Adobe bricks are a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous material (sticks, straw, dung), which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. A natural building involves a range of Building systems and materials that place major emphasis on Sustainability. Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Straw is an agricultural By-product, the dry stalk of a Cereal plant after the Grain or Seed has been removed It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Cob is a Building material consisting of Clay, Sand, Straw, water and earth, similar to Adobe. A mudbrick is a firefree Brick made of Clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for the oldest extant buildings on the planet. In hot climates, compared to wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of
Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in the Middle East, North Africa, south America, southwestern North America, and in Spain (usually in the Mudéjar style). Mudéjar is the name given to the Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus, who remained in Christian territory after the Reconquista but were 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. This method of brickmaking was imported to Spain in the 16th century by Spaniards who had traveled to Mexico and Peru.
A distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines, some of which are as much as from one to two yards (2 m) long.
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Etymology
The word adobe ([əˈdəʊbiː] or [əˈdoʊbi]) has come to us over some 4000 years with little change in either pronunciation or meaning: the word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. Middle Egyptian is the typical form of the Egyptian spoken from 2000 BC to 1300 BC (after Old Egyptian and before Late Egyptian) 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud [i. e. , sun-dried] brick. " As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. Late Egyptian is the stage of the Egyptian language that began to be written in the New Kingdom around the Amarna period. Demotic (from δημοτικός dēmotikós, "popular" refers to either the Ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of Hieratic Coptic or Coptic Egyptian ( MetRemenkīmi) is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "[mud] brick. " This evolved into Arabic at-tub (al "the" + tub "brick") "[mud] brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe [aˈdobe], still with the meaning "mud brick. Old Spanish, or Old Castilian, is an early form of the Spanish language that was spoken from 10th Century until 15th Century, before the consonantic " English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.
In more modern English usage, the term "adobe" has come to include a style of architecture that is popular in the desert climates of North America, especially in New Mexico. Santa Fe ( Navajo: Yootó is the Capital of the state of New Mexico. A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. Climate encompasses the temperatures humidity rainfall atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorogical factors in a given region over long periods of New Mexico ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. (Compare with stucco). Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water
Composition of adobe
An adobe brick is made of clay mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung. The soil composition typically contains clay and sand. Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles Straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly. Dung offers the same advantage and is also added to repel insects. The mixture is roughly half sand (50%), one-third clay (35%), and one-sixth straw (15%).
Adobe bricks
Bricks are made in an open frame, 25 cm (10 inches) by 36 cm (14 inches) being a reasonable size, but any convenient size is acceptable. Milyanfan (Милянфан Милянфан Милёнчуан 米粮川 Miliangchuan is a Village in the Ysyk-Ata District of the Chuy Province Kyrgyzstan (ˈkɻ̩gɪztɑn (AmE or /'kɝgəztan/ (BrE Kyrgyz: Кыргызстан; Russian: Киргизия or Киргизстан or Кыргызстан The mixture is molded by the frame, and then the frame is removed quickly. After drying a few hours, the bricks are turned on edge to finish drying. Slow drying in shade reduces cracking.
The same mixture to make bricks, without the straw, is used for mortar and often for plaster on interior and exterior walls. Some ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect against rain damage.
The brick’s thickness is preferred partially due to its thermal capabilities, and partially due to the stability of a thicker brick versus a more standard size brick. Depending on the form that the mixture is pressed into, adobe can encompass nearly any shape or size, provided drying time is even and the mixture includes reinforcement for larger bricks. Reinforcement can include manure, straw, cement, rebar or wooden posts. In the most general sense of the word a cement is a binder a substance which sets and hardens independently and can bind other materials together A rebar, or reinforcing bar, is a common Steel bar and is commonly used in Reinforced concrete and reinforced Masonry structures Experience has shown that straw, cement, or manure added to a standard adobe mixture can all produce a strong brick. A general testing is done on the soil content first. To do so, a sample of the soil is mixed into a clear container with some water, creating an almost completely saturated liquid. After the jar is sealed the container is shaken vigorously for at least one minute. It is then allowed to sit on a flat surface until the soil sediment has either collected on the bottom or remained a blended liquid. If the sediment collects on the bottom, that indicates there is a high clay content and is good for adobe. If the mixture remains a liquid, then there is little clay in the soil and using it would yield weak bricks.
The largest structure ever made from adobe (bricks) was the Bam Citadel, which suffered serious damage (up to 80%) by an earthquake on December 26, 2003. The Arg-é Bam ( ارگ بم in Persian, " Bam citadel" was the largest Adobe building in the world located in Bam, a city Events 1481 - Battle of Westbrook - Holland defeats troops of Utrecht. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Other large adobe structures are the Huaca del Sol in Peru, with 100 million signed bricks, the ciudellas of Chan Chan and Tambo Colorado, both in Peru. The Huaca del Sol is an Adobe brick temple built by the Moche civilization on the coast of what is now Peru. Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. for other uses see Chan Chan (disambiguation The largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan is an archaeological Tambo Colorado is a well-preserved Inca Adobe complex on the coast of Peru also know as Puka Tampu, Pucallacta or Pucahuasi
Thermal properties
An adobe wall can serve as a significant heat reservoir. A south-facing (in the Northern Hemisphere) adobe wall may be left uninsulated to moderate heating and cooling. Ideally, it should be thick enough to remain cool on the inside during the heat of the day but thin enough to transfer heat through the wall during the evening. The exterior of such a wall can be covered with glass to increase heat collection. In a passive solar home, this is called a Trombe wall. Passive solar buildings aim to maintain interior Thermal comfort throughout the sun's daily and annual cycles whilst reducing the requirement for active heating and cooling A Trombe wall is a sun-facing Wall built from material that can act as a Thermal mass (such as stone, Metal, Concrete, Adobe Adobe has a relatively dense thermal mass, and is most useful in tropical climates. In temperate climates it is less effective to heat a structure this way due to heat leaching by the ground and walls.
Adobe wall construction
When building an adobe structure, the ground should be compressed because the weight of adobe bricks is significantly greater than a frame house and may cause cracking in the wall. The footing is dug and compressed once again. Footing depth depends on the region and its ground frost level. The footing and stem wall are commonly 24" and 14", much larger than a frame house because of the weight of the walls. Adobe bricks are laid by course. Each course is laid the whole length of the wall, overlapping at the corners on a layer of adobe mortar. course is a continuous horizontal layer of similarly-sized building material one unit high usually in a wall Adobe walls usually never rise above 2 stories because they're load bearing and have low structural strength. When placing window and door openings, a lintel is placed on top of the opening to support the bricks above. For lintel as a decorative element see Lintel (architecture For beam as load-bearing member see beam Within the last courses of brick, bond beams are laid across the top of the bricks to provide a horizontal bearing plate for the roof to distribute the weight more evenly along the wall. To protect the interior and exterior adobe wall, finishes can be applied, such as mud plaster, whitewash or stucco. These finishes protect the adobe wall from water damage, but need to be reapplied periodically, or the walls can be finished with other nontraditional plasters providing longer protection.
Adobe roof
The traditional adobe roof has been generally constructed using a mixture of soil/clay, water, sand, and other available organic materials. The mixture was then formed and pressed into wood forms producing rows of dried, earth bricks that would then be laid across a support structure of wood and plastered into place with more adobe. For a deeper understanding of adobe, one might examine a cob building. Cob, a close cousin to adobe, contains proportioned amounts of soil, clay, water, manure, and straw. Cob is a Building material consisting of Clay, Sand, Straw, water and earth, similar to Adobe. This is blended, but not formed like adobe. Cob is spread and piled around a frame and allowed to air dry for several months before habitation. Adobe, then, can be described as dried bricks of cob, stacked and mortared together with more adobe mixture to create a thick wall and/or roof.
Roof materials
Depending on the materials available, a roof can be assembled using lengths of wood or metal to create a frame work to begin layering adobe bricks. Depending on the thickness of the adobe bricks, the frame work has been performed using a steel framing and a layering of a metal fencing or wiring over the framework to allow an even load as masses of adobe are spread across the metal fencing like cob and allowed to air dry accordingly. This method was demonstrated with an adobe blend heavily impregnated with cement to allow even drying and prevent major cracking.
Traditional adobe roof
More traditional adobe roofs were often flatter than the familiar steeped roof as the native climate yielded more sun and heat than mass amounts of snow or rain that would find use in precipitous roofs. Moisture, however, is often foe to a composite of mud and organic matter, so the introduction of cement is often more common to help ward off any undue water damage. It is at this turn that sense is required before the construction of any adobe is begun, be sure that the location for such a structure is similar to the climate it naturally comes from, that is, a hot, arid climate. Cool and moist climates would do well with moisture precautions planned out.
Raising a traditional adobe roof
To raise a flattened adobe roof, beams of wood or metal should be assembled and span the extent of the building. The ends of the beams should then be fixed to the tops of the walls using the builder’s preferred choice of attachments. Taking into account the material the beams and walls are made from, choosing the attachments may prove difficult. In combination to the bricks and adobe mortar that are laid across the beams creates an even load-bearing pressure that can last for many years depending on attrition. Once the beams are laid across the building, it is then time to begin the placing of adobe bricks to create the roof. An adobe roof is often laid with bricks slightly larger in width to ensure a larger expanse is covered when placing the bricks onto the beams. This wider shape also provides the future homeowner with thermal protection enough to stabilize an even temperature through out the year. Following each individual brick should be a layer of adobe mortar, recommended to be at least an inch thick to make certain there is ample strength between the brick’s edges and also to provide a relative moisture barrier during the seasons where the arid climate does produce rain.
Attributes
Adobe roofs can be inherently fire-proof, an attribute well received when the fireplace is kept lit during the cold nights, depending on the materials used. This feature leads the homeowner and builders to begin thinking about the installation of a chimney, a feat regarded as a necessity in any adobe building. The construction of the chimney can also greatly influence the construction of the roof supports, creating an extra need for care in choosing the right materials. An adobe chimney can be made from simple adobe bricks and stacked in similar fashion as the surrounding walls. Basically outline the location and perimeter of the hearth, minding the safety elements common to a fireplace, and begin to stack and mortar the walls with pre-made adobe bricks, cut to size.
Around the world
 Still in production today, Romania's Danube Delta |
 Mixing mud and straw in brick frames |
 Community effort |
 Frame removed and drying |
 Adobe brick house under construction in Kyrgyzstan |
See also
- Great Mosque of Djenné
- Cob (building)
- Hassan Fathy
- Mudbrick
- Rammed Earth
- Super Adobe
- Compressed earth block
- Sod house
External links
- Earth Architecture - A website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania The Danube Delta ( Romanian: Delta Dunării; Ukrainian: Дельта Дунаю Del'ta Dunaju) is the second largest delta Kyrgyzstan (ˈkɻ̩gɪztɑn (AmE or /'kɝgəztan/ (BrE Kyrgyz: Кыргызстан; Russian: Киргизия or Киргизстан or Кыргызстан The Great Mosque of Djenné is the largest Mud brick or Adobe building in the world and is considered by many Architects to be the greatest achievement Cob is a Building material consisting of Clay, Sand, Straw, water and earth, similar to Adobe. Hassan Fathy (1900 &ndash 1989 Arabic: حسن فتحي was a noted Egyptian architect who pioneered Appropriate technology for building in A mudbrick is a firefree Brick made of Clay, or mud mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw Rammed earth, also known as cob, pisé de terre or simply pisé, is a type of construction material Super Adobe is a form of Earthbag Construction that was developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili. Compressed Earth Block often referred to simply as CEB, is a type of manufactured construction material formed in a mechanical press that forms an appropriate mix of dirt non-expansive The sod house or "Soddy" was a corollary to the log cabin during frontier settlement of the United States and Canada.
- Building With Awareness - A detailed how-to DVD video that shows adobe wall construction and their use as thermal mass walls
- Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) has developed a patented system called Superadobe, in which bags filled with stabilized earth are layered with strands of barbed wire to form a structure strong enough to withstand earthquakes, fire and flood.
- '"Kleiwerks'"- International organization recognized for their unique contribution to modern earthen and natural building techniques throughout the world, their focus is on education through hands on experience.
- EARTHA : Earth Architecture and Conservation in East Anglia- British organisation that focuses on the proper maintenance and conservation of earth buildings in a region of the UK that has a long history of building with mud. Very experienced experts are contactable and there are regular demonstrations in the area.
- Kerpic.org - A website on earthen architecture researches stabilized with gypsum.
Dictionary
adobe
-noun
- See also noun adjunctAn unburnt brick dried in the sun
- A house made of adobe brick
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