build safe

60% of youths in Kenya lives in rural areas.as a culture at mid 20s most are at a race of life to start a family and a decent house is a prerequisite. Unfortunately, the cost of building materials i.e quarry stones, ballast,sand and cement has scaled 4 folds for the last 3 years  making it imposssible for these population which is largely underemployed to make decent housing. Many has resulted to mud walled housing which apart from it being risky interms of pest infestation,rodents ,cold dependent diseases and being washed away by floods have a big tall on environment as more trees are cut down to provide posts and sticks to hold mud. on average a standard 3 bedroom house requires 4 full grown trees.

in 2017, the government of kenya started an ambitious project of affordable housing, these brough huge scramble of quarry rocks and deep excavations which for now are safety concerns for the locals, building blocks are transported to hundreds of kilometer since most quarry are over exploited. 

we are working to make decent and affordable housing available to rural population using locally available subsoil and our own designed easy to use , cheap ,effective and mobile interlocking soil block making machine .

we are an end to end housing solution that design , make material , train locals and built with them affordable and decent housing using locally available subsoil ( interlocking stabilized soil blocks).

out of our 3 years of research , we indentified that most interlocking soil blocks machines in kenya were not effective(manual one didnt produce stardarnd blocks and the resultant blocks lacked vertical interlocking edges and couldnt make a stable house, company selling these didnt train youths and locals on its usage and 50% of machine were left idles after failed project.Goverment had imported Hydrafoam machines from south africa, unfortunately , these machines were expensive for local youths($9800) and skills required to learn these machines,repair and running cost were high and only rich few would afford it. mobility of these machines was limited and couldnt reach deep villages.

From these , we were able to invent ,design and test our ssbs making machine which is a hydraulic powered mini machine with ability to make 1500 block per day using a labour of 3 ( can be any gender as we use hydraulic power) . the machine cost $2400 as manual version in market and produces as much blocks as hydrafoam ,its mobile  and easy to carry on tricycle. 

our group of engineer, design houses for clients ,together with our building team, they train locals interested on building on how to use the machine, test blocks and use them in construction, through these  we are able to ensure the cost of building drops to 45% percent when compared to equivalent quarry stones housing and that machines we sell become source of income to buyer as they can lease them out to other trained youth once their site are over.

our machine have ability to make ssbs blocks from subsoils available all over kenya and east Africa .our team carry out field test to ascertain mix ratio once a new project start in areas where we dont have a previous test result to ensure integrity and quality of material.

to ensure full sustainability, design and partner with mycoboards company to provide finishing parts(doors and ceiling ) ensuring our house is 80% less carbon emitting than traditional building.

we reduce carbon emission by

1. zero transport of material to site.blocks are made on site 

2.effective blocks making .2 litres of diesel makes 1500 blocks,3 beedroom house requires 4500 blocks thus use 6 litres of diesel and 9 labours(1 day) if these was to be quarry blocks , 18 litres would have beuing used in machine cutting and loading alone

3. eco finishing(use of mycoboards)

4 zero wastage ,designed to fit meaning no extra blocks made to waste of boards bought and left. 

youths  and real estate companies in rural region who cares about environment and are in need in affordable and decent housing .

Currently, due to high cost of building using quarry blocks, most of them have resulted in use of mud walled housing which is not sustainable in long run

we are a blend of innovative team that have skills and experience in field of social entrepreneurship and innovation.

led by nathaniel muiru, civil and construction engineer, ken kamau  building and construction engineer and john mwaniki  mechanical engineer, we have for the 3 ear being in field and our solutions are informed by the challenge we witnessed during our pilots.

we all grew in different construction sectors in different rural villages, ou passion to change the norm brought us together to change the life of those we lived with and to see sustainable environmental future in construction sector.

to network, to learn and exposure.

i believe the MIT solve have the best network to have our work  exposed to the world and have us gain credibility among people who are looking for effective grassroot solution with ability to scale interms of impact .

with the networks in MIT solve, we believe we shall be able to get foundations and organisation to test and adopt our machines for their humanitarian works in Africa and asia where our machine are more applicable. 

end to end:

unlike many companies that makes ssbs making machine , we are an end to end solution , we have not only invented the machine but makes sure the machine is used in effective way to build quality, affordable and durable housing.

we design house for our clients, test soil properties to ensure exact perfect mixing os soil in ssbs(stabilized soil blocks) making and train atleast 4 youth per machine sold on how to use it and use the blocks for building.

our design are made in way they are modern ,affordable to built and are fit fix eliminating the wastage that occurs when using non custom designs.

machine: we have a modern ssbs making hydraulic machine that weigh 180 kgs, these means the machine is highly portable to rural areas where others cant. the machines runs on 2 litres of diesel per day making 1300-1500 blocks which is not only sustainable but cost effective.the machine only need 3 people to run and using hydraulic power, women and persons with disability for the first time have ability to participate in their own house construction.

the machine is cost effective  @ $2400 .

the resultant blocks have 5 interlocking edges giving our house undoubted strength and make it easy for people with minimum construction knowledge to be experts of construction within hours of training as each interlock is specific

so far we have made 50 units during pilots,

30 of these we toilets and livestock housing during pilots , we aim to scale and built 520 housing in the next 2 years and 2500 houses in 5 years time.

eaxch new house gives us an opportunity to train 4 youth in construction using ssbs machine , we aim to train 10000 youth on construction using ssbs who in turn can hire machines sold to our clients for self employment and development of more buildings

for every house made, 4 trees are saved from being cut , 1000kgs of carbon emission is saved from transport and extra material used in normal construction and a family gets a decent housing.

every house built give atleast 4 youths permanent skills that leads to decent and sustainable employment.

we are working to multiply our impact using these for parameters .

we make housing sector more affordable ,decent and sustainable to people living in rural villages as we take care of environment through : 

1 Reducing the amount of trees fell during housing and construction

2.Reduce carbon emission on transportation, excavation  and extra material used in construction of normal housing (ssbs made houses are permanent as quarry block house but use less cement sand and labour)

3 Eliminate wastage and deep excavations that happens in quarry.  

new machines(mechanical engineeering)

design software and app where client choose basic model which they can request for customization and bill of quantities .

we have a diverse team and strive to be as inclusive as possible in terms of gender .age , region of origin while training people in use of our machines.

our machine  are designed and made in a way that traditionally excluded population from construction sectors (women and pwds ) can easily and effectively use our machine for making of construction materials .

we design and make ssbs making machines which cost $1900, we sell our machines @ $2400 which gives us a margin that enable us to carry other post sales services for free.

To design house, train buyers and 3 more people to use machine and build using ssbs,test material to ascertain the exact mixing ratio are offered for free at our workshop.

a team from construction department of our company work at site at normal worker pay rate to ensure standards are adhered to.

Through these, we are certain that we are able to deliver value to our client and be sustainable in business for longer periods 

we are a profitable company that makes $500 profit margin from any machine sold,though all other services are free, our field construction team are paid from site they visit and work in as normal worker making our operational cost low.

We are actively looking for angel investors to help us set a industrial workshop to help lower the cost of machine making .

We have received $5000 from tony elumelu foundation, $5000 from world bank funded mbele na biz and sales of 4 machines .

3 of our machines works on lease model which we are using in pilots to ascertain the profitability and sustainability of our model