Adobe Category Posts
Adobe, Cob and Bamboo
The work in Janakpur had stalled for various political reasons, one being kidnapping of our overseer. Well! That all seem pretty normal these days. Anyways, the villagers put all their effort to resume the work. It just heartbreaking to see, how much love and effort people have put into this project. We not only see work in Harsar as our seminal work because we have an opportunity to try out different construction methodologies like rammed earth, stablized earth blocks, adobe and cob but the social aspect of working with the community has just priceless.
This is a section of a wall with a high stone plinth and foundation, two layers of burnt bricks, adobe wall for thermal mass vertical and horizonatal bamboo reinforcement against earthquake which are all topped off with cob wall for a better adobe and bamboo connection.
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Brickmaker in Nepal
Please click on the above picture to see an adobe brickmaker in action. These people have been making bricks for generation. They can make upto 500 bricks a day. Its ironic they make so many sun dried bricks in a day yet its hard to buy the bricks , its because all these bricks are later burnt in a kiln. Since burnt bricks are more expensive then the sun dried bricks (almost 1000% more), brickmakers are reluctant to see them. Sun dried bricks alone, are unfortunately not used in construction anymore. Burnt bricks consume lots of energy to make and obviously during the process they produce lots of smoke. Furthermore, heat retaining capacity of clay die out when they are burnt. So the sun dried bricks are better thermally and ecologically then the burnt bricks.
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Adobe Interior
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Reddobe
This is an example from a house in Panauti, the inner wall is adobe and the outer wall is kiln burnt bricks. Interesting thing about this areas is the use of red mud mortar. Red mud (Rato Mato), in the other parts of the country, is used as plaster but here it is used as mortar. The million dollar question is why is red mud not used to make bricks?
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Update
Here is the update on the pati (public space) in Thimi. Anyone interested on visiting the sitecan contact us. The walls and pillars are up. Next step is the roof. The technique is purely traditional, they have not used any nails. The mortar is mud. The wood is carved in the site itself. One of the most expensive materials in this construction is wood which runs about Rs. 1200 (16$) per cubic feet. We'd like to build another one using bamboos, which'd cost about Rs. 20 (.30cents) per cubic feet.
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Bricks the Nepali way
Our Nepali adobe walls can go upto 36 inches in thickness. Usually in the Kathmandu region the outer most part is built with burnt bricks, that is mostly for the protection against rain. The bricks are angular in shape (see the above picture) where the inner portion gets more mud mortar then the outer portion. And from outside you see very little or no mud at all. Isn't that a neat idea against the excessive monsoon rain?
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Gobidobe
One and half years after its construction, we have just heard our Gobi Dome is functioning perfectly well!! Our family were perfectly warm and happy in it. With the financial help from the New Zealand Nature Institute, we reintroduced adobe in Mongolia. The introduction of the dome technique was our additional gift to the wonderful people of Bayenlig, Gobi.
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