether they are rich or poor, they want to put their savings into old-fashioned brick and mortar
rather than a shiny new technology that is untested and unfamiliar.
Strategy 4: Creative Financing: Given the unfriendly nature of the lending climate in Rwanda,
it can be hugely beneficial to think creatively about how to raise funds. This reduced cost of
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capital (especially in such capital intensive and highly leveraged projects) can make a big
difference in the final unit price.
Strategy 5: Subsidy: Government Subsidy: Cashing in on the subsidies offered by the

government seems straightforward, but many developers seem unaware of what is offered, or
simply disillusioned that it will be delivered. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with the
incentives and the path to benefit from them.
Building subsidy into your model: While the best scenario is a development where every
unit is profitable, this is not always possible if the goal is to cater to low-income populations.
Therefore, the choice to incorporate cross-subsidy is worth considering. This can be in the form
of traditional cross-subsidy, where the affordable units make a loss that is subsidized by middle-
income units. Or the affordable units can make a small margin while middle-income units make
a larger margin. Either scenario creates a mixed-income development. Many housing experts
believe that in order for affordable housing to be financially viable, especially in an urban setting
and without alternative technologies, mixed-income is the only way to go.
Strategy 6: Design: Innovative designs and layouts can help to use space efficiently and
effectively. There have been many interesting experiments with creative designs for affordable
housing communities that save on cost and space as well as create more community interaction
and reduce the risk of ghettoization. Most affordable housing communities that fail to increase
quality of life do so because master planning and design were overlooked. They ignore the
benefits of creating mixed-use developments with community spaces and commercial areas. The
importance of design should not be underestimated!
Strategy 7: Incremental construction: In some contexts, incremental construction increases the

ability to provide homes at an affordable rate
Strategy 8: Self construction: Self-construction refers to homeowners driving the

construction of their own homes, which allows them to work within their own financial
requirements and timeframe. Self-construction can be integrated into a model in a variety of
ways. It can range from a private sector version of the “site and services” model (infrastructure
and foundations are provided, and the homeowner purchases a plot and builds their own home)
to a simple ground floor structure constructed by the developer, leaving residents with the ability
to expand as their financial situation allows.
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The key to successful homeowner-led incremental construction is ensuring the quality of the
construction both to maintain the look and feel of the development and to maintain safety
standards. This can be challenging and requires a strong ongoing role from the developer or
other affiliated agency, sometimes in the form of technical assistance through engineering and
design support.
Strategy 9: Community supported labor: Labor costs can be cut by hiring the current or
future residents as construction labor. This strategy was used by different investors and allowed
them to both cut costs and to increase the residents’ feeling of ownership in the project.
However, it is worth noting that it may take more management and is only viable for certain
project designs and construction techniques. Usually, the community workers must also be
accompanied by skilled labor.
Strategy 10: Avoiding speculation: What is the use of bringing down the price if it does not
reach your target market in the end? There is no clear answer to keeping speculators from
buying, especially since in many cases they are not wealthy individuals buying plots in bulk, but
middle-class people who want to make little extra money. However, developing a strategy to
avoid this cannot be an afterthought and must be carefully developed from the outset. Some
potential strategies include:
I. Developing strict criteria for buyers to qualify
ii. Ensuring owner-occupation within a short time period
iii. Limiting the number of homes that can be purchased by one individual
iv. Withholding title deed for a period of time, such as 5 years, so owners are unable to re-sell.
Strategy 11: Develop contracts with suppliers: Given the volatile economic environment,
materials prices can skyrocket and turn a healthy project completely unviable. In order to avoid
this, develop fixed rate contracts with materials suppliers whenever possible. Some may even
have Corporate Social Responsibility programs, so do not be afraid to market the social impact
side of the project in order to negotiate better terms.
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Housing supply: challenges

Challenge 1: Availability of finance
Project finance: Housing developments are extremely capital intensive and highly leveraged.
Yet it can be difficult to secure debt, especially at reasonable rates, which are a key component of
bringing down the cost for the end-user. In fact, the cost of finance is one of the most prohibitive
factors in the Ethiopia, Oromia market.
Challenge 2: Volatile economic environment
Rapid inflation has caused large increases in the cost of materials and land. On average,
developers saw their costs increase by 20 percent in the last 6 months of 2017. It is difficult to
maintain a healthy margin with this level of inflation, especially if a large portion of the units
were sold off plan at a price that failed to predict the inflation. This is yet another reason to leave
a lot of leeway in your model and to understand that while there are many benefits to selling off
plan (i.e. selling homes before construct begins or is completed), there are also consequences
that should be thought through.
Affordable interlocking housing Recommendations
As illustrated, the main challenge to obtain affordable housing is high interest rate and big gap
between house prices and level of household income. To balance this, the government have to
intervene with special fund dedicated to affordable houses that can act as both a subsidy; making
the project more financially viable and as a guarantee, allowing a credit constrained housing
association to borrow against this amount. On other side, the fund will adjust the interest rate in
order to attract more borrowers to invest in affordable housing.
Types of open public space vary across cities and can broadly include parks, gardens,
playgrounds, public beaches, riverbanks and waterfronts. These spaces are also available to all
without charge and are normally publicly owned and maintained. In many cases, however, they
are accessible during daylight hours only.
Interlocking Building System
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Interlocking Block making using Hydra form hydraulic block making

machines:
Hydra form machines offer the ease of production in a factory as well as on-site production.
Onsite production saves transportation cost and ensures uninterrupted supply chain. These
machines are robust and suitable for onsite mobility. There is flexibility to use variety of locally
available raw materials such as fly ash, subsoil, agricultural residues and other waste materials
mixed with sand and cement. Re-cycling this waste in block making helps sustainability
environment.
Interlocking masonry for constructing walls that are largely dry stacked or using minimal
mortar/slurry:
These interlocking blocks have tongue and groove profile on 4 faces of block that helps auto fix
among the blocks which enhances structural stability, thus reducing the requirement of mortar
or slurry. The walls made up through this technique hardly require cement plaster as the pre-
pointed straight masonry and face brick finish renders an elegant and attractive look.
Major Benefits of Hydra form Interlocking Masonry to Clients

Minimal Material Cost – Interlocking technique enhances structural strength and requirement
for mortar is reduced which translates into minimization of material cost.
Reduced Transportation Cost – Hydra form offers machines which are fixed on road
worthy tire mounted tow hitch trolley chassis which enables easy onsite portability and
production thus reducing transportation cost to proportionately negligible.
Fast Construction – An expert block layer team can lay up to 800 blocks per day which are
equivalent to laying 2400 standard stock bricks per day. Also, no post-construction work is
required on wall masonry.
Versatile Construction Technique – Hydra form blocks are compatible with mostly all
window, door, slab and roofing systems that are used with conventional systems which speak
volumes of its versatility.
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Easy Construction – Hydra form dry-stacked masonry is so easy to learn and implement
that even unskilled labors can be trained to do masonry with minimal efforts. Hydra form also
assists in the training of the on-site production crew.
Eco-friendly Construction – Locally available materials which could are otherwise be

waste can be used as raw material for manufacturing blocks. This helps in efficient recycling and
waste management. Water consumption is less compared to the conventional techniques as it
requires much less mortar /slurry. Average soil cement Hydra form block wall has a carbon
footprint that is as low as 40 kg CO2 per square meter.
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Load Bearing And Framed Structures – Hydra form Blocks can be made with high
compressive strength for Load-bearing structures. The strength and density can be customized
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according to the varied fly ash suiting the technical specification for framed / multi-storied
construction.
BLOCKS
HYDRAFORM Hydra form HF220 block is the standard Hydra form block and is suitable for
external 9″ thick walls.
HF220 is the standard Hydra form block has dimensions +- 230 mm (L) X 220mm (W) X 115
mm (H), has beveled / hampered edges. Block length can be made between 120 to 240mm and
depends on material quantity. Length is controlled by soil / Ash load and moisture content…
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135
136
INTERLOCKING BRICKS
Introduction:
The block's sizes are modular and rectangular (250 mm length, 210 mm wide and125 mm high)
in shape. Corner or junction block is required to maintain right angle corner or a proper T-
junction. The interlocking block is different from conventional blocks or bricks since they do not
require mortar for its laying work. Because of this characteristic, the process of building walls
and other structures are faster as the blocks are laid dry and lock into place. Almost any type of
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building can be constructed with interlocking blocks, which has projection and depression to key
each other. They are pre-cast solid products made out of cement concrete. The product is made
in various sizes and shapes viz. rectangular, square and round blocks of different dimensions
with designs for interlocking of adjacent tiles blocks.
Shapes & sizes: A variety of interlocking blocks have been developed during the past years,
differing in shapes and sizes, depending on the required strengths and uses. The system
developed has the following shapes and forms:
(i) Full blocks (300 x 125 – 150 x 100 mm) for all standard walls (single or double block
thick).
(ii) Half blocks (150 x 125 - 150 x 100 mm), which can be molded to size, or made by
cutting freshly molded full blocks in half.
(iii) Channel blocks, same sizes as full and half blocks, but with a channel along the long
axis, into which reinforcing steel and concrete can be placed to form lintels or ring
beams.
(iv) The vertical sides of the blocks can be flat or have recesses, and the vertical grout holes
can be square or round.
(v) Inserts for electrical switch housing and conduits as well as water piping outlets can be
incorporated.
(vi) Special blocks for window sills. Advantages of Interlocking Bloc
Advantages of Interlocking Block
The advantages of interlocking Block are:

(i) Construction with interlocking block saves time and ample amount of mortar concrete
compared to conventional masonry block laid with mortar
(ii) (ii)Areas prone to earthquake uses hollow interlocking block with the strength improved
with grout and reinforcement throughout the height of the wall to resist the effect of
earthquake, thus, providing adequate structural stability against collapse
(iii) (iii) Having formed the base course, other course can be assembled by unskilled labor.
(iv) (iv) Dismantling of the blocks in case of temporary structure does not incur much
damages as in blocks laid with mortar
(v) (v)Cost of construction is relatively less.
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Market Potential:
Interlocking cement tiles and paving blocks find applications in pavements, footpaths,
gardens, passenger waiting sheds, bus-stops, industry and other public places. The
product is commonly used in urban areas for the above applications. Hence, the unit may
be set up in urban and semi-urban areas, near the market. A lot of face-lift is being given
to roads, footpaths along the roadside. These bricks are ideal materials on the footpaths
for easy laying, better look and finish. Whereas the tiles find extensive use outside the
large building and houses, lots of these materials are also used in flooring in the open
areas of public offices and commercial buildings and residential apartments.
Raw materials: Basic raw material requirements are as follows:

1. Portland cement
2. Sand
3. Jelly
4. Dust
5. Other material & consumables
Manufacturing Process: The process of Manufacture of interlocking bricks involves the

following steps:
a) Proportioning
b) Mixing
c) Compacting
d) Curing
e) Drying
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USES OF C½B’S IN THE ASSEMBLY OF INTERLOCKING BRICK –

WALL because there is no mortar to bind them, dry-stacked bricks are vulnerable to shaking
during construction. They require strengthening to achieve tolerable plumpness and straightness
in walls over 3m long (Figure 4.5) or over 2.5m high. In Tanzania, cheap farmers’ stores are built
using concrete partial frames with a center-to-center distance of 4.5m to 6.0m and height more
than 3.5m. To build a masonry wall to infill the spaces, requires the formation of buttressing
piers wider than ½-brick. The invention of C½B allows construction of piers of different widths
(1-brick, 1½-brick, 2-brick etc.) attached to wall at their ends, corners, middle and at junctions.
The following subsections illustrate both attached piers to ½-brick thick walls (buttressing) and
isolated piers.
PIERS
A pier is a localized wall thickening, designed to increase a wall’s vertical and horizontal stability
and lateral strength. Piers may be isolated from, or attached to, the wall. Isolated piers are simple
brick columns. Attached piers are combined or joined to the wall and form protrusions of ½-
brick or 1-brick depth or even more. Accordance to BS 8103-2:2005, the minimum length of
buttressing pier is three-wall thicknesses Figure 4.5. Using the new brick shapes it is possible to
construct sizes of isolated piers and attached piers (at wall quoin, junctions and along the walls).
These piers can be reinforced if required. Let’s look at a few examples of how to bond the joints
formed by attaching piers to walls.
Advantages of interlocking blocks
The development of interlocking blocks (solid interlocking laterite blocks) shows some merits
over the conventional types. First, substantial cost savings can be achieved due to elimination of
bedding mortar in the superstructure (except in ring beams and in high gables), thereby reducing
workmanship. In this system freely-available subsoil is the main raw material and the blocks do
not require costly burning; transport costs are minimized since production of Hydra form blocks
takes place on site in hydraulic block machines, available from Hydra form International (Pty)
Ltd., headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition, speed of construction is a
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valuable feature of the system, which is much faster than other building methods. A mason can
lay up to 800 Hydra form blocks (21 m2 of walling) per day. Moreover, owing to laterite
composition of the material, it is environmentally friendly as blocks are produced under high
compression from subsoil, without the need for the fuel-wood used to burn bricks, hence the
process is sustainable. Sustainable building materials are environmentally responsible because
their impacts are considered over the complete lifetime of the products. Such materials should
not constitute environmental and human health risks. Other criteria for selection include
rational use of natural resources; energy efficiency; elimination or reduction of generated waste;
low toxicity; water conservation and affordability. Moreover, simplicity exemplifies the use of the
material.
Limitations of interlocking blocks
Masonry works of housing projects are mostly constructed with sand Crete blocks, which are
very popular in the building market. Interlocking blocks are used on request, as there is no mass
production; hence the material is not commonly available in the market. This makes the
production costs of interlocking blocks marginally higher than that of conventional blocks.
Besides, elimination of bedding mortar requires stringent dimensional tolerance for the blocks to
ensure uniform load transfer between layers, while specially shaped blocks are required for the
jamb and corner units. Early planning and careful detailing is therefore essential. Systems that
do not have a complete geometric interlocking mechanism require external bracing during
construction. Holes that can allow water, ants and reptiles into the building are often observed at
corners and intersections, though these can be filled up with mortar.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION INRERLOCKING
The paper reviewed a subjective appraisal of the success and failure of the application of
interlocking masonry for student housing at universities in Nigeria. Although the study revealed
unparalleled advantages of interlocking-block masonry in terms of short time of operation, lesser
labor and reduced cost of construction, its usage in the construction of houses in Nigeria is still
very low. This is partly due to the low level of awareness on the part of professionals and the
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public coupled with its non-availability in the market. In view of this, public agencies and
stakeholders in the building industry should give interlocking-block masonry wider publicity and
ensure mass production of the materials to make it available in the market for users.
Interlocking-block masonry should be used in public housing projects to demonstrate
government’s sincerity and to create awareness within the Nigerian population. More research
studies should be carried out on the application of the materials for housing projects in order to
improve on the weaknesses observed in its usage Analysis of comparative advantages between
interlocking-block masonry and conventional-block masonry showed that interlocking-blocks as
an alternative masonry material are suitable for construction of housing units and are cheaper
than the conventional blocks. The solid interlocking block masonry system could become a
potential alternative to mortar-bedded masonry as it accelerates the construction process and
also exhibits better structural performance.
A concrete block simulating a Norman brick is formed with two large cores separated by a central
web. The cores are adapted to receive insulating foam during manufacturing of the block. Each
block is grooved in its opposite ends and recessed in its central web for the reception of wedge
elements or keys formed of plastic or the like. Adjacent blocks in each course are interlocked and
the courses of walls constructed from the blocks in either a stacked bond or running bond are
mechanically interlocked and properly aligned. Epoxy cement is utilized for bonding of courses
in a customized wall or in prefabricated panel sections utilizing the interlocking block.
The invention has arisen as a result of a long-standing need in the art for a practical masonry
module which may be used in the construction of buildings and walls by relatively unskilled
labor, without the necessity for constantly checking on alignment by the use of a level and string.
More particularly, the invention saves time and labor in the construction of walls with either a
stacked or running bond configuration. In its preferred form, the module formed of concrete in a
conventional block machine is made to resemble a Norman brick in shape, size and color. In the
formation of walls, epoxy cement is utilized as the bonding agent without the use of conventional
mortar. However, the traditional mortar joints may be simulated by chamfering the end and top
corners of both faces of each module.
The interlocking feature of the invention provides precise alignment of each module with others
in the wall without the use of external geometric alignment means.
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The alignment feature consists of providing a first recess in the center top of each module and a
pair of end vertical grooves in the module, the grooves and recess lying in a common vertical
plane through the center of the module. Interlocking wedges or keys preferably formed of
relatively soft plastic or other suitable material are introduced into the center top recess of each
module with one-half of the wedge or key projecting above the top face of the module. In the
usual running bond wall structure, each new brick or module in the wall will be fitted between a
pair of upstanding wedges projecting from the centers of adjacent modules in the course
immediately there below.
In this manner, each module becomes mechanically interlocked with two modules of the
preceding course and with both immediately adjacent modules in the same course, thus causing
the entire wall structure to be properly aligned and interlocked until the epoxy bond becomes set
or hardened to provide the ultimate high strength joints between all modules of the wall or
structure.
The modules can be laid in a stacked bond by simply inserting the wedges in the end grooves of
adjacent modules rather than in the center recesses thereof, as will be fully described.
Another important feature of the invention resides in the filling of the module cores with foam
insulation during the manufacturing of the modules and while they are still on the pallets after
forming in the block machine. The pre-insulated modules or bricks, after being laid up in either
running or stacked bond, have their foam filled cores in vertical alignment in the wall, thereby
providing essentially continuous insulation in a hollow masonry wall. The foam insulation will
not settle in the hollow wall like loose insulation material and will resist water saturation. No
additional labor whatsoever is required for building an insulated wall with the modules of the
invention. In some instances, if desired, the modules can be manufactured without cores and
without the insulation feature.
The invention lends itself well to the formation of prefabricated panels utilizing the interlocking
arrangement and epoxy cement bonding in either running or stacked bond. These panels would
be pre-assembled at a factory prior to transporting to a job site for erection with other panels.
Adjacent panels may be joined along straight vertical edges by placing them on preleveled bases.
In the joining of adjacent panels, temporary alignment at the meeting vertical straight edges is
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obtained by inserting continuous alignment or locking bars into the end vertical grooves of the
panels. If an expansion joint is required, the rigid steel bar can be used to align and lock the
adjacent panels, and a rubber expansion element can be inserted to seal the joint. Normally, the
abutting vertical edges of panels are bonded by epoxy mortar.
The prior patented art, while containing a relatively large number of proposals relating to
interlocking building elements, has failed to provide an arrangement which has met with any
widespread acceptance in the industry. This lack of acceptance has been due to excessive cost of
manufacturing the interlocking modules and, in some instances, the requirement for as much or
even more labor in the construction of a wall or building as in the case of non-interlocking types.
In short, the prior art proposals have not proven to be fully practical and efficient in terms of the
desired requirements of reduced manufacturing and labor costs and the appearance of the
structures produced with the modules. The present invention is believed to satisfy all of these
requirements and therefore constitutes a significant improvement on the known prior art and a
practical answer to the long-standing need for a construction element of this type.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the
following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
WALL
In a wall construction including a plurality of courses of blocks, and the blocks in each course
being in end-to-end abutting relationship, the improvement which comprises each block in each
course being rectangular and dimensioned to simulate a brick, each block having forward and
rear webs and end webs joined in right angular relationship and a center front-to-back web
parallel with the end webs and joined with said forward and rear webs, said center web having an
enlargement substantially midway between the forward and rear webs, said end webs having
interior side enlargements spaced from and opposing said enlargement of the center web, all of
said webs and said enlargements being continuous in a vertical direction and extending from the
top face to the bottom face of the block, the exterior faces of said end webs provided midway
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between the forward and rear webs with narrow constant width grooves which extend vertically
and continuously between the top and bottom faces of said block and opening through said top
and bottom faces, said center web enlargement having a centrally located rectangular cross
section slot formed therein vertically and being aligned laterally with said grooves and being of
substantially equal width with the grooves in the front-to-back direction, said slot having a
bottom wall substantially at the center of vertical thickness of the block, said slot elongated in the
direction between said end webs and grooves, said webs of the block forming a pair of equal size
and substantially identically shaped large core openings extending entirely through the block
from top-to-bottom thereof, foam insulation material substantially completely filling said core
openings and being flush with the flat top and bottom faces of the block, and slender rectangular
cross section key elements having symmetrically arranged tapering wedge-like end portions and
full thickness intermediate portions engaging snugly in said slots and grooves of all of the blocks
and all of the courses to thereby firmly mechanically interlock the courses in properly registering
relationship while interlocking the blocks of the courses in properly aligned relationship, said key
elements having a length in the vertical direction during use to bottom in said slots with
substantially half of their lengths projecting above the tops of the slots for entry into opposing
registering pairs of said end web grooves of adjacent blocks in the courses, thin layers of epoxy
cement bonding together the courses of blocks in the wall construction, and each block being
chamfered on its upper horizontal corners and both end vertical corners at its forward and rear
sides, said chamfers simulating brick wall mortar joints in said wall construction and said
chamfers rendering the blocks reversible in the front-to-back direction.
Bricks have been developed using varies methods for centuries.
There are several types of brick such as fired clay bricks, concrete bricks, and engineering bricks.
The conventional bricks that widely used are fired clay bricks (FCB). The FCB is widely used in
construction in Malaysia and worldwide. The FCB can be categorized as polluting construction
materials since the production of the bricks involves the firing process which results in the
emission of gaseous pollutants and ash into the environment. As the concern of awareness on
sustainable development and the environmental issue arises, a new and alternative method has
been innovated and developed to improve the green properties of the conventional bricks. To
achieve sustainable development, green building materials which are the Interlocking
Compressed Earth Bricks (ICEB). The ICEB is also known as Stabilized Compressed Earth Bricks
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[10] because of the cement or lime addition into the mixes to stabilize the mixes and to improve
the properties of the bricks. The ICEB acts as an alternative and highly potent to replace
conventional bricks [22]. The ICEB are bricks made from soil, sand, cement (as a stabilizer) and
water. These materials will be compacted using high-pressure hydraulic compaction machine
where the volume of two becomes one. Thus the production for the ICEB is environmentally
friendly because no firing process involves, reduce waste and maximize value [4], energy-
efficient and cost-effective to be compared with the FCB. Besides that, the ICEB helps in speed
up the construction process. This is due to the construction using interlocking bricks can be done
by dry stacking without any mortar plastering by unskilled workers [2,24] compared to
conventional masonry which requires more labor hours, highly skilled and highly paid workers.
Overall, the ICEB gives benefits to environment and construction matter and has the potential to
become alternative method in building construction, in order to achieve green behavior and
sustainable development.
Size and Shape of the ICEB The size of the ICEB are 300 mm (length) x 125 mm (width) x 100
mm (height). The ICEB have three (3) hollow sections in the middle of the bricks which acts to
reduce the weight of the brick, to avoid seepages, to improve insulation, to insert utility pipe such
as water pipe or conduit for electrical, to insert vertical steel bar for reinforcement and to pour
grout for increasing its stability [21]. The ICEB geometry comes with the tongue and groove
where the tongue located at the top surface and groove located at the bottom surface. These
features allow the bricks to be stacked and installed easily [14]. Several types of the ICEB such as
standard brick, half brick, U brick, curve brick, and pattern brick, where every shape and type of
bricks have their own purpose. Standard brick, half brick, and U brick are the common bricks to
be used in construction building, where standard brick used for the whole wall structure, half
brick are used for the edge and U brick used for lintel or beam. Curve brick and pattern brick are
used to give fair finishes.
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Materials of the ICEB The ICEB is formed by mixing the right portion of materials and then
compressed using a high compression hydraulic press machine. High quality and strong bricks
produced in a few seconds without any firing process [22]. The composition of the ICEB is soil,
sand, cement as a stabilizer and water. Using soil as the main component in the ICEB gives
benefits such as high thermal mass value and easily accessible since the soil is locally available.
Sand is added and blended with soil and act as an aggregate to improve the properties of the
ICEB. The high content of clay in the soil gives a high value of plasticity index, therefore sand is
added to reduce it. A stabilizer is added into the mixture to improve the characteristic of the
ICEB. The common stabilizers used in soil bricks are cement and lime. The recommended
cement content to be added in the mixture is range 4 to 10% in dry weight of soil and 6 to 12%
when the mixture stabilized with lime, where the addition above 10% of cement and 12% of lime
will cause an increase in the costing of the brick production and increase the emission of carbon
dioxide (CO2). Water is needed in the mixture to activate the hydration process of the stabilizer.
Water must be in optimum content because insufficient moisture content will affect the
hydration process of stabilizer or excessive water content will affect the ICEB during remolding.
The optimum content range of 10 to 20% is needed to make the brick and to demoded the brick
successfully as one unit [18]. However, optimum moisture content is determined with Proctor
test.
The ICEB production
To produce the ICEB, there are four (4) major stages which include crushing, mixing,
compacting and curing. During soil preparation, the soil must be precisely chosen to get the best
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result of compressive strength. The extracted soil must be dried before the crushing process.
Since soil is naturally available, the size of the soil particles is varying. Therefore, the crushing
process needs to be conducted because if the soil does not meet the grading requirements, the
quality of the bricks is not guaranteed. After drying, crushed soil then delivered to the mixer to
be mixed with other materials such as sand, cement, and water. There are two (2) types of mixing
processes in the ICEB production, dry and wet mixing process. The purpose of the dry mixing
process is to ensure that the materials are mixed homogeneously. Meanwhile, wet mixing process
is to bind the materials and as an activator to the stabilizer. Then, mixture will be compressed in
high-pressure compaction where two-volume becoming one. The ICEB is immediately demoded
and cured for 28 days if cement was used as a stabilizer. The bricks were cured after the initial
setting until enough strength is gained.
Performance of the ICEB
Compressive Strength
Generally, the compressive strength of the ICEB is influenced by two factors which are the degree
of compaction and age of the ICEB samples. The ICEB samples were produced by pour clay or
laterite soil into the mold and apply desired pressure. Most of the ICEB obtained compressive
strength below the predetermined level strength by reason of clay that has high mud content.
Thus, the ICEB could not bear the compressive stress applied [1]. The ICEB is tested for
compressive strength in two (2) conditions which is dry and wet condition. The wet condition is
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for the worst scenario and the value of compressive strength will be at the lowest strength values.
The optimum stabilizers as mention in section 2.2. Within the suggested range of percentages,
the compressive strength of the ICEB passing the minimum requirement of standards. Although
the increasing amount of cement will contribute to high compressive strength, as well as
contribute to the high emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) which can lead to air pollution and
climate change. A testing method such as mention in section 3 was used to determine the
compressive strength since there are no specific standards testing for ICEB.
Water Absorption and Moisture Content
It is important to determine the water absorption of the ICEB because it is related to the strength
and durability of the bricks. The water absorption is a characteristic of cement and clay content.
It is found that the water absorption rate is inversely proportional to the age of the bricks. As the
age of the ICEB increases, the ICEB loses its water to surrounding and leads to high water
absorption. In order to control the water absorption, moisture content of the ICEB must be
overseen. The high water absorption of the ICEB also speed up the deterioration of the
materials .To ensure the quality of the ICEB, moisture content of the ICEB must be monitored
since the moisture content affects the strength development and durability of the ICEB . When
the ICEB having high moisture content, the mortars tend to float on the surface without gaining
proper adhesion [23]. Higher moisture content also leads to poor appearance due to the
difficulties to be demoded during production process. Water absorption of the ICEB and
temperature of surrounding have a directly proportional relationship. The high temperature will
dry the bricks which can prevent good adhesion and proper hydration of cement during
construction.
Density
The density of the ICEB can be determined by dividing the mass of the bricks to its volume. The
density of the ICEB is related to the degree of compaction and compressive strength. Increasing
value in compressive strength is due to the higher value of density. Compressive strength can be
controlled through density [26]. Over the past 20 years, it is proven that strength and density
consistently related to each other. At the age of 28 days with consistent curing process, the ICEB
was found increased in density due to the hydration products were produced and filled in the
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voids within the ICEB microstructure [19]. The calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) formed from
hydration process of cement which fills the voids. The ICEB containing ultrafine palm oil fuel ash
(POFA) have denser structure due to the production of secondary hydration products compared
to the ICEB without addition materials Most researchers found that the density of the ICEB is
within range 1500 – 2000 kg/m3 [21]. The density of ICEB can be determined by using ASTM C
140.
Energy Efficient, Economical and Environment-Friendly Material
The ICEB consumed less energy than the FCB about 15 – 20% less [24]. This is due to the usage
of less cement and a high amount of soil where the soil is locally available and good thermal
insulator. Besides, soil also durable, reusable and recyclable. As a building material, the ICEB
shows good thermal conductivity compared to conventional building materials such as
FCB .With low thermal conductivity, the ICEB contributes to energy efficiency, cost reduction in
materials, cost reduction in heating and air conditioning in winter and summer and
environmental-friendly of a building . The ICEB also consider as environmental-friendly
materials since the mixture of the ICEB can be modified by added or replaced materials with
agricultural waste or quarry waste such as POFA and quarry dust. The ICEB with addition of
POFA and quarry dust shows the improvement of the ICEB properties that satisfied the
minimum requirement of standards.
Conclusion
Overall, a review on the Interlocking Compressed Earth Bricks (ICEB) has been done in this
paper. The use of the ICEB gives more benefits such as green material building, reduce overall
cost construction, fair-faced finishes structure, fast project completion, and easy installation. The
ICEB can be used as load or non-load bearing system since the ICEB meets the minimum
requirement and specification as mention in standards. Study on the ICEB is still in less of
number and there has many possibilities and gap of study need to be conducted in order to
explore the ICEB in details.
To achieve sustainable development, green building materials which are the Interlocking
Compressed Earth Bricks (ICEB). The ICEB is also known as Stabilized Compressed Earth Bricks
150
[10] because of the cement or lime addition into the mixes to stabilize the mixes and to improve
the properties of the bricks. The ICEB acts as an alternative and highly potent to replace
conventional bricks. The ICEB are bricks made from soil, sand, cement (as a stabilizer) and
water. These materials will be compacted using high-pressure hydraulic compaction machine
where the volume of two becomes one. Thus the production for the ICEB is environmentally
friendly because no firing process involves, reduce waste and maximize value, energy-efficient
and cost-effective to be compared with the FCB. Besides that, the ICEB helps in speed up the
construction process. This is due to the construction using interlocking bricks can be done by dry
stacking without any mortar plastering by unskilled workers compared to conventional masonry
which requires more labor hours, highly skilled and highly paid workers. Overall, the ICEB gives
benefits to environment and construction matter and has the potential to become alternative
method in building construction, in order to achieve green behavior and sustainable
development.
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152
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1.5. Smart real state city concept
Smart real state City is a very broad concept that has technology as a basic aspect,
coupled with social and human capital development.
A Smart real state City is an integrated system in which human and social capital interact, using
technology-based solutions. It aims to efficiently achieve sustainable and resilient development
and a high quality of life addressing urban challenges on the basis of a multi-stakeholder,
municipality based partnership.”
This definition establishes a strong basis for the city and the objectives cities must achieve,
defining the tools and main actors involved in the Smart City concept. These are the three main
goals that a Smart City pursues:
Improve the efficiency of the city as a system

Smart City initiatives seek the efficiency of the existing and new infrastructure through:
- Interconnecting the different infrastructure components, services offered and
people working with them.
- Reducing the costs in the long term, thanks to the monitoring and information sharing.
Achieve a sustainable & resilience development.
Although linked with efficiency, sustainability has a broader scope. The consensual
definition of sustainable development is a “development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
Resilience adds to that sustainable development the capability of recovering fast and of
minimizing harm after an unexpected event or disaster takes place in the city.
Increase the quality of life of its citizens.
Increasing the quality of life of its citizens constitutes a key objective of the Smart City.
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When working with the city there should never be forgotten that the final end of the city
itself are its inhabitants. Whenever a Smart City initiative is developed, its ultimate target
ought to be to improve the quality of life of the citizens
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Smart City Dimensions

Dimensions
Analyzing the urban environment, research works deal with a different number of fields to frame
the city. We have identified in the reviewed literature that they can all be allocated within six
main City Dimensions: Governance, Economy, Mobility, Environment, People and Living.
They represent the specific aspects of a city upon which Smart Initiatives impact to achieve the
expected goals of a Smart City strategy (sustainability, efficiency and high quality of life).
Technology itself it is not considered an action field, but an enabler that improves the
efficiency of the projects.
A project is smarter when it integrates the higher number of dimensions. The approach should
be as integrated and holistic as possible
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1-SMART GOVERNANCE
Smart Government makes use of available technology to be aware of -and coordinate with-the
activities carried out by other municipalities, achieve synergies through collaborations
with other stakeholders and reach out citizens needs in order to improve both, public
services, and confidence in the public institutions.
2-SMART ECONOMY
An urban economy is considered to be a Smart Economy when the sector gathers
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innovation and productivity to adapt to the market and workers’ needs to enhance new
business models and a resilient global model for competing both locally and globally.
3-SMART MOBILITY
Smart Mobility pursues to offer the most efficient, clean and equitable transport network for
people, goods and data. It leverages the available technologies to gather and provide information
to users, planners and transport managers, allowing the reshaping of urban mobility patterns, of
planning mechanisms and the enhancement of multimodality by improving the coordination and
integration of different transportation modes.
158
4-SMART ENVIRONMENT
Smart Environment uses data collection from utility networks, users, and air , water, and other
city resources in order to establish main areas of action in urban planning and city infrastructure
planning as well as to inform urban services managers to achieve a more efficient and
sustainable urban environment while improving the citizens’ quality of life.
159
5-SMART PEOPLE
A Smart City needs the citizen to participate in order for the incoming initiatives to succeed. The
existence of citizens able to participate wisely in smart urban life and to adapt to new solutions
providing creative solutions, innovation and diversity to their communities is needed. Education
appears as the main tool to improve this dimension, as well as initiatives to retain creative
profiles.
160
6-SMART LIVING
As a conclusion, Smart Living is considered the wise management of facilities, public spaces and
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services using ICT technologies to put focus on improving accessibility, on flexibility of uses, and
on getting closer to the citizens ́ needs.
SMART CITY PROJECT’S CHARACTERISTICS
A Smart City Project (SCP) is a project that generates a change and produces an impact towards a
Smart City. However, the Smart Real State definition should include technology in a wider sense,
and not only ICTs (e.g. new materials). SCPs should be tools which make cities more comfortable
162
to live in and able to maintain complexity, multiply interactions, recognize diversity and manage
uncertainty. All of these factors are inherent characteristics of urban dynamics and constitute the
attractiveness of cities and their current intelligence.
Fig: Smart city character
163
SMART CITY CHARACTER
1- INNOVATION
SCPs should promote environments of technological cooperation (platforms) for the
development of new solutions to old urban problems. One key element, as established by
several definitions and as it is reflected in ASCIMER’s working definition is the use of
technology -in its broader sense- in the project, it has to be addressed at solving one or
more city challenges improving the efficiency, sustainability or quality of life of the city.
Technology offers the opportunity to address urban problems in an innovative way.
2- INTEGRATION
Initiatives should be crosscutting among vertical areas of governance, combining
knowledge, capacities and competences horizontally towards the objectives defined by
the sustainability framework. A SCP should help with the creation of interconnected
systems in which flows of materials, energy and information are managed coherently. A
SCP should also improve dialogue between institutional representatives and citizens and
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it should increase the horizontal relationship inside the municipality and the interchange
with other institutional and civil society entities.
3- INCLUSION
The Godo Housing and Smart Real Estate City agenda entails improving the citizens’
quality of life, strengthening and diversifying the economy while prioritizing
environmental sustainability through adoption of smart solutions.
Creating smart connected systems for our urban areas provides a great many
benefits for citizens around the world, not only to improve quality of life, but also
to ensure sustainability and the best possible use of resources.
We need to treat urbanization as an opportunity and not as a problem. This naturally gives a
thrust to the development of smart cities across the nation which is well planned peripheral
urban city centers. We need to ensure that smart cities evolve from the existing urban
conglomeration as well as proposed newly-planned smart cities. This needs to be done by going
along the route of urban renewal, adopting environment-friendly measures which will also
165
ensure that they become economically strong, financially viable and from an environment
perspective, ‘sustainable’ – not just for today but also for the future.
This is easily done with the new real-estate development, which has to be developed
into a ‘Smart City’. Sustainable, in reference to smart cities, is ideally about
projects which implement ‘Green Building’ concepts within an existing city. Being
an eco-friendly and sustainable township is also about recycling garbage to form
compost for gardens, to create methane gas to power utilities, to harness wind and
solar power to provide a part of power requirements. It is also about charging the
water table through rain water harvesting, as also sewage treatment which
provides treated sewage in form of water for gardens and construction/ cleaning
purposes.
It is about smart architecture which ensures being in sync with wind and natural light resources,
so that load on HVAC and luminaries is reduced. This is the best manner of ensuring that new
conglomerations turn out to be smart cities. It is important to focus on areas like air and water
pollution control, sewage disposal, connectivity that ensures low pollution emission on the roads,
a maintenance and management system which includes e-governance and internet-based
solutions for citizens and also using construction material that is ‘eco-friendly’ which should not
create ecological imbalance.
So, when we look at the Smart City mission, the key concern is to address issues like unmatched
civic and social infrastructure with a focus to ‘leapfrog’ in terms of technology-driven approach of
urban planning, implementation and proper maintenance.
Some example picture of smart city ideas and programs and activities.
166
TAXONOMY
Once that the concept of Smart City is defined, a systematic approach to the possibilities of
action of the Smart City projects has been developed.
The Smart City concept has changed from the execution of specific projects to the
implementation of global strategies to tackle city challenges. Thus, it is necessary to get a
comprehensive overview of the possibilities and to relate them to the city challenges. As a
common point to all of them, the key factor of the Smart City projects has been identified to
be the use of ICT.
According to these criteria, project actions have been defined as seen in table
167
Table 1: Smart City Project Actions “sheger village “
Some of these project actions could be developed as a unique project, but others are more
general and define the basis for action with several Smart City projects.
Through the development of the Addis Ababa approach, the need of reaching a deeper level
in the Smart Real Estate Apartment sheger city smart village possible actions has been
detected. Inside any of the identified project actions there are several possibilities of
development, and they are frequently interwoven. Research about the different possible
project actions has showed different groups of Smart.
Projects that configure the Smart Real Estate Apartment city smart village actions. Projects
have been grouped in the different dimensions. Smart City strategies comprehend a
combination of these sub actions.
Developing this deeper level reduces the gap between theory and practice, providing and
approach to real projects as well as to innovative possibilities that are still in project phase or
168
are being developed by different entities (from private companies to grassroots organizations)
but present a strong potential to be included in multi-stakeholder, municipally based Smart
City Strategies. The aim of this second phase is to widen the panel of possibilities and to
present an approach that is closer to implementation.
Some example picture of smart real state city eco village and complex
The basic nature of the proposed Smart Real Estate Apartment city smart village project,
construction of High rise building and landscape complex center, is the physical aspect, which
will construct building for delivery of intended services in the project area. The time span for
this task requires from its inception to its beginning of services delivery will two
years.
The constriction of the project immediately begins after project approval and design completion.
If the construction of desired complex center requires additional tasks; the project will be
completed and become operational within three years.
169
Defining the smart village concept
This is a step-by-step blueprint guide on how to establish, manage, and lead a smart networked
rural village’s project for sustainable development. The blueprint is for government officials,
private sector investors, donors, development agency officials, and NGOs that are interested in
investing and supporting such endeavor. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), adopted in 2015, committed the global development community to 17 inter-related goals
and 169 targets focused on improving the quality of life for all. The SDGs and their targets are
also focused on revitalizing rural communities and their links with urban centers.
170
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With almost 80 per cent of the world’s extreme poor living in rural areas, villages should become
a key focus for interventions to meet the SDGs through digital transformation. However, most
rural villages, mainly in least developed countries (LDCs), are challenged with low, limited, or
non-existent essential elements in terms of:
• Access to broadband Internet;
• Access to electricity;
• Digital literacy and skills
Inclusive digital transformation can serve as a crucial enabler for rural development and can
reduce rural-urban migration and rural poverty. Improving the living conditions in rural areas by
addressing the root causes of poverty and hunger, investing in rural development through
inclusive digital transformation, establishing social protection systems, building rural-urban
linkages, focusing on boosting the incomes of smallholder family farmers, especially women and
the young, is vital to inclusive and equitable growth.
A rural village in its most basic sense is an area that is situated outside of towns and urban
centers where often, small settlements and farms are scattered over vast tracts of agricultural
land and forests. The rural population refers to the number of people who live in rural areas or
villages.
Along with high levels of poverty, low-income levels and poor infrastructure, lack of connectivity
to the Internet rank among the biggest challenges in rural villages across the world. At the end of
2018, ITU confirmed that 51 per cent of the world population is online, meaning they have access
to the Internet. However, the rest who are offline reside essentially in least developed countries
and rural regions. For inclusive social transformation to take effect in rural villages, having
access to the Internet under appropriate conditions can serve as a crucial enabler to meet the
SDGs. Delivering critical social development programmers through connected rural villages is a
strategy towards meeting the SDGs.
172
A smart village can focus on digital transformation in the following sectors for
example:
• Health: the deployment of telemedicine and digital health services will allow patients to have
remote consultations and healthcare workers to deliver efficient services.
• Banking: support access to digital financial and investment services for citizens and
businesses.
• Education: the access to open and distance learning opportunities will enable capacity
building for teachers and education administrators as well as providing equitable access to
quality literacy, lifelong learning and skills programmers for children, youth and adults.
Job search: services that can assist unemployed people to find jobs and to enhance their
employment skills.
• Agriculture: digital agriculture services can support efficient and productive farming
capabilities among farmers. • Crime prevention: applications and services for local law
enforcement to communicate and share real-time information to keep communities safe
Smart villages can thus provide the following benefits:
• Citizens and institutions can access integrated services, when needed, anywhere, quickly and at
any time;
• Services can be customized for specific needs of individual citizens, organizations or

institutions;
• The package of integrated services is continuously improving, adapting to changes in local

needs;
• the network of partner organizations involved in setting up and managing the smart village are
continuously learning, adapting and customizing their offerings; and
• Government leadership adopts an integrated, cross-ministerial, cross-sectorial, and whole-of

government approach.
173
. General Executive Summary

1. Project name GODO HOUSING AND SMART REAL ESTATE
SHEGR HOUSING PROJECT
(By shareholders and partner developers from international and local developers)
2. Project Type: SMART VILLA CITY ,APARTMENT ,COMMERCIAL
BUILDING ,ENTERTAINMENT BUILDING ,PLAYGROUND, SPORT FIELD AND SOCIAL
CENTER .G+4,G+2 G+1 , G+SF ,AND LUXUXRY VILLA .
3. Nationality: LOCAL ETHIOPIAN (SHARE HOLDER, DEVELOPER) AND FOREIGN

PARTENERS
4. Project Owner: AFRICA HOLDDING SHARE COMPANY
5. Project location: SHSGER CITY, OROMIA, ETHIOPIA: CITY RENEWAL SLUMS ZONE
“TOWNS “NEW ECONOMY ZONE DESITRICT.
6. Project composition: 3 TYPES OF PLOT HOUSING, LUXUXRY AND AFORDABLE YPR

OF HOUSING AND MULTIPURPOSE COMMERCIAL COMPLEX BUILDING
(G+4+GREEN TERRACE WITH TECHNICAL FLOORS) USED FOR DIVERSE PLAY
GROUND AND COUNIAIL SPACE.
7. Premises required: 150,000.00 m2 (Renewal site from SHSGER CITY AND sub city
area). Second Phase Different Area Inner City SHSGER Renewal Area
50, 000.00 m2 to 100,000.00 m2 land to next project we will expect.
8. Employment opportunity: 5,150 individuals on permanent 3,850 on casual basis

Total project cost: 5,015,000,000.00 birr .the constriction secluded by phase one,
two and three.
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9. Social and Economic Benefit: PROVIDE SMART HOUSING VILLAGE AND SMART REAL
STATE ECO -CITY AND SERVICE, EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES, GENERATION
OF INCOME AND BENEFITS FOR THE LOCAL PEOPLE AND NEW URBAN FUTURE
AND CORRIDOR DEVELOPMENT AND TOURIST ATTRACTION CENTER AND
SERVICE.
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3D PICTURE AND ARCHITECTURAL PLAN
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House typology two and smart village program and 3d and plan
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African Holding Share Company GODO VILLAGE SHEGER CITY

MODREN SMART VILLAGE

HOUSING PROJECT TO SHEGER CITY BY APPLAYING MODERN

SHEGER CITY, OROMIA

OWNER: African Holding Share Company

PREPARED BY: JASPER ENGINEERING GROUP AND PARTENERS

ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERING PLC.

Why is a smart village approach needed?............................................................................................................17

Empower the region, support entrepreneurship, and attract skills................................................................................18

Architectural Design & Layout.................................................................................................................................26

Organizational Structure for housing smart village administration............................................................26

Building Administration Department.......................................................................................................................29

Monitoring and Evaluation........................................................................................................................................34

Swages during operation......................................................................................................................................35

Construction Plan and Process..................................................................................................................................35

How to solve the problem of Punching Shear??......................................................................................................40

Functions of Shear Wall:..................................................................................................................................43

Load Transfer Mechanism:..............................................................................................................................43

Calculation of Building Loads.....................................................................................................................................44

Drawbacks of using Plain Plastering.....................................................................................................45

Development of Fiber Reinforcement..................................................................................................46

Comparison with Various Types of Fibers..........................................................................................46

Working of Fibers in Concrete................................................................................................................46

Advantages & Benefits of Using Synthetic Fibers in Plastering..................................................48

Advantages of Using Synthetic Fibers in Concrete Flooring Works..........................................48

Bleeding in Concrete | Control Bleeding | Governing Factors......................................................................48

How to Control Bleeding............................................................................................................................49

Factor Affecting Bleeding in Concrete..................................................................................................49

Waterproofing using Membranes.............................................................................................................................51

General Considerations for Workability of Concrete.............................................................................................54

Concrete Properties and Mix Design | Mix Proportioning..................................................................57

The primary considerations in mix proportioning include:........................................................57

A typical laboratory testing plan includes the following mix characteristics:......................58

Methods for Proportioning Concrete Mixes.......................................................................................58

Scaffolding | Scaffold Components | Type................................................................................................................58

Preparing the concrete:............................................................................................................................101

Producing interlocking bricks with the machine:..................................................................................................101

Interlocking Brick Machine Price............................................................................................................................104

Introduction to interlocking housing system..........................................................................................................117

Financial resources for housing...............................................................................................................................119

3. Land banking/Flipping land:.............................................................................................................125

Strategy 3: Alternative Technologies:.................................................................................................125

Strategy 5....................................................................................................................................................... 126

Building subsidy into your model:.......................................................................................................126

Strategy 7: Incremental construction:...........................................................................................................126

Strategy 8: Self construction..................................................................................................................126

Strategy 9: Community supported labor:..........................................................................................127

Strategy 10: Avoiding speculation:.......................................................................................................127

Strategy 11: Develop contracts with suppliers:................................................................................127

Housing supply: challenges......................................................................................................................................128

Challenge 2: Volatile economic environment..................................................................................128

Affordable interlocking housing Recommendations.............................................................................................128

Water Absorption and Moisture Content...............................................................................................................147

SMART CITY PROJECT’S CHARACTERISTICS......................................................................................159

Shegr city, oromia, Ethiopia

Oromia Regional State Urban Development and Housing Bureau

Village Development Plan:

What is a smart village?

Why is a smart village approach needed?

Empower the region, support entrepreneurship, and attract skills.

◦ Design of a comprehensive sustainable and intelligent development strategy for the

◦ Boosting entrepreneurship associated to each hub project.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY HUB PROJECT. THE SMART MANAGEMENT NETWORK.

• Improve energy efficiency in public lighting and buildings.