Building with Earth: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture

This is easiest if the clay is available in pow- der form and just mixed into the wet loam. In some countries, Bentonite is avai ...

a 10 = 100 √ + 10 The curve derived from this modified formu- la for a maximum grain size of 4 mm is shown in 4.8. Preparation T ...

the German standard DIN 18127, t h e opti- mum water content is said to be the one at which a maximum dry density is achieved. T ...

Even after several months, small increases in strength may be observed. A certain amount of humidity is essential to this cur- i ...

blocks lie exposed to direct sun and wind, so that they dry out sooner, then their final strength may be reduced by 20% com- par ...

of grains can also be used, but given their higher density, they exhibit inferior insulating properties. The more porous the mix ...

49 Improving the earth ners as well as the air spaces left around the edges of the mould are eliminated. The larger the sample, ...

Additives In some industrialised countries, expanded clay is a low-cost and easily available addi- tive. It has a bulk density o ...

which reduces insulation. The equilibrium moisture content of rye straw at a relative humidity of 50% and a temperature of 21°C, ...

On all five continents, rammed earth has been well-known for centuries as a tradi- tional wall construction technique. In fact, ...

Formwork With traditional formworks, the boards on both sides are held apart and kept together by spacers (5.1). These spacers p ...

Tools In former times, earth was rammed manual- ly, using rams with conical, wedge-shaped or flat bases (5.7). If conical or wed ...

Normally, soil compaction tools of the type used in road construction are unsuitable for rammed earthwork, because their frequen ...

New wall construction techniques Rammed earth domes In order to prevent horizontal shrinkage cracks at the vertical joints in tr ...

Frame structure with rammed earth infill At the Centro de Pesquisas e Desenvolvi- mento, (CEPED) in Salvador, Brazil, a simple t ...

58 Rammed earthworks 5.24 to 5.25Church, Margaret River, Aus- tralia 5.26Framed structure with rammed earth infill (CEPED, Brazi ...

Rammed earth domes Probably the first rammed earth dome was built by the BRL in Kassel, Germany, in 1983 using a special techniq ...

Labour input The labour input in traditional rammed earth walls constructed manually, including pre- paration, transportation an ...

Blocks of earth produced manually by throwing wet earth into a formwork are called “adobes” or “mud bricks” or “sun- dried earth ...

resemble skyscrapers, and date from the 15th century (6.2). In Scandinavia and in England, building with sod was common in the 1 ...