Three years after the Indonesian island of Lombok was devastated by earthquakes, a team of Australian and Indonesian charities established Asia’s first sustainable and earthquake-resistant school on the island.

Entire villages were destroyed, more than 550 people were killed and 417,000 displaced when two earthquakes hit the island on August 5 and 19, 2018.

Infrastructure such as businesses, homes and schools were destroyed, and as part of the reconstruction process a new ecological and earthquake-resistant school, SDN 4 Taman Sari, was built in June.

It is located in the village of Taman Sari, 10 kilometers north of the provincial capital Mataram.

The key to the sustainability and resilience of the school to earthquakes is the use of “eco-blocks”, which are made from recycled plastic mixed with wood.

They are lightweight, sturdy and easy to assemble – it only took six days to build the SDN 4 Taman Sari School.

After laying the foundation, the blocks can be made into walls by stacking them by hand. Then the roof and windows are added.

The blocks are designed to avoid causing fatal injury during an earthquake.

Due to their elasticity, they are less likely to crumble or collapse.

Seismic resistance, or the ability to withstand an earthquake, is increased because eco-block walls flex rather than break.

Their light weight and the way the blocks fit together also mean they can tolerate a lot more movement than conventional bricks and mortar.

Duncan Ward is the founder and CEO of Classroom of Hope, the Australian charity that led the eco-block school project in Lombok.

He launched Classroom of Hope in 2012 with a mission to help children living in poverty access education. So far, the organization has built more than 75 schools in Asia and Africa.

SDN 4 Taman Sari is the first school made from eco-blocks, though Ward said his organization plans to build many more.

“People were a little uncertain”

Classroom of Hope has worked with a number of partners including the local government as well as the Pelita Foundation charity.

Pelita, which means “shining light” in Indonesian, is a local non-profit charity in Lombok that supports education across the island.

Pelita CEO Satriawan Amri said the initial reaction to the idea of ​​an eco-block school was mixed.

“When I brought up the idea, [people] were a little uncertain, ”he said.

“But afterwards, I showed them some examples of similar buildings. I explained the materials and how [this project] would be good for the environment because it would use recycled plastic. “

By the time construction began, most were eager to see the new school completed.

“When the community started to see the materials arriving and the school starting to take shape, the children were eager to start taking classes there,” said Mr. Amri.

Marizal has been teaching physical education in West Lombok for 11 years. He is now with SDN 4 Taman Sari.

With the creation of the new school, he experienced an extraordinary transformation.

“Our school, which was once a temporary pop-up school, with plywood walls and dirt floors, has now grown into a beautiful, eco-friendly, clean and tidy school,” he said.

Pazila Aulia, a fifth year student at SDN 4 Taman Sari, was delighted to resume learning at the new school.

“I loved seeing the building go up, with its walls laid out like lego. It looks very neat – it’s beautiful,” she said.

Ideal material for earthquake prone areas

The idea of ​​an eco-block school was first born in 2018, when Classroom of Hope was supporting Lombok after the earthquakes.

At the time, Mr. Ward was living in Bali with his family, having moved from Perth.

“We were shaken up here in Bali. I remember waking up, running to grab my daughter and running out into the rice fields with my wife because the whole house was shaking,” he said. he declares.

“The next morning I was inundated with phone calls from people I know who live in Lombok, on the Gili Islands, expatriates, locals – people who are dear to me – whose homes have been destroyed. “

Mr. Ward traveled to Lombok and Classroom of Hope became involved in the recovery effort soon after.

“We were part of the first response trying to raise money from a disaster relief perspective, for search and rescue, water, food and just to get people to safety in the first place.” , did he declare.

Together with the Pelita Foundation, they have created 23 pop-up schools, which have enabled 4,000 children to return to school. But it was not a permanent solution.

“The whole place was like a war zone,” Mr. Ward said.

“The government spoke to us and asked if we could build permanent structures. I replied: “No, we cannot, because all your permanent structures are in ruins.

“It started to remind me of – how can we build permanent structures that are resistant to earthquakes? “

Mr. Ward contacted Block Solutions, the Finnish company responsible for eco-block technology. She was already using eco-blocks to build social housing projects in Africa.

Block Solutions uses recycled plastic, breaks it down into granules and then mixes it with wood fibers. This mixture is then processed by an injection molding machine to create the eco-clocks.

According to Mr. Ward, it is the ideal material for rebuilding permanent schools in earthquake-prone areas.

“For every classroom you build, you remove two to three tonnes of plastic waste [from the environment],” he said.

By mid 2021, the planning process was complete and the materials had arrived in Lombok from Finland. It then took six days to build.

Marizal hopes this method will be used more widely to provide education to communities still recovering from earthquakes.

“I think these eco-blocks are a very suitable solution for setting up a safe and comfortable school building system,” he said.

Classroom of Hope’s next goal is to build a factory in Indonesia so that plastic waste can be collected in the region – rather than Finland – and processed locally.

With help from an Indonesian branch of Block Solutions, Classroom of Hope may soon be constructing other buildings, such as homes for people whose homes were destroyed in the earthquake.