Life in a Rondavel

A multi part post about life in a Rondavel

Part Two: The Pros and Cons

Like any other form of building in this world, a rondavel comes with it's pros and cons. The ultimate question though is do the pros out-weigh the cons in this environment? In my opinion they win by a landslide.

Pros:

•   A rondavel is constructed completely from 100% natural and renewable materials. That alone makes it a clear winner in my book. This also makes constructing a rondavel very affordable.

•   It's got natural A/C. The inside of a rondavel, on a hot African day, feels like walking into an air conditioned house. The combination of the cool floor and grass roof create an incredible cool and comfortable atmosphere in comparison to the blistering summer sun. I have found at times it can even be up to 10-15C cooler inside on particularly hot days. Western style homes here become incredibly hot in the summer time and most of the mid day heat ends up trapped inside the house for the remainder of the night.

•   When it rains, it pours in Africa. If you're inside of a house that has a tin roof when it rains here you can find it hard to think straight, let alone hold a conversation with someone or try to sleep. A rondavel in comparison is silent. The heavens can open up and you can still enjoy a good conversation with family or fall even deeper into your midnight slumber.

Cons:

◦   When it pours, it might leak. If you are staying in an older rondavel or the roof wasn't constructed properly, particularly hard rain can sometimes find its way through the grass and then you're left with a wet floor or whatever else is under the leak. It really has to be raining hard and for a long time for this to happen though.

◦   It's mortar is made of mud. Still pertaining to the hard rainfall, if there are long periods of hard continuous rainfall the fear of walls becoming unstable can become a real issue. However, this takes ALOT of rain for days and days on end.