Sustainable housing & protective building materials: Masonry as a link between accessible construction, energy, human comfort and mosquito control in rural Tanzania

Studies indicate that climate change impacts will dramatically increase vulnerabilities in rural communities where those living off the land are at increasing risk from extreme weather events such as heat waves, famine and drought. Additionally, more than 80% of the world is at risk from at least one vector-borne disease, and Malaria is a leading cause of death in the developing world. However, most research in this field addresses this public health crisis in the form of pesticides, chemical interventions and genetically modified mosquitos with little consideration for the role of the built environment, particularly in limited resource settings. Recent efforts to make housing more protective, however, often lead to dwellings that have reduced air transmission and provide substandard air quality and interior comfort conditions. Additionally, modern, sustainable buildings can be technologically complex and prohibitively expensive. The brick, however, is the most commonly used building material in the world and one third of the world’s population lives in buildings which are totally or partially made from earth. By studying the material aspects of this humble material in tandem with the synergistic relationships of heat, energy, emissions, water, information and resources that make up a city’s public services, a novel brick has the potential to become a greater part of the urban resiliency and public health strategy. Working collaboratively in the classroom and abroad, U.S. engineering and architecture students will design innovative ways to reconceive modular earthen materials to challenge existing norms of construction and material science. U.S. student researchers from architecture and engineering will work collaboratively to explore the capability of masonry construction materials made from accessible, low-impact resources to control the transfer of heat, moisture and mosquitos in rural housing in Tanzania, exploring the intersection between design, disease and a rapidly changing climate. This interdisciplinary group of students will work with local materials and regional experts to develop prototypes for low-cost buildings and construction technologies that improve occupant comfort while reducing the potential for intrusion of disease-carrying mosquitos. Though this project focuses on one mosquito-stricken country, it is the hope that the pathogen host interaction and thermal mitigation strategies would be applicable to other tropical regions, benefiting those who are likely to be most impacted by rapid development in a changing climate. This award reflects NSF’s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation’s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Project details

Climate Change
Vector Control

Apr 2023 — Mar 2026

$299,997

Tanzania