1st environment-friendly 'earth chapel' made of mud and bamboo built in Bacolod

A month before Earth Day on April 22, the Philippines' first "Earth Chapel" was opened this week at the Greenheart Hermitage inside the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos campus in Bacolod City.

 

The chapel was built with indigenous and recycled materials such as mud, bamboo, rice straw and stalk, cogon grass, old wine bottles, and discarded tiles and wood. 

 

Apart from being built with sustainable materials, the chapel also incorporates renewable energy, according to The Climate Reality Project official presenter Bro. Tagoy Jakosalem, who did the interior of the chapel.

 

"The chapel is the first solar-powered religious edifice in the country. It is envisioned both to have a sound spiritual and environmental atmosphere, and LED lights are used to illumine the interior. Wine bottles are incorporated in the structure, natural lighting effects emanating from the green-colored wine bottles, serving as recyclable stained-glass windows," Jakosalem said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site.  

 

A religious environmentalist, Jakosalem underwent training on climate change science by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore through The Climate Reality Project.

 

Sharing Jakosalem's environmental advocacy, visual artist Marisol Alquizar and social-realist Nunelucio Alvarado contributed their talents to the project. A transformed pen and ink version of "Kristo ni Alvarado" serves as a colorful mosaic centerpiece in the chapel, which was designed by Alquizar, who builds mud houses in Negros island. Student volunteers from the "Tsinelas of Hope" also helped build the chapel.

  

"We are envisioning the chapel to be the center of our ecological reflection, owing to the spiritual inspiration of our Creator; hoping to be transformed to be men and women of faith committed to protect and preserve the earth," he added.

 

According to Rodne Galicha, the Philippine district manager of The Climate Reality Project, the chapel is a "sustainable spiritual edifice that reconnects people to nature, to 'what we have been.'"

 

“This is the 8th R which we always emphasize, R-econnecting ourselves to Nature, to the creation and to the Creator. Unless we are unable to realize that we are part of the whole creation, we will not be able to solve this climate crisis," the report quoted Galicha.

 

The Climate Reality Project in the Philippines promotes climate change adaptation and mitigation through observance of 8-Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, refuse, rethink, rainforest and reconnect. –CGL/KG, GMA News