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Dear Femi,

Can I suggest that, unless you are under a big time constraint (such as emergency relief), "fast" construction is not necessarily a good idea, especially as you then only make savings on labour time. How fast you need to go largely depends on your financing (if doing rental housing, when tenants can move in; if doing ownership housing, when loan reimbursements need to start). A lot of "quick building techniques" are advertised by Northern companies, but are often poor ideas (inappropriate materials, poor durability, high initial cost in machines...)

On cheaper materials, there are many options, a lot developed in South Africa. Some publications by Skat.ch give an overview of possible materials (see "Building Material Leaflets" and "Appropriate building materials" on this page).

Compressed earth blocks can be good idea, but only if you can find suitable soil. The curing time is actually longer than for many concrete blocks, so to have a speedy construction you need to have an efficient workflow and build one house after the other in a nice flowing sequence. GTZ has a production manual for these, and there is a comprehensive guide by the CSIR in South Africa.

And then, remember that housing is only a component of settlement development (infrastructure, services, social components, planning...), which can be another area in which to make savings. I strongly recommend the "Red Book" Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Finally, here are two guides to reduce costs when building, even with usual techniques: Cost management of low-cost housing and Manual of Cost Cuts for Strong and Acceptable Housing.

Happy building,

Rémi