Construction
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks (using frames) and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. Compared to wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, in hot climates, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to earthquake damage. Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in West Asia, North Africa, West Africa, South America, southwestern North America, Spain (usually in the Mudéjar style), Eastern Europe and East Anglia, particularly Norfolk, known asclay lump. Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of stone are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings. (Also, the Pueblo people built their adobe structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to the making of bricks.) Adobe brickmaking was used in Spain starting by the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the eighth century B.C. on. Its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and manufacture, and the economy of creating it
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe
Cob, cobb or clom (in Wales) is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive. It can be used to create artistic, sculptural forms and has been revived in recent years by the natural building and sustainability movements. In technical building and engineering documents such as the Uniform Building Code, cob may be referred to as an "unburned clay masonry" when used in a structural context. It might also be referred to as an "aggregate" in non-structural contexts, such as a "clay and sand aggregate" or more simply an "organic aggregate," such as where the cob is an insulating filler between pole and beam construction.
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(material)
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cob_(material)
Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth sheltering is popular in modern times among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture, but has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelter. The expression earth-sheltering is a generic term, with the general meaning: A building can be described as earth-sheltered if its external envelope is in contact with a thermally significant volume of soil or substrate (where “thermally significant” means making a functional contribution to the thermal effectiveness of the building in question.) There may be said to be three forms of earth-sheltered building: earth-covered, earth-bunded and subterranean. An earth-sheltered building may be designed to combine some or all of these forms. An earth-covered building is one where the thermally effective element is placed solely on the roof, but is more usually a continuation of the earth-bunding at the unexposed elevations of the building. An earth-bunded building is one where the thermally significant element insulates one or more of the sheltered elevations of the building. The bunding can be partial or total. A subterranean building is one where the thermally significant element insulates all elevations of the building, leaving only the roof exposed; or, if the building is built into an incline, it may be that the roof is covered and only one elevation is left exposed.
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_sheltering
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_sheltering
A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainageand irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is debated. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. Green roofs serve several purposes for a building, such as absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife, and helping to lower urban air temperatures and mitigate the heat island effect. There are two types of green roofs: intensive roofs, which are thicker and can support a wider variety of plants but are heavier and require more maintenance, and extensive roofs, which are covered in a light layer of vegetation and are lighter than an intensive green roof. The term green roof may also be used to indicate roofs that use some form of green technology, such as a cool roof, a roof with solar thermal collectors or photovoltaic panels. Green roofs are also referred to as eco-roofs, oikosteges,vegetated roofs, living roofs, greenroofs and VCWH (Horizontal Vegetated Complex Walls).
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof
A green wall is a wall partially or completely covered with vegetation that includes a growing medium, such as soil. Most green walls also feature an integrated water delivery system. Such walls may be indoors or outside, freestanding or attached to an existing wall, and come in a great variety of sizes. As of 2012, the largest green wall covers 2,700 square meters (29,063 square feet or more than half an acre) and is located at the Los Cabos International Convention Center. Green walls have seen a recent surge in popularity. Of the 61 large-scale outdoor green walls listed in an online database provided by greenroof.com, 80% were constructed in or after 2009 and 93% dated from no later than 2007. While Patrick Blanc is sometimes credited as having developed the concept in the late 1980s, the actual inventor is Stanley Hart White, a Professor of Landscape Architecture who patented a green wall system in 1938.
-Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_wall
-Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_wall
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design or climatic design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it doesn't involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. The key to designing a passive solar building is to best take advantage of the local climate. Elements to be considered include window placement and glazing type, thermal insulation, thermal mass, and shading. Passive solar design techniques can be applied most easily to new buildings, but existing buildings can be adapted or "retrofitted".
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_building#Materials_efficiency
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eco_building#Materials_efficiency
Rammed earth, also known as taipa (Portuguese), tapial (Spanish), and pisé (de terre) (French), is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods. Rammed-earth walls are simple to construct, noncombustible, thermally massive, strong, and durable. They can be labour-intensive to construct without machinery (powered tampers), however, and they are susceptible to water damage if inadequately protected or maintained. Rammed-earth buildings are found on every continent except Antarctica, in a range of environments that includes the temperate and wet regions of northern Europe, semiarid deserts, mountain areas and the tropics. The availability of useful soil and a building design appropriate for local climatic conditions are the factors that favour its use.
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth
Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses bales of straw (commonly wheat, rice, rye and oats straw) as structural elements, building insulation, or both. This construction method is commonly used in natural building or "brown" construction projects. Research has shown that Straw-bale construction is a sustainable method for building, from the stand point of both materials and energy needed for heating and cooling.Advantages of straw-bale construction over conventional building systems include the renewable nature of straw, cost, easy availability, naturally fire-retardant and high insulation value. Disadvantages include susceptibility to rot, difficulty of obtaining insurance coverage, and high space requirements for the straw itself. Research has been done using moisture probes placed within the straw wall in which 7 of 8 locations had moisture contents of less than 20%. This is a moisture level that does not aid in the breakdown of the straw. However, proper construction of the straw-bale wall is important in keeping moisture levels down, just as in the construction of any type of building.
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawbale_house
- Text and Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawbale_house