From Rammed Earth is for Everyone, examples of rammed earth in Tibet, India and Israel.
Chairman Mao
The childhood residence of Mao Zedong is situated in Shangwuchang of Shaoshanchong. On December 26, 1893, Chairman Mao was born in a simple mud-brick farmhouse, which has 13 rooms in the village of Shangwuchang of Shaoshanchong. Here, Mao spent his childhood and youth, attending school and helped his father with his work.
Mud Brick Industry In India
Approximately 58% of all buildings in India are mud brick and a growing construction boom in India, coupled the inability for peasants to support themselves by farming is luring residents from the country side into the brick making business. However, hand made mud bricks are now often dried and fired in inefficient coal fueled kilns that make the work dangerous and pollute the environment consuming 200 tons of coal for every million bricks they produce. NY Times
Photo by J. Adam Huggins for The New York Times
Laurie Baker, 1917-2007
Lawrence Wilfred “Laurie” Baker (March 2, 1917 – April 1, 2007) was an award-winning English architect, renowned for his initiatives in low-cost housing by using traditional techniques, materials and crafts such as mud and thatch. He went to India in 1945 in part as a missionary and since then lived and worked in India for over 50 years. He obtained Indian citizenship in 1989 and resided in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala. In 1990, the Government of India awarded him with the Padma Shri, the nation’s fourth highest civilian award, in recognition of his meritorious service in the field of architecture.
“You can’t get more sustainable or renewable a resource than mud, and Baker is its champion. Approximately 58 percent of all buildings in India today are made of mud brick, some as many as 50 to 100 years old. Mud is gathered either at the construction site or very nearby, formed into bricks and dried in the sun. It is readily available and can be made by people with limited initial training—all resulting in projects that can be built at a fraction of the cost of those using concrete and steel. Baker is especially fond of mud’s total recycle-ability: simply add water and reuse it.”
– Farewell Laurie Baker
Links: Of Mud and Men: Architecture as a Political Act | Of Architectural Truths and Lies | Laurie Baker’s Creative Journey | Mud: Laurie Baker
The Rammed Earth House Project
This rammed earth house project, located in Kobe, Japan, and built on the grounds of Kobe University, is one of the rare examples of rammed earth in the country. Japanese language web site.
[ Download a pdf of the project ]
Abari
Abari is a not-for-profit organization that examines, encourages, and celebrates the vernacular architectural tradition of Nepal. Much of that tradition includes the use of mud brick as seen traditionally in Eastern Kathmandu and in their recent Gobi Adobe project.
2007 International Symposium on Earthen Structures
The 2007 International Symposium on Earthen Structures will take place August 22-24, 2007 in Bangalore, India. The conference is jointly organized by the Department of Civil Engineering and Center for Sustainable Technologies at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India, the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, U.K. and the Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de L’Etate, Lyon, France. Form more information, download the conference brief.
Experimental House
Tokyo-based Loco Architects won a national Japanese competition for a concept house which aims to impinge as little as possible on the environment. When the house becomes redundant, its rammed earth walls can simply be demolished and returned to the ground. The project received mention in the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture.
Rammed Earth South Korea
Rammed Earth South Korea is a new blog with some curious rammed earth sculptures.
Handmade School
Architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag from Linz and Berlin have realized a beautiful school that is a recipient of The Architectural Review Awards for Emerging Architecture.
Refining the local technique of using very wet loam to build walls, the school has a brick foundation, a damp proof course, and walls made of a mixture of loam and straw, the latter acting as a form of reinforcement. The loam and straw are combined by getting cows and water buffalo to tread them in. The ‘Wellerbau’ technique employed here involves building a 700mm high wall layer, leaving it to dry for two days, and trimming off with a spade. A further drying period is followed by the addition of the next layer.
For more information, visit: METI Handmade School.