Alternative building materials for Sri Lanka

Abstract

The housing requirements in Sri Lanka is rising due to growth of population and urbanisation. Due to change in socio-economic conditions and the living patterns of the society, there is a tendency for every individual family to own a house. Persons of middle income and low income groups have only limited funds at disposal for house construction.

Majority of the population raise the funds required for house construction through bank loans, generally at around 15% to 20% interest rates with a payback period varying between 10 to 20 years. Since the amount of money made available is generally limited to ensure monthly instalments are within 40 % of the income the maximum amount that can be raised for house constructions also limited. This calls for construction techniques that achieve an utmost economy in house construction to suit the income of average and low income wage earners.

The cost of housing in Sri Lanka has risen astromically in the recent past due to many factors, one of which is the shortage of building material to meet the demand of the building industry. One example is shortage of sand due to excessive sand mining. Another is land for clay mining to produce bricks. A direct consequence of the shortage of materials is the cost of building materials. This therefore calls for an urgent investigation in to the possibility of using locally available alternative building materials which can be used to replace the conventional building materials.