The Blue Lagoon
…In ocotber 2016 we came for the first time in Thailand. It was also our first time in Asia. We arrived in Koh Chang and immediately felt in love with this pretty island and its people.
We discovered the Blue Lagoon, hidden between a jungle and a lagoon, this ecological and ethical resort is very attached to local roots, tries to preserve the traditional lifestyle, the culture and the nature from mass tourism. The Blue Lagoon promote ecological and cultural projects and its french and thai team is welcoming and always open to new ideas.
Have a look at the Blue Lagoon website
We were thinking since few years about doing our own ecologically built house but didn’t find yet the right opportunity… and then it was there! So we decided to make a partnership with the Blue Lagoon to realize one of our dreams…
Earthbags!
… We went back to Europe, started to make a lot of research on several building technics and came to conclusion that the earthbags would be the most suitable for our project.
The earthbags construction are environmentally friendly and inexpensive habitat. The basic idea is to fill recycled bags with soil, sand (or other material), depending on the resources available locally, and pile them to make walls. No expensive materials, no transport, and with a round shape it makes a very strong and durable house than can resist to floods, earthquakes and cyclones.
Learn more about earthbags here
It was never done before in Koh Chang, and we never built a house, so it will be a challenge…
A human adventure
…So we went back to Koh Chang in 2017 to start to build the house.
The earthbags technic is a simple, affordable and a ‘low’ technology but it needs a lot of manpower. So we decided to put our project on workaway and get volunteers to help us and learn with us how to build a house with earthbags.
This is how we met Matt, Courtney, Kim, Fabio, Max, Beau, Louise, Romain, Noellia, Taraf, Steph, Katarina, Victor, Chloé & Tommy. They come from UK, Australia, Germany, Swiss, USA, France, Spain, Jordan and Sweden… and they all are fantastic persons, willing to help us and learn, caring about nature and others. They stayed a few days, weeks or even more than a month to build with us the house of our dreams. A big thank also to our friends Gigi and Aroun who helped us to build the house, and to the Blue Lagoon team!
It was wonderful to discover so many people from different cultures, with different stories, sharing friendship and working together with a common goal. They all let their print in this project…
Work in progress…
…From April to beginning of May 2017 we worked on the house. As it was a first for us we learned a lot and took time to figure how to do this and that. We also changed our plans on-going and decided we will make a bigger two storey house.
In one month we achieved to finish the main body that just need now a earth plaster. We also built the first floor structure and a temporary roof witch would protect the house during the rain season.
In May the rain season started so we tarped the house to continue the work in october.
Please have a look at the step-by-step gallery to learn more 😉
To be continued…
Eco House Koh Chang 