The Wall Street Journal Guide to Property thinks that Modern Mud Homes
Are a Niche Market.
How to Build a Rammed Earth House
From Issue # 23 – September/October 1973 of the Mother Earth News, “How to Build a Rammed Earth House” written by John O. McMeekin: “Back in the 40’s I was considered an oddball. I wore a beard — revolutionary then — and I started, by myself, to build a house out of (of all things) rammed earth. People wondered about me. Today — as a V.P. and corporation director — I appear Establishment, and my home doesn’t look unusual either. It hugs a hilltop landscape, it’s surrounded by spacious lawns and sheltered by big oaks … and in the garage are two (count them, two) Mercedes. But my house is still made of rammed earth.
Ojinaga Mud Bricks
The pattern created by drying mud bricks, here in Ojinaga, Mexico, create a lanscape of building components that anticipate future processes. In the background is Simone Swan of the Adobe Alliance.
Adobes Drying In Peru
A field of adobes drying in Pisac, Peru.
Earth Building Maps
A map shows the areas on the planet where raw earth is used as a building material. The inset map on the lower left is France. More Earth Building Maps can be found at www.terracruda.com
Rammed Earth in Sentinel Plaza, Tucson
Sentinel Plaza is an outdoor gathering place near Santa Cruz Linear Park whose dominant features are four rammed-earth monoliths that face Sentinel Peak.
More Double Roof: Old/New
The U.S. Army Headquarters Building, used when the United States was hunting Pancho Villa is located in the Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico. The date of construction is unknown but it is in pictures taken at the time of the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa (1916-1917). The adobe sturcture is covered by a free standing corrugated metal roof for protection as part of the Pancho Villa State Park exhibits.
Juxtaposition of Old and New
On Casa Piedra Road, between Presidio and Marfa, Texas exists one of the few traces of the 1875 Davis-Herrera homestead in Alamito. The adobe ruin
has recently been covered with a metal canopy to protect it from
further erosion. An interesting juxtaposition between old and new.
Earth Plaster Workshop
The Adobe Alliance will be holding an Earth Plaster and House Building Workshop October 31-November 2 in Presidio, Texas. Hands-on instruction is given by adobera Jesusita Jimenez, with theory by designer-builder Simone Swan, plus much more from guest artisans and historians. For more information, contact Simone Swan:
Email: simone@adobealliance.org
Website: www.adobealliance.org
Voice Mail: 1800 359 6677 x 77
Camping possible on site or fine lodging across the Rio Grande in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico. Presidio is reachable by scenic route only.
Down To Earth
Probably the most comprehensive book on Earth Architecture and it’s relationship to the past and the future is Down To Earth, written by Jean Dethier as part of a French exhibition on earth building in the 1980’s.