Volunteer Building Projects in Thailand

The Dragonfly Community Foundation is committed to promoting the use of sustainable and low-energy building methods and materials in Thailand - luckily these are also some of the cheapest methods!  Thus far, DCF projects have focused on adobe (mud brick) constructions using locally sourced materials with low embodied energy as much as possible to replace more common concrete and steel.  We build for children and poor communities, people who generally have no other way to obtain the structures they need.

Here in Thailand, our building season typically lasts from late October - late May, which is the dry season.  Rain in other months makes it difficult to build walls out of mud :)

Upcoming Projects

Reading Resource Room - Wat Sao Thong School, Suphanburi

This project is running from 18 March - 7 April, 2012.

Together with InClued language school and Skoolbo.com literacy program, the DCF will construct a Reading Resource Room for a progressive school in Suphanburi province, Central Thailand.  The room will provide tons of seating and space for storing English and Thai resources to help boost literacy at this country school.  Come join this straw bale and earth construction, then enjoy the Thai New Year's Festival (Songkran) which will happen the next week.

Please see this full PDF Project Summary for details and contact us to request an application form for this project.

Community Kindergarten Building - Baan Siplang, Chiang Rai (in progress)

This project is running from 17 February - 7 March, 2012.

Partnering with the Always Reading Caravan project, the DCF will work with volunteers and local people to construct a small, 1-room school building in the very remote village of Siplang.  This Akha community in the mountains is separated physically and materially from the broad Thai culture, and the kindergarten program will help to give their children a head start with Thai and Akha languages so they'll be better equipped when they start school.

Please see this full PDF Project Summary for details and contact us to request an application form for this project.

Past Projects

New Girls' House for Warm Heart Foundation, Phrao, Chiang Mai - Winter, 2011 (project report coming soon)

Straw Bale Experimental Cottage - Spring, 2011 (project report coming soon)

Nature Study Center - Winter, 2010 (project report coming soon)

Orphanage Home Walls and Modifications - Spring, 2010

Mud Brick Library - Winter, 2009

Children's Home Visitor House - Spring, 2009

Why Sustainable Building?

To us, building work is sustainable based on 2 criteria, related to materials and technology:

Sustainable materials are those which do not deplete natural resources in any significant way, whether material resources or energy.  We dig our dirt on site or else source it as close to the site as possible to limit energy costs from transportation.  Dirt is easily made into adobe bricks with the addition of water and rice husks, again found locally.  We re-use scrap wood and use bamboo as much as possible instead of new lumber, and also experiment with poured adobe floors so that we can use less concrete.  Combined, these materials end up being radically less expensive, both in monetary and environmental terms, than standard materials.

Sustainable technology means building systems that can be taught and shared easily, that are accessible and essentially non-skilled so that anyone can use them, and which can be adapted to suit local conditions and requirements.  Volunteers learn to build on the job, and take away knowledge on how to construct a building within only a few days.  Children as young as 4 years old have worked with us and actually made real positive contributions to the building process.  Local builders quickly adapt their expert knowledge to easy technologies that are flexible and inherently creative.  Most importantly, the people we build with and for learn all stages in the process and therefore can independently repair or modify their buiildings as needed.

Mud and other Sustainable Building Resources

We're happy to provide some links here to help you learn more about these building technologies!

English:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe

www.punpunthailand.org/?page_id=12

small-scale.net/yearofmud/

Thai:

baandinthai.com

thai.punpunthailand.org/?page_id=76

www.baandin.com

www.baandin.org/web/