Building with Earth: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture

Fixing fasteners to walls

Nails can be driven into an earth block walls

more easily than into those constructed of

baked bricks. The more porous and humid

the material, the easier one can drive a nail

through it. Green bricks tend to split more

easily than soil blocks and adobes. If very

thick nails are used, it is advisable to drill a

hole into the block. Heavy shelves or wall-

hung cabinets can be fixed to the wall easily

using screws and dowels. Dowel holes,

however, should be drilled large enough to

prevent blocks from cracking. In 6.24, heavy

bookshelves are fixed to a green brick wall

using dowels and screws.

Lightweight loam blocks

So-called lightweight loam blocks or green

bricks have a specific weight of less than

1200 kg/m^3 and consist of clayey soil with

light aggregates such as straw, saw dust,

cellulose fibres, cork, perlite, pumice or

expanded clay. Due to their good thermal

insulation effects, they are used for exterior

walls in cool or cold climates. Illustration

6.25shows some of these unburned bricks

that are produced industrially in Germany.

67 Working with earthen blocks

6.23

6.24

6.25