The natural habitat: Build a home, make bread, give birth to a child—all essentials forgotten by a fallen humanity. Shelter is a vital need for all animals—a cottage, a burrow, a nest, a lair … or a hutch in the courtyard on the twentieth floor. Because a living being must be able to rest in peace and warmth, and let little ones grow; and, additionally for humans, reflect and create artistically or artisanally.
It is almost entirely certain that trees were the first natural shelters from which we had to learn, little by little, to use the materials to construct more and more functional habitats. As Maeterlinck said, “These trees are, to the passer-by, the model for all of the great resistance movements of courage, peaceful spirit, momentum, seriousness, silent victory and perseverance. Then came the caves: some rocks, already hollowed by erosion from water, were easy to extend. Then the shelter of rubble. Then notions about gathering, then culture, then hunting, fishing, and the arrival of buildings on stilts on the fishing lakes.
From the isolated house to the hamlet to the village, our homes kept for centuries a kind of friendly character, where we could live in contact with nature and the rhythm of the seasons, more able to stimulate thought than purely bookish knowledge. The great book of nature has become illegible for the majority of humans who are crammed into monstrous cities, rotting like apples, as Mirabeau says.
May we find it essential to create our own home with our own hands using unprocessed materials from the land, which nourishes us also.
Also a shovel, ax, carpenter pencil, folding ruler, and a stock of cords of wood the thickness of a finger …
1. pruning knife
2. sickle
3. file
4. metal saw
5. wood grater
6. handsaw
7. wrench (for augers)
8. augers
9. log saw
10. carpenter’s hammer
11. chisel
12. crankshaft
13. drawknife
14. pliers
15. scissors
16. screwdriver
17. punch
18. multiple punch
19. punch
20. crankshaft
21. rake
22. wrench
23. trident chisel
24. awl
25. mallet
26. small auger
27. knife
Make a plan and produce a model
To produce the object that we wish to construct properly, it is absolutely necessary to make a plan on a scale large enough to clearly note the details (10 cm for 1 m). One can fulfill the first embodiment of the work with a small model and very basic materials (balsa wood, twigs, string, cardboard, glue, tacks …).
Straight poles are a base material for construction. One may cut them from a simple bush, using the low branches of larger trees, or dead fallen logs.
This is a ligature that one does with the help of a rope around two poles—a process to replace the need for nails or screws. Nick (flat) the poles beforehand to avoid their rolling.
Note: This way, one can build very strong huts.
1. Begin with a boatman or a capstan knot
2. Slip the cord through the horizontal and vertical poles
3. Then wrap the cord three times around to ensure tightness
4. The wraps must not overlap
5. Then pass the cord over the horizontal pole and through the vertical pole
6. Wrap it three times ensuring its strength and end with a boatman’s knot
The end of one of the poles is sharpened to a point in order to serve as a tenon and to be put into a hole drilled into another pole. In order to consolidate the attachment of the tenon and the mortise, drive a wedge. Tools to use: auger, thick wicks, an ax, a drawknife, a wood grater.
One sizes the pegs at the heart of a branch of at least 2 cm in diameter. This will be used to keep the poles meeting at right angles, previously cut in half-lapped joints. Required tools: pencil, wide wood chisel, mallet, augers, wicks, handsaw.
This is another way to attach poles, since the previous examples use a small diameter (5 cm). They have the advantage of being easily disassembled. Threaded rods are sold by the meter in hardware stores and the required dimension for usage here is 4 mm. Their installation on nicked poles with flat notches requires the following tools: wrench, metal saw, metal file, auger, crankshaft.
After seeing different assembly methods, here are some practical applications proposed by Scouts France.
Different kinds of wild construction
a. The assembly of three poles in a triangle
b. The assembly of three poles into a pyramid
Make a capstan knot on the middle pole; pass through the pole; then come back through the holes, then through the 1, under the 2, over the 3 and the opposite for the overlay.
Then you make a tour with the cords going the other way between poles 2 and 3, and between poles 1 and 2.
Then you fold the two poles, placing them with the others in the same direction.
c. The assembly of triangulated rectangles: Very useful if one only has small poles available.
d. The assembly of flexible branches: Very useful if one only has available small shrubs or coppice, hazelnut or chestnut branches, or cane, or broom shrub. Don’t forget homes have been made completely through basketry.
Made of snow blocks cut with a knife, a shovel, saw or an ax. To effectively protect from the cold, its thickness is at least 50 cm. Its shape is somewhat similar to that of a Borie. Eskimos can accommodate two families in an igloo of 3.75 meters in diameter.
TECHNIQUE Shaped by an upward spiral made of blocks of snow placed in a circle in a clearing, the blocks tilted toward the dome’s interior.
Draw a circle of 2.50 meters diameter, carefully pack down the snow on this location. The spiral base must be well-designed so that the wall can rise regularly with the snow blocks of 60 × 50 × 40 cm. Good snow: frozen, blown, névé or rotten ice (in this case, compacted). Bad: very thick crusts, cold dust. Build up the dome to 1.75 meters maximum by cropping each block when placing them so that it fits well with the body and significantly increases the slope at each turn to maintain a good incline. Plug along the way with snow in order to remove roughness where drips may occur thereafter. Place a tapered block at the arch. Widen the opening on the igloo floor. Close with a snow block or canvas but never completely to avoid asphyxiation. Insulate from the ground with a circular canvas.
This igloo is designed for four people. What’s needed: a cutter (for the center of the igloo), a block cutter, a carrier, a carrier assistant and plug help.
Note: You can also dig a hole in thick snow (2.50 meters) and use skis as structures in order to form snow slabs there.
THE POKAKE The igloo can also be hollowed out, on snow whose thickness must be 2 to 2.5 meters. Cover it with a snow lid.
EARTHEN IGLOO We have found this description in this excellent work: Habitats (Ed. Alternative et Parallèles). “The clod igloo is a good solution to the problem of housing in cold countries. This type of shelter combines the use of traditional techniques and that of current techniques. Basically, the clod igloo is a half-buried structure that one builds out of lightweight poles or thickly cut boards, which is covered with a solid frame made of logs which is then covered with sheets of polyethylene, dirt, snow and sometimes foam. The part underground and the earthen embankment acts like a thermal buffer … the earthen backfill never reaches outside temperature (land radiates heat) and, after a week of heating, embankments will be considerably warmer. The radiant heat is stored inside during the day and released at night, which regulates temperature for twenty-four hours a day. Anyone who has stayed in a log cabin and found a frozen cup of water near the bed will appreciate this phenomenon.
Simple construction and assemblage. Easy mounting makes it good for nomads or sedentary people. Made with waterproof material, it is quite heavy, 15 kg, but made of a parachute folded in half it does not exceed the kilo. You can make a fire or cook thanks to the opening at the top, which provides good circulation.
THE STRUCTURE
• Place two 4.30 m × 4.30 m waterproof canvases side by side, letting them exceed one another by 10 cm.
• Make a demi-circle cut; sewing each to the other at their top surface, allowing space where the pole will slip.
• In the chutes, cut three parts (A, A1, and B) from 100 × 60 cm.
• Fold and sew the corners of pieces A and A1; sew to the other tent body A, A1 and B.
• Attach four cords to the outer edge of piece B.
• Fold the canvas in two. In a quarter of the circle, at 30 cm from the edge, corresponding with the ropes from piece B, sew on four rings or large buttons.
• In the bottom of the tent, make a folded opening that is closable from the inside with bands, for the door.
• Cut ten, very straight poles, longer than the height of the tipi (take into account the slope and the extended ridge).
• It takes ten strands of strong cord, 45 cm long, to bind the tipi to the poles—so a rope 7.5 meters long and twenty poles.
• Provide, at the bottom of the tipi, fastener holes for the pegs.
THE ASSEMBLAGE There are many kinds, as follows:
• The sedentary tipi: Dress the three main poles that you will assemble with lashing and affix five to eight other poles to the beam.
• The lateral pole tipi: Slide a 2.2 meter pole into the seam of the tipi and affix all of that. Tie the pole to the tipi at the end of its cone. Tie a string to this attachment point and stretch it to create a 60° angle from the floor. Attach the rope to a tree branch.
• The structure-less tipi: Attach a long rope to the top of the tipi, pass it around a tree branch, stretch it and tie it around the same tree.
Note: Don’t forget to dig a trench around the shelter.
“I believe that they must be my true family. I will quickly forget the other. These trees adopted me little by little, and to merit this I learn what one must know: I already know to watch the clouds pass. I also know to be still. And I almost know how to be quiet,” concluded Jules Renard in his Histoires naturelles. For those who, like him, have an extraordinary attraction to trees and their generous strength and tranquility, it is certainly not sweeter to delay!
Choose a solid tree, and at the height build hardwood platforms that you avoid attaching to the tree so as to do no harm. Let it move freely. Adopt lashing as a method of attaching, or else large nuts, nylon strings, or very tight barbed wire, to get a good tautness and to remove the effects of swells.
Good poles provide the wall structure and the roof structure can be thatch, branches and foliage clogged with dirt and moss.
If the body of the tree does not allow the construction of a large room, build several small rooms at different levels and connect them with rope ladders or wood. Do not be surprised by frequent visits from all of the nice little animals to whom a tree is refuge: birds, squirrels, lizards …
Who doesn’t remember the marvelous tree huts described by Daniel Defoe in his Robinson Crusoe, and the hut built by Tarzan’s father: “Clayton selected four trees which formed a square of about 2 m 50 each side. Then he cut a few poles from other trees and solidly secured them to four trunks about three meters from the ground using ropes. On this frame, he put smaller branches at close range. Then he covered the coarse platform with large begonia leaves, which proliferate. Finally, he covered the whole of it with a large sail folded several times. A little less than two meters high, he built in the same way a second platform, lighter than the other one, which would serve as roof. On the sides of the second plate-form, he hung the rest of the sail to act as a wall … he spent the last of the day’s hours making a sturdy ladder.”
A quite suitable habitat adapted from the nomad life. Three men can make one in a half-hour and it is strong against anything. From the Mongols of Tibet, it was also erected by the sedentary and served as homes for beggars and for emperors alike.
Its basic element is a kind of barrier composed of a deployable mesh: laths are studded or bonded together at regular intervals and in opposite diagonals and have the same flexibility as an accordion. These walls will be fused together in a circle, which includes a doorframe. The top of the upright wall will be maintained by pressing down on a rope. From the poles then a small raised central circle will be connected and thus form the roof structure (sometimes supported by one or two pillars) and will consist of, together with the walls, canvas or skins. An opening left in the center of the raised circle will be the fireplace.
Also known as the Gallic hut, this is a kind of habitation made entirely of dry stones.
A little shallow cave and planning
A type of simple refuge and well known by the Scouts.
Certainly one of the first shelters that man built, since its manufacture does not necessarily require the use of iron tools such as wood or stone cutters. It can be a simple assembly of flexible branches and young trunks intertwined to create a hemispherical space with a circular base and a thatch cover.
Over the centuries, the same principle remains but the elements have changed: domestic brick, cut stone, cement (in Roman times).
In 1922, in Germany, the first geodesic dome was built with lightweight steel studs and a very light coating of cement whose thickness was based on the relationship between an eggshell and its diameter. Since then technique of the dome keeps evolving because it is a remarkably functional home with growing popularity in the USA. The various materials currently used in the manufacture of its cover include plywood, tar paper, car scraps cut with an ax, vinyl panels, aluminum, reed, bamboo, waterproof fabric … The simplest conception resides in the original design: thatch on wooden poles.
In the family of the domes, one equally finds the ancient structures of habitation with a foundation of branches and poles, which are recovered from plants, straws, thatch, etc.
A poncho, a djellaba, a shepherd’s cape, a blanket can provide a good temporary shelter if the weather is not too wet or harsh; just provide a support some distance from the ground with the help of poles or a rope stretched between two trees. The bivouac (a simple shelter under a rock canopy) is well-known to mountaineers and climbers. Even us, my wife, our daughter, and our cats, have long lived in a very beautiful forest in Fontainebleau: a 15 horsepower Citroen converted into a bedroom allowed us to stay a long time and very comfortably contemplating the trees and rocks. We installed: bookcase, bedside lamps (connected to the battery), two-bed mattress with sheets and duvet, an icebox, a small hammock for the children, a gas stove, a canvas bucket, auxiliary heating …. We have had the opportunity to see a boat, a ship, an old bus and also an old truck (which no longer rolled) become confortable, durable landscaped homes.
9.3: Contemporary Techniques and Material
A single ruler or a folded ruler (metal); level; plumb-bob; chalk; cords; blue washing powder; trowel; shields; pegs; metal and couch grass brushes; 10-liter bucket; 50-liter rubber trough; handsaws and frame saws; simple hammer and nail puller; pliers; burin; chisel; punch; large screwdriver; file; oil; rags; wire.
Additionally:
To implement: mace; measuring tape; plugs; leveler; level telescope or tube
To form: clamps; foot presser; hammer; carpenter’s pencil
To strike: pickax; shovel - pliers - wheelbarrow
To repair a plaster coating: float; trowel; riffler (or spackling knife)
Note: For all masonry tools, wash immediately after use and oil after drying.
These allow masonry materials to be assembled on a foundation that is molded exactly to their shape, which renders them more stable and allows for an even distribution of weight.
PLASTER The result of gypsum baking (from 200°C). One uses it pulverized, and sprays it for immediate use in 80 to 90% of water. It is used for seals, coatings, roughcasts …
CEMENT AND HYDRAULIC LIME Called hydraulic binders, these are mixtures of aggregates with water to provide concrete or mortar.
The aggregates are divided into three categories: small or medium sands (4 mm maximum); grit (between 5 and 20 mm); pebbles (20 to 70 mm).
Cement is a body with a base of silicate and calcium aluminate, it takes very fast, hardening (usable once hardened). It is also used to seal.
MORTAR A mixture of cement or lime, sand and water in proportions varying according to its destination. Lime mortars are creamier and work more readily than cement but are less resistant, less waterproof, and dry more slowly. Lime mortar, a mixture of lime and cement, combines the qualities of both. Mortar serves as a link between the masonry materials to make the coatings that allow for waterproof masonry.
RUBBLE Stones used in the construction of walls—often from quarries (limestone, sandstone, granite, millstone …).
BRICK Terracotta blocks used to build walls, and never buried because of their porosity. It is important to soak them before use so they do not pump water from the mortar. They are used in full form (standard format: 6 × 10.5 × 22 cm) or hollow (10.5 × 10.5 × 22 cm). One places them on a buried concrete footing.
Cut solid bricks: placed at the ends of the wall or doorframe, once they are cut in two on alternating vertical dots. Draw the line to cut with chalk. Put it in the sand. Dig a trench along the line with a chisel; by striking with a mace in light taps, the edges are sharp and well supported before the blow. Dig a groove with the mallet and cut the brick of a cleaner cut, then the notch is well underway.
Cutting hollow bricks: more delicate because the brick is more fragile. Mark around the cut. Using a mallet, start breaking the brick on all four sides. Then cut at the location of the ribs and on the edges. To finish, give it a jerk with the edge of the bricklayer trowel.
CINDER BLOCKS Molded concrete gravel blocks. They can also be hollow or full; they serve the same purpose as bricks. Their standard format is 10 or 15 or 20 × 20 × 40 cm.
A mixture of cement, sand, gravel or pebbles and water. It can be molded and it has many uses: foundations, basement walls, flooring, resistant steel elements such as beams, floors, foundations, arches, slabs, columns, bridges … Here are the proportions for a few of its uses (calibrated for a 50-liter wheelbarrow):
PROPORTIONS AND DOSAGES
• Foundation for a house: two wheelbarrows of stones or gravel, one of sand, 25 kg of cement
• Basement walls, bedrock, elevations: two wheelbarrows of stones or gravel, one of sand, 40 kg of cement
• Floors: two wheelbarrows of washed gravel, one of washed sand, 25 to 40 kg of cement
• Reinforced concrete: two wheelbarrows of gravel washed, one of washed sand, 50 kg of Portland cement 250/315
In general, it does not take more than 180 to 200 liters of water to produce 1 m3 of concrete: it shrinks like cloth, and the more wet it gets, the more it will crack. For an excellent mix, a concrete mixer is needed, but you can also mix by hand if you do not need more than 10m3.
HAND-MIXING The mixing should be on a flat, hard, very clean surface, large enough to be comfortable.
Extract from Les Chantiers—Scouts of France:
1. At one end of the surface, pour enough sand for a trowel. To assess quantity, a 50-liter wheelbarrow will be helpful or a box of known volume that one will refill on the mixing area. With the shovel, spread a 12-cm-thick layer.
2. Pour over the sand the amount of binder needed to cover the entire sand surface.
3. Shovel the mixture to make a pile on the other side of this surface.
4. Move the pile, shovel by shovel, at least two times, until the mixture is a uniform gray. For only concrete: Spread the pile again with the next layer, about 12 cm thick. Spread gravel and pebbles on this layer and repeat 3 and 4.
5. Make a heap 20 cm high.
6. Hollow a crater in the center and pour in the amount of water required.
7. With the shovel, bring down the crater rim with running water by turning over the pile in such a way that it doesn’t let the water escape. Mix well.
It would be prudent, in the beginning, to not add all the needed water at once. After a first mixture with half of the water, for example, one will re-place the heap with its crater and begin the operation again.
When the concrete is mixed in twos, it is better to make a small heap of homogenous, dry mix and, while one of the two gets wet, little by little, by way of a bucket or, better, a water can, the other is mixed with the shovel as needed.
When one needs a little bit of mortar, it is better to mix with a trowel in a mortar trough proceeding in the same way.
CONCRETE MIXER The order of the introduction of aggregates: one part large aggregates + one part water: rotating the cement, the sand, and the rest of the water. Rotate the rest of the aggregates in order of increasing size.
FORMWORK OF A CONCRETE WALL
1. Form boards 10.5 × 2.7 cm: nails 25/55
2. Stiffeners 10.5 × 2.7 cm: nails 28/60
3. Horizontal stiffeners or stringers: twice 10.5 × 2.7 cm or chevron 10 × 10 cm: nails 28/60
4. Stops 10.5 × 2.7 cm: nails 31/70
5. Struts 5 × 2.7 cm: nails 25/55
6. Corners 25 × 1.5 × 2.7 cm: nails 2 or 3 times 28/60
7. Struts 10.5 × 2.7 cm: nails 2 times 31/70
8. Tension wire 4 mm every 80, 90 cm
One nails, not too hard, on the concrete two battens (16.5 × 6.5 cm) or two planks (23 × 8 cm) to begin the wall. The base spacer is done automatically and so there is no problem of sagging between the formwork and the pavement.
A simple tank mounted on two stretchers that rolls and is made almost wholly in wood with the help of planks 22 mm thick.
Make two panels 40 × 30 cm and two 60 × 60 cm; join them crossed to assure the best assemblage, and nail the small panels in the center of the big ones with the help of thick nails whose projecting point is bent by nailing.
Cut the 60 × 60 panels into disks of 60 cm diameter.
Nail the planks of the three sides of the box (70 to 80 cm long) on the range of small panels 40 × 30; one thus obtains a trunk on two wheels without the lid attached.
To facilitate the mixture of mortar, attach the inner six planks (from the trunk’s inside length) and nail them to the walls which serve as blades; two of them will be nailed diagonally in the corners, flanking the door to help drainage, two other angles on the opposite wall at the door, the last two on the other walls with a slight inclination as to not restrain the mortar.
Build the door jamb and put a rabbet there with battens nailed flat on three sides; secure the door with two strong hinges and closures in the style of an ammunition box.
The shafts are made of two plates 8 cm long with a hole drilled at each end for mounting—one side of the rounded crossing and through which a bolt will serve as the axis for the other. The bolt (head on the inside) passes through the disc and a wooden square, serving as an intermediary.
Unite the stretchers with boards nailed diagonally.
One mixes by going back and forth.
Unloading takes place after pushing the mixer atop an inclined plane (beams, iron walkways …), door opening downward.
Note: If the trunk was not perfectly sealed, the concrete, with use, will clog and the fissures and wood will crack.
A circulation of air under a house provides good insulation and a good whole-someness: the cellar (as well as the attic) therefore has a usage other than storing food. And whether the house is built in wood, clay, stone, concrete, if one leaves out the basement it is best to raise the ground floor at least 30 cm, by providing some openings in the walls of this rise. The pillars of support will consequently be the rise. Whether they are concrete or wood, one begins to place those of the angles after having traced the perimeter of the house. If it is necessary, adding to it around the 1.4 meters (the rigid beam in hard wood 10 × 20 cm). These beams will be the armature of the floor.
If the floor of the shelter is beaten clay one can insulate the cover with dry leaves, flat stones, or else even adobe earth or cement.
ADOBE EARTH Flatten out the earth, picking up pebbles and rocks which might cause trouble. Mix soil with water as with the preparation of adobe bricks (cf 10). Casting a yoke 8 cm of thickness; the surface must be perfectly flat, humid and leveled. Let dry for ten days. Plug the cracks with adobe, which have been produced during drying; leave to dry for four days and cover with a mixture of boiled linseed oil and a quart of turpentine. Then spread several layers of the polish.
CEMENT Here is the mixture employed for floors: one part cement, two of sand, four of gravel: its thickness varies from 7 to 10 cm; if the terrain is not too stable, support it with a trellis. The casting obviously needs a form and is accompanied by one single draft by leveling it as needed. Lift the trellis with an iron hook to avoid it rolling up and so that it can well maintain to the middle of the slab. One maintains the uniform surface with a guide board. One flattens it with a steel frame (75 × 115 cm) to which a metal grill is welded. With the trowel, it is supported flat and floats and the shield are used.
THATCH The material was the most-used roofing material in the world; the elements of its composition are easy to find: straw, tall grasses, cane, reeds, the stems of imperial ferns, palm leaves … it is often used in the very humid climates, a layer of soil under the thatch for better insulation.
There are several methods, all of which are quite complex, requiring good technique and a good slope roof structure. Consult a specialized worker or, better yet, find a good craftsman in this discipline. Here are three methods to spark your interest:
• Sewing: the slab is sewn to brackets
• Molding: the same method as above except the slab is not sewn but fastened
• In bundles: a technique valuable, above all, with reeds
TILES Undoubtedly the most hermitic process for roofing that one might consider, the arrangement is similar to bird feathers and allows excellent drainage. There are many materials to use:
Tile: baked earth
Shingle: wooden tiles cut from the trunk of an old tree and nailed to battens
Stone: perforated and attached to the roof’s structure
Slate: cut from stone
Tar and metal plates are also very good coverings.
Note: Pay attention to the incline of the roof, which varies according to material and climate.
Some simple structures made of earth
ADOBE A construction method (as much for walls and roofs as for arches) that uses only mud brick. One fills wooden molds (40 × 30 × 10 cm) with wet soil, crushes or tramples them, then un-molds it later: it is allowed to dry on site for three days and then stacked and used a month later. By mixing earth, one can add straw, lime or tar, which consolidates. Mortar is used in laying bricks of the same composition. In France, we find this construction in Lauragais. This very old technique is still very prevalent in the Middle East and South America.
BLOCKS This method uses the same construction as for the adobe bricks but the soil is compacted by a hydraulic hand press.
MUD This method allows the construction of monolithic walls with compacted soil in a formwork by means of mold. This small mold is moved the length and breadth of the wall as a measure of their edification; these walls are never less than 50 cm thick, which makes them very easily damaged.
A good composition for mud is: gravel (0 to 15%), sand (40 to 65%), silt (10 to 45%), clay (15 to 25%). The percentage of clay is important and needs to be controlled; the water content for the proper mixture must be from 11%.
Note: The formwork is filled with layers of 10 to 25 cm immediately packed down.
TIMBERING One applies earth to a wooden structure to form a kind of fortified partition for the shelter walls.
WATTLE AND DAUB Over a wooden frame, weaved sticks or a trellis, packed earth is a “stabilizing armature” (cut straw, brushwood, animal dung) applied to the two sides (by hand or with a mortar).
One can also use a double armature (two wooden partitions) and thereby add to the thickness and the solidity of the wall. (Archi de Terre, Les Editions Parenthèses)
The classic house structure for the emigrants to the USA from the seventeenth century; a big central fireplace ships heat throughout the whole building. Their resistant, massive, well-balanced architecture explains why some still stand today.
Breaking and Entering and Squatting
The English verb “squat” means to acquire without a title. For linguistic correctness, the name “squatter” was given to the settlers.
Some years ago, English hobos and their families added nuance to the sense of the word by occupying empty houses and apartments. It must be said that throughout the abusive West there is no lack in creating incidentally used objects, thanks to the squatters. Thanks also to squatters is the surgery occurring for several centuries in the third world, which has dealt with famine, suffering, disease and death. This boomerang returns in due course, and these vacant premises—most of which are only for investing money—will allow us to colonize our own incoherent neighbors during future disasters and their exotic consequences.
It will be good therefore to use a mountain refuge, which one leaves very clean when entering and leaving.
A break-in will be unfortunately necessary. This technique, previously reserved for burglars, is not our fault because, far from wanting to dispossess others of their property, we gave away ours in order to not belong to them. Nevertheless, how to enter a closed shelter without damaging it in order to protect it and protect it by living in it?
The openings (doors, windows) are generally barricaded. In country houses, the windows of the storage rooms or bathrooms are often without shutters and protected only with a bar. A hacksaw takes care of that in some minutes and it suffices to break a window and then replace it … easier work than to redo a door that one destroys with a shoulder, or forced with a crowbar.
Another easy way is, without a doubt, the roof. It will suffice to have a rope (and some basic mountaineering skills), which should be put down the chimney or otherwise large or short scale, according to accomplices. In fact, most roofs are easily lifted. It would be worse to be forced to break a sheet of cement—the sky will fall into the shelter!
Regarding urban housing, the best way to get there, we think, seems to be the stairs. So the windows are good access to these apartments with a simple glass between us, provided there are no gutters or overflow façades.
These squats have to remain shelters. The first occupant is at home and there he will receive whatever he wants. But, his duty, if he leaves the shelter, is to make it more sumptuous than when he arrived in order to deeply understand that we are not alone in the world.
