Building with Earth: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture

✍ Scribed by Gernot Minke

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 208
• Edition: 3rd rev. ed.
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The successful manual on rammed earth

For a number of years, the healthy and environment-friendly building material earth, in common use for thousands of years, has been enjoying increasing popularity, including in industrialized nations. In hot dry and temperate climate zones, earth offers numerous advantages over other materials. Its particular texture and composition also holds great aesthetic appeal.

The second and revised edition of this handbook offers a practical systematic overview of the many uses of earth and techniques for processing it. Its properties and physical characteristics are described in informed and knowledgeable detail.

The author’s presentation reflects the rich and varied experiences gained over thirty years of building earth structures all over the world. Numerous photographs of construction sites and drawings show the concrete execution of earth architecture.

 

Prof. Dr. Gernot Minke is a professor at Universität Kassel, where he leads the Forschungslabor für Experimentelles Bauen. He has long concerned himself with developments in ecological building, and he has dealt with the building material clay in theory and practice since 1977. His book Building with Straw was also published by Birkhäuser.

• Documentation of 30 international earth buildings
• The characteristics of the building material earth and its applications in modern architecture

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
1 Introduction
History
Earth as a building material: the essentials
Improving indoor climate
Prejudices against earth as a building material
2 The properties of earth as a building material
Composition
Tests used to analyse the composition of loam
Effects of water
Effects of vapour
Influence of heat
Strength
pH-value
Radioactivity
Shelter against high-frequency electromagnetic radiation
3 Preparing of loam
Soaking, crushing and mixing
Sieving
Mechanical slurrying
Water curing
Thinning
4 Improving the earth’s characteristics by special treatment or additives
Reduction of shrinkage cracks
Stabilisation against water erosion
Enhancement of binding force
Increasing compressive strength
Strength against abrasion
Increasing thermal insulation
5 Rammed earthworks
Formwork
Tools
Method of construction
Shaping of openings
New wall construction techniques
Rammed earth domes
Drying
Labour input
Thermal insulation
Surface treatment
6 Working with earth blocks
History
Production of earth blocks
Material composition
Laying earth blocks
Surface treatment
Fixing fasteners to walls
Lightweight loam blocks
Special acoustic green bricks
7 Large blocks and prefabricated panels
Large blocks
Prefabricated wall panels
Floor slabs
Floor tiles
Extruded loam slabs
8 Direct forming with wet loam
Traditional wet loam techniques
The “Dünne loam loaf” technique
The stranglehm technique
9 Wet loam infill in skeleton structures
Thrown loam
Sprayed loam
Rolls and bottles of straw loam
Lightweight loam infill
Infill with stranglehm and earth-filled hoses
Sprayed loam in steel-reinforced walls and ceilings
10 Tamped, poured or pumped lightweight loam
Formwork
Tamped lightweight straw loam walls
Tamped lightweight wood loam walls
Tamped, poured or pumped lightweight mineral loam walls
Pumped lightweight mineral loam floors
Loam-filled hollow blocks
Loam-filled hoses
11 Loam plasters
Preparation of ground
Composition of loam plaster
Guidelines for plastering earth walls
Sprayed plaster
Lightweight mineral loam plaster
Thrown plaster
Plastered straw bale houses
Wet formed plaster
Protection of corners
Stabillised loam plasters
Characteristics of different loam plasters
12 Weather protection of loam surfaces
Consolidating the surface
Paints
Making surfaces water-repellent
Lime plasters
Shingles, planks and other covers
Structural methods
13 Repair of loam components
The occurrence of damage in loam components
Repair of cracks and joints with loam fillers
Repair of cracks and joints with other fillers
Repairing larger areas of damage
Retrofitting thermal insulation with lightweight loam
14 Designs of particular building elements
Joints
Particular wall designs
Intermediate floors
Rammed earth floorings
Inclined roofs filled with lightweight loam
Earth-covered roofs
Earth block vaults and domes
Earthen storage wall in winter gardens
Loam in bathrooms
Built-in furniture and sanitary objects from loam
Wall heating systems
Passive solar wall heating system
15 Earthquake-resistant building
Structural measures
Openings for doors and windows
Bamboo-reinforced rammed earth walls
Steel-reinforced spayed loam walls
Steel-reinforced adobe wall system
Domes
Vaults
Textile walls with loam infill
Steel-reinforced earth walls
16 Built examples
Residences
Two semi-detached houses, Kassel, Germany
Residence cum office, Kassel, Germany
Residence, Palo Alto, California, USA
Weekend house, Ajijic, Mexico
Residence, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Residence and studio, Gallina Canyon, New Mexico, USA
Low compound, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
Residence, Des Montes, near Taos, New Mexico, USA
Casita Nuaanarpoq, Taos, New Mexico, USA
Residence and office, Bowen Mountain, New South Wales, Australia
Vineyard residence, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
Residence, Helensville, New Zealand
Residence, Merrijig, Victoria, Australia
Farmhouse, Wazirpur, India
Residence, Santiago, Chile
Cultural, Educational and Sacred Buildings
Kindergarten, Sorsum, Germany
School, Rudrapur, Bangladesh
Kindergarten and nursery of Druk White Lotus School, Ladakh, India
Youth centre at Spandau, Berlin, Germany
National Environment Centre at Thurgoona Campus, Albury, New South Wales, Australia
WISE Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynleth, Wales, Great Britain
Chapel of the central clinic, Suhl, Germany
Chapel of Reconciliation, Berlin, Germany
Center of Gravity Foundation Hall, Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA
School, Solvig, Järna, Sweden
Commercial and Hospitality Buildings
Rivergreen Centre, Aykley Heads, Durham, Great Britain
Printing plant, Pielach, Austria
Office building, Santiago, Chile
Feng shui office building, Suhl, Germany
High Country Visitor Information Centre, Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
Twelve Apostles Visitor Amenity Building, Port Campbell, Victoria, Australia
Mii Amo Spa, Sedona, Arizona, USA
Bibliographical references
Illustration credits
Acknowledgements