Category: MATERIAL TECHNOLOGIES

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The Mud Tub

The Mud Tub, by Tom Gerhardt, is an experimental organic interface that allows people to control a computer while playing in the mud. By sloshing, squishing, pulling, punching, etc, in a tub of mud (yes, wet dirt), users control games, simulators, and expressive tools; interacting with a computer in a new, completely organic, way. Born out of a motivation to close the gap between our bodies and the digital world, the Mud Tub frees the traditional computer interaction model of it’s rigidity, allowing humans to use their highly developed sense of touch, and creative thinking skills in a more natural way.

Could building architecture with mud coincide control 3D printers producing earth buildings while being powered by the mud itself?

Here, Matt Parker’s Lumarca and Tom Gerhardt’s Mud Tub join forces to make some cool interactions happen.

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Watertower Skyscraper

The conflict over water and land in Sudan has created political unrest for decades. However, in 2007, scientists from Boston University discovered and underground lake in the region of Darfur, Sudan. This lake is tenth biggest lake in the world (31, 000 m2) and would have great potential in resolving the conflict if managed correctly. Addressing this water issue, Polish architect Hugon Kowalski from H3AR Architect and Design recently proposed a building that allows access to underground waters through the application of water pumps. The form of the building was inspired by a water tower and also by the symbol of the African savanna—the baobab. The building houses water pumps, a treatment plant but also a hospital, a school and a food storage center. This building is meant to provoke economical development but also stimulate cultural exchange and the coexistence of the three different religions and languages in Sudan.

The building walls are constructed using compressed dry stacked clay bricks, made on site using a rough mixture of earth, cement and water. The bricks would be baked in the hot sun, thus, requiring no extra energy and limiting the environmental impact of the materials. The choice of using this technology represents the desire to introduce alternative and sustainable technologies within a context that is tied to standardized though not always optimal building practice.

Two water circulation processes would be in place. First set of extracted water is meant to heat or cool the building, and is accessible to the users. Second, set of extracted water is used for the building itself (i.e. kitchen, toilets).

More at designboom.com

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Villa Jasmin

The Villa Jasmin was designed by Moroccan architect Elie Mouyal and ADAMA Building & Architecture Ltd. The walls are constructed of load bearing rammed earth with fired vaulted adobe brickwork ceilings.The house is named after the mediterranean flower, and represents a neo-traditional style of architecture that reflects influences from the bizanthine, nubian, greco-roman and moorish styles.

The house is build around a patio that has a south aperture. The patio is the center of the house and the center of the patio has a flat fountain that is an allusion to water source of life. Walls are contructed of stabilized rammed earth in compliance with australian standard that reach high strength of near 2200 psi with 5 % of cement content.

The ceilings employ the nubian technique for laying bricks without need of forms that reduce timber use to minimum. Bricks are layed with mortar in circular or curved patterns each row laying on the previous with continuous care on stability, transfering thrust to the walls. The pointed arched vaults employ a corbelled coursing of the bricks, alleviating the use of scafoling.

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Earth Houses for Gaza Homeless

Gaza’s scars have been frozen in place since Israel waged war a year ago to subdue Hamas and stop rockets from hitting its towns. Entire neighborhoods still lie in rubble, and traumatized residents can’t rebuild their lives. A three-year-old blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt makes any large-scale rebuilding impossible, because the embargo includes steel and concrete. As we reported previously, the Israeli siege has led ingenious Palestinians to build homes with mud brick. Furthermore, soil excavated from tunnels used to smuggle goods from Egypt has been used in the manufacture of mud bricks.

Now the United Nations is constructing compressed earth block homes to assist with the homelessness caused by the destruction and the siege. The first phase of the project calls for the construction of 120 homes at a cost of 12,000 to 15,000 dollars (8,000 to 10,000 euros) each with funding from Kuwait and the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates. The agency is training workers to make the mud bricks at its headquarters and hopes to provide dozens of jobs in the territory where more than 80 percent of the population relies on foreign aid.

The houses are made of local materials in an ancient technique, compressed mud bricks, wooden window frames and a domed roof that does not require steel. The main U.N. aid agency has ordered 120 such Arabesque-style homes with graceful arches as shelters for the displaced.

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A School that Bridges Between Tolou Castles

The Tolou clan homes in the Fujian Province are large, circular rammed earth mini-castles constructed from the 11th to 20th centuries. Architect Li Xiaodong has completed a school in Fujian, China, which forms a bridge over a creek between two castles.

While the bridge is not constructed of earth, it represents work that literally bridges between the languages of non-industrial and industrial societies and the relationships between earth buildings and industrial materials.

The bridge/school is constructed of steel, wood and concrete and the material palette complements the stone and rammed earth clan houses. The transparency of the bridge’s cladding is also in contrast to the impenetrable fortress clan houses.

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MUMEMO

Mumemo is a blog about a training course carried out in Mumemo (Maputo, Mozambique) on earth construction by two Portuguese architects, Miguel Mendes and Teresa Beirao, during May and August 2006. The project was created for the inhabitants of a new village, created as a resettlement for the victims of the massive floods in the year 2000. The course gave students a wide and solid knowledge about earthen construction and three main techniques (rammed earth, adobe, compressed earth blocs) as well as provided them with the ability to direct similar courses in other communities. During the course, a small 50m2 house was built.

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EarthCo Megablock™

The EarthCo Megablock™ is a construction delivery system that combines onsite manufacturing with a simple and efficient mechanical placement. The system converts local soils into giant modular building blocks—a small block can measure 18” wide by 12” tall is over 14 feet long and weighs more than 1 ton.


Example of an compressed and extruded Megablock™

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Earthquake Resistant Housing

Specialist earth builder, President of the Earth Building Association of Australia, and guest researcher in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Peter Hickson, has combined one the world’s most ancient building techniques, “cob” construction, with modern engineering methods to develop a model house as part of an effort to createlow cost earthquake resistant housing for millions of people around the world. Hickson’s house introduces many new technologies, but what makes his system unique structurally is the addition of internalbamboo reinforcing and the use of structural diaphragms. Read more about Hickson’s research.