Category: RESOURCES

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Terra 2008

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Terra 2008, the 10th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architectural Heritage, will take place in Bamako, Mali from February 1-5, 2008. This is the 10th conference organized by the earthen architecture community under the aegis of ICOMOS since 1972, and the first to be held in Africa. The conference is expected to draw up to 300 specialists in the fields of conservation, anthropology, archaeology, architecture and engineering, scientific research, site management, and sustainable development of earthen architectural heritage. Organized by The Getty Conservation Institute and the Ministry of Culture of Mali in collaboration with Africa 2009 | CRATerre | ICOMOS South Africa | ICCROM | World Heritage Centre under the aegis of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Earthen Architectural Heritage

Download the conference announcement (pdf)

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Adobe USA 2007

The 4th Adobe Conference of the Adobe Association of the Southwest: AdobeUSA 2007 will take place May 18, 19, 20 and 22, 2007 in El Rito, New Mexico on the campus of co-sponsor Northern New Mexico Community College in Cutting Hall Auditorium. It adjoins the two-story South Dorm and Cafeteria forming a stately adobe complex.

Information on the Association and the previous conferences can be found at: http://www.adobeasw.com/

Call for Papers Schedule:

December 15, 2006: Abstracts due. One page, 8-1/2 x11, maximum
January 5, 2007: Notification of acceptance
February 23, 2007: Full paper due. (7-page maximum including graphics)

Presenters will have 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes to answer questions. Time limits will be carefully monitored. The host institution can handle 2×2 slides in Carousels, digital presentation files, DVD, VHS and overheads.

Submit abstracts to:
Quentin Wilson, Speakers Committee
PO Box 426, El Rito, NM 87530
505-581-4130 fax
or qwilson@mail.nnmc.edu as an attachment in .txt, .doc (msword) or .pdf format or email body or printed on paper.

Final papers for publication consideration must be in .pdf or .doc formats. Conference Languages: English and Spanish

Topics of special interest are:

Affordable adobe construction
Thermal properties of earthen materials
Physical properties of earthen materials including seismic considerations
Historical buildings of note
Historical builders, developers, architects or designers worldwide
New projects: architecture, adobe art and design
Adobe education
Manufacture and supply of adobe and related construction materials

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Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide

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Cob building uses a simple mixture of clay subsoil, aggregate, straw, and water to create solid structural walls, built without shuttering or forms, on a stone plinth. This ancient practice has been used throughout Britain for centuries – in fact, the material is so strong and durable that it is currently in use for forty-five thousand houses in Cornwall, a county in southern England. Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide, by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce, covers everything from design, planning, and siting to roofs, insulation, and floors. It is lavishly illustrated with more than three hundred inspirational color photographs. The authors have recently been commissioned to build a thirty-classroom school in England in 2006; it will be the largest new cob construction project in the Western hemisphere.

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Rammed Earth in Spain Videos

Via google video, videographer Paul Jaquin has ammassed a collection of videos of rammed earth in spain. Read synopsis and watch the videos by clicking below:

Rammed earth at Lorca castle, a tour of the outside of the building, and a view across the valley.

Rammed earth wall at Palma del Rio in southern Spain. Constructed around 1171, and probably 6m high.

Conclusive proof that some rammed earth is absolutely fine in the rain. Here a castle at Alcala de Guadaira is observed in the middle of a rainstrorm with no detrimental effect to the fabric of the wall.

A video tour of Banos de la Encina castle, built in 967 from rammed earth.

Rammed earth wall at Novelda in southern Spain. This is a view inside a hole in the wall, proving that rammed earth can provide some arching or tensile action. Novelda castle was built around 1171 duringthe Almohad dynasty in Spain.

A tour of the inside of Villena castle in southern Spain. Constructed in rammed earth in 1172, it is a very well preserved rammed earth castle.

Rammed earth wall in Cordoba.

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Quake Safe

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Quake Safe is a frame made from string, bamboo and wire, which can be either retrofitted into an existing adobe (mud brick) house or incorporated into a new house as it’s being built, in order to give it a much higher level of structural protection against earthquakes. The invention was created by Faculty of Engineering Ph.D Student at the University of Technology in Sydney, Dominic Dowling.

The frame is designed to be affordable to people who live in adobe houses, particularly the poorer rural communities of Central America.

[ interview | video ]

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Association La Voute Nubienne

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Population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, together with increasing desertification and regression of forested areas, means that the use of timber in traditional building techniques is no longer feasible and the alternative of using corrugated iron is expensive and thermally and acoustically problematic. The Association La Voute Nubienne’s primary objective is to persuade people to use the Nubian Vault technique as a valid alternative to traditional building methods in rural areas of Burkina Faso and neighboring countries of the Sahel. Using a simplified and codified adaptation of the classic Nubian vault technique which Hassan Fathy brought back into the public eye in the 1940’s. Thus far, some 200 vaults have been built in Burkina Faso, including a church and a mosque, and some two-story buildings, and over 40 builders have ben trained in the technique.

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Design Like You Give a Damn

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Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, is a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives. The first book to bring the best of humanitarian architecture and design to the printed page, Design Like You Give a Damn offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design and showcases more than 80 contemporary solutions to such urgent needs as basic shelter, health care, education, and access to clean water, energy, and sanitation. Among these projects you will find several built of some of the many earth construction techniques.