Bioconstructions
Easy and low impact to build, long standing and really affordable!
Earth
our main material for the mortar
A few details
About adobe constructions
Adobe is a building material made from earth and often organic material. Adobe means mudbrick in Spanish, but in some English speaking regions of Spanish heritage it refers to any kind of earth construction, as most adobe buildings are similar in appearance to cob and rammed earth buildings.
Adobe is among the earliest building materials, and is used throughout the world.
In dry climates, adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. Adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to earthquake damage if they are not somehow reinforced.
Around
the world
Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common throughout the world :
- Middle East,
- Western Asia,
- North Africa,
- West Africa,
- South America,
- southwestern North America,
- Europe
Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andes for several thousand years. Puebloan peoples built their adobe structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to making bricks.
Adobe bricks were used in Spain from the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (eighth century BCE onwards). Its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and manufacture, and economics.
A few details
About earth-bag constructions
Superadobe is a form of earth-bag construction that was developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili.
The technique uses layered long fabric tubes, mainly woven Polypropylene, or bags filled with adobe, also known as soil, to form a compression structure.
The resulting structures employs gothic arches, corbelled domes, and vaults to create single and double-curved shells that are strong and aesthetically pleasing. It has received growing interest for the past two decades in the natural building and sustainability movements.
So
Basically
Earth-bag construction is an inexpensive method to create structures which are both strong and can be quickly built by unskilled people. Only one of a 4 people team need to know how it works.
It is a natural building technique that evolved from historic military bunker construction techniques and temporary flood-control dike building methods to now be used in varied forms such as, but not limited to, garden terrasses, rocket stoves or family houses.
It all started in
Hesperia, USA
This is where Nader Khalili, the initial architect, started Cal-Earth institute, his playground for Earth-bag constructions.
He built there a whole village and lots of prototypes.
Less than
30 years later
We can find Earth-bag constructions all around the glode, like in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Namibia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Tanzania, France, Spain, Portugal, Nepal, India and many more…
How we use the 4 elements
and Rumi
Air
used to dry the mortar.
Water
used to moist the mortar.
Fire
used to manufacture the bags and the barbed wire.
Rumi
inspiration!
45
countries listed
10 000 000 +
meters of PP bags layed
Thousands
of pairs of hand to help
48
exhausted cement mixers
A few details
Project Description
Permadomia’s mission is to spread the word about Earth-bag construction.
For that, our team is ready to go to the most secluded places, as well as the most crowded ones to teach, to show and to develop the technique.
Private constructions for individuals or communities can as well be designed, and built with Permadomia’s training and under its supervisions.
How we solved it
Our approach
We believe the best way to learn is to practice.
Our workshops are conducted by skilled instructors and theorical classes are taught in addition to practicals.
During those practicals, the participant will learn how to handle the bag, place the barbed wire and tamp the layer as well as the mortar composition and basic training on how to handle the compass.
While the theorical classes will focus on more detailed aspects of designing ( like soil composition, geometry, structural design,…)
You’ll find more informations on each workshop page with the detailed program and schedule.
You want to learn more about earth-bag constructions?
A few details
about bamboo constructions
Bamboo can be utilized as a building material as for scaffolding, bridges and houses. Bamboo, like true wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures.
Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.
Bamboos are some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow about 90cm within a 24-hour period, at a rate of 1 millimeter every 2 minutes.
Around
the world
In its natural form, bamboo as a construction material is traditionally associated with the cultures of South Asia, East Asia and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America.
In China and India, bamboo was used to hold up simple suspension bridges, either by making cables of split bamboo or twisting whole culms of sufficiently pliable bamboo together.
One such bridge in the area of Qian-Xian is referenced in writings dating back to 960 AD and may have stood since as far back as the third century BC, due largely to continuous maintenance.
Bamboo has also long been used as scaffolding; the practice has been banned in China for buildings over six stories, but is still in continuous use for skyscrapers in Hong Kong.
In Japanese architecture, bamboo is used primarily as a supplemental and/or decorative element in buildings such as fencing, fountains, grates and gutters, largely due to the ready abundance of quality timber.
Bamboo can be cut and laminated into sheets and planks. This process involves cutting stalks into thin strips, planing them flat, and boiling and drying the strips; they are then glued, pressed and finished.
Bamboo intended for use in construction should be treated to resist insects and rot. The most common solution for this purpose is a mixture of borax and boric acid. Another process involves boiling cut bamboo to remove the starches that attract insects.
Several institutes, businesses, and universities are researching the use of bamboo as an ecological construction material. In the United States and France, it is possible to get houses made entirely of bamboo, which are earthquake- and cyclone-resistant and internationally certified. There are three ISO standards for bamboo as a construction material.
This post is also available in: French