‘Superadobe’ structures and earth architecture

Hesperia, California | USA 1996

Rammed earth, mud bricks, compressed earth & cob construction are all widely used earth friendly building techniques that are centuries old. They all use earth as their main building material. Earth is abundant & cheap. It has the potential to be a building material for the future. If you want to get a rough idea of the full potential of earth buildings, I highly recommend you check out ‘First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture’ a fantastic documentary showing how common earth buildings have been throughout human history.

It makes perfect sense. There are lots of it. Out of all the natural resources in the world, earth is second only to water in terms of its abundance (it comes at a premium unfortunately).

‘Because of it’s great thermal properties and its wide abundance, earth as a modern building material could become a major sustainable solution for the housing market.’

But in today’s world, earth is a resource that is taken a bit for granted and believed to be valuable mostly as a place to stand and not necessarily as a place to nurture. Some believe that the earth is there only waiting to be exploited (This is something the citizens of Cerro de Pasco, in Peru know all too well…@)

Almost all the common materials we use in architecture today are manufactured versions or super-versions of their original earth counterparts. But as we face many unexpected environmental challenges, oil spills and climate change, there seems to be a sort of desperation trend in architecture that is moving towards embracing these basic natural building materials again.

‘ONE HALF OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION,  3 BILLION PEOPLE ON SIX CONTINENTS, LIVES OR WORKS IN BUILDINGS CONSTRUCTED OF EARTH.’ Eartharchitecture.org

Architect Nader Khalili dug from an unexpected source to propose a possible sustainable solution for housing of the future. He believes that common sandbags and barbwire traditionally used as instruments of war that can easily be turned into material for housing victims of natural and man-made disasters, but also serve as cheap alternatives to housing in general. While working with NASA developing methods for lunar base construction, he summoned these ancient earth friendly building techniques to come up with a practical design that could use the crudest of materials to create efficient, solid earth shelters. With a knowledge of native building techniques from around the world, Khalili produced the structure he has become best known for, the sandbag, or ‘superadobe.’

The building tools and materials are very basic, designed to make the erection of shelters in disaster areas easy for unskilled people with limited resources and almost no manufactured parts

{The Process}

1. Set up the material. It all starts with long, tubular sacks that could be provided by aid agencies, the builders make a mixture of earth stabilized with cement, lime or asphalt emulsion. If none of these is available, then a temporary shelter can still be made using only earth.
2. Stack the bags and start building. The mixture is then poured into the tubes by the bucket until they are full.
3. Starting with the foundation trench, the tubes are then laid one upon the other, and held into place by layers of barbed wire, these keep the bags from slipping.
4. Construct the shape desired. Two basic line compasses are needed to construct the dome at an appropriate angle.
5. Form the openings. Window openings are made using cut pieces of plastic piping, inserted between the layers. Opening can also be made using arches or preformed metal shapes (like recycled car parts, tires, etc..)
6. Apply the external finish. Breathable earth composites and renders can be applied directly or over a reinforcement mesh.

‘To build simple and safe sustainable structures that provide maximum safety with the minimum environmental impact, we must choose natural materials and use a few of these materials as possible to create maximum comfortable space.’

Superadobe Technology is designed by Nader Khalili, engineering by P. .J. Vittore, models of which have been constructed and tested for the City of Hesperia, California, Building and Safety Department, in consultation with I.C.B.O. (International Conference of Building Officials), in the forms of arches, vaults, and domes between 1993 and 1996. These successfully passed the California required codes for the models.

Superadobe is a patented system (patent #5,934,027) at the service of humanity. It is offered free to the owner builder. Licensing is required for commercial use.

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