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Adobe wall (detail) in Bahillo, Palencia, Spain Renewal of the surface coating of an adobe wall in Chamisal, New Mexico Adobe walls separate urban gardens in Shiraz, Iran. Adobe (/ ə ˈ d oʊ b i / ⓘ ə-DOH-bee; [1] Spanish pronunciation:) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. Adobe is Spanish for mudbrick.
These sun dried mudbricks, also known as adobe or just mudbrick, were made from a mixture of sand, clay, water and frequently tempered (e.g. chopped straw and chaff branches), and were the most common method/material for constructing earthen buildings throughout the ancient Near East for millennia.
Likewise, while sand, cement, or lime are preferred, virtually any fill material (e.g. gravel, crushed volcanic rock, or rice hulls) will work. After materials are gathered and the dimensions of the building are decided upon, a circular foundation trench is dug, approximately 1 foot deep and 8–14 feet in diameter, giving room for at least two ...
Although alternative building materials are a newer concept, some buildings have already employed these materials, as well as other tactics, in pursuit of greater sustainability. One such example is the School of Art, Media, and Design located in Singapore. This school has a roof made completely of grass (an example of Earth-sheltering). [4]
Old adobe minaret in Kharanagh village, Iran Earthen hut with thatched roof in Toteil, near Kassala, Sudan. An earth structure is a building or other structure made largely from soil. Since soil is a widely available material, it has been used in construction since prehistory. It may be combined with other materials, compressed and/or baked to ...
The chief building material was the mud-brick, formed in wooden moulds similar to those used to make adobe bricks. Bricks varied widely in size and format from small bricks that could be lifted in one hand to ones as big as large paving slabs. Rectangular and square bricks were both common.
The earth used for building ceramic houses is essentially a type of adobe with a higher clay content and fewer impurities. The earth and water are mixed until the substance has "the consistency of bread dough" [3] The clay/earth mixture is worked into forms, and the blocks dry over a period of one to two weeks.
An earthen floor. An earthen floor, also called an adobe floor, is a floor made of dirt, raw earth, or other unworked ground materials. It is usually constructed, in modern times, with a mixture of sand, finely chopped straw and clay, mixed to a thickened consistency and spread with a trowel on a sub-surface such as concrete.