Axumite Homes & The Perfect Block

 The ancient kingdom of Axum (or Aksum) thrived on the East African coast (and some ways inland) for roughly a thousand years.

The Axumites, in addition to being very proficient traders, were also highly skilled builders. They erected, among other structures, stone columns (stelae) that reached as high as 90 feet, some of which are still preserved today.

Now, some ways removed from the revered mountains and plains of Ethiopia, an enterprising Jamaican in Canada has adopted the Axumite label for his company, the flagship product of which (so far) is a revolutionary new building material.

Axsumite Homes Limited, a Canada-based construction and development company founded by Jamaican Anthony Atkinson,  is proposing to establish a purpose-built, environmentally friendly block factory in Northern Clarendon that is expected to employ up to 1000  persons (majority women)  and reduce the cost of low-income housing. 

The female bias, he explains, is quite deliberate. “All the studies show that women are better economic managers of households in Jamaica and, when women are employed, there are net gains to the development of communities and at the level of the family. The type of technology used and the light but durable nature of the materials, allows unskilled women to operate the equipment and work across the production chain in making these building blocks.”

And what of the Perfect Block?  - a mixture of concrete and Expandable Polystyrene Styrofoam (EPS) beads - has been  extensively used in North America. The block, in addition to easily meeting the  exacting standards of the Jamaica Bureau of Standards for hurricane, fire, earthquake resistance, and other stress tests, is mildew, termite and rodent resistant.

Atkinson further asserts that Perfect Block can be produced for about one-third of the price of conventional concrete building blocks in Jamaica.  “The cost of a conventional two-bedroom home would be reduced significantly using our Perfect Block Construction System,” Atkinson said.

He added that his company’s product and technical building system had received rave reviews wherever it had been used, and had withstood the tests of time and the ravages of nature. It is the winner of the 2020 International Building Show: Innovative Building Award.

Perfect Block, if in fact, deployed extensively in Jamaica, should indeed be a game-changer. With the persistent ill weather that has been a feature of this year and damage from weather events alone running into the billions, annually, its not an overstatement to say that Axumite's Perfect Block application could be critical in bringing at least a measure of prosperity, not just to the factory community, but to the country as a whole.