Natural Building with Earth

(Page 3 of 3)

June/July 2009
By Catherine Wanek 
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Within the Adobe Alliance, the dictates of earth define our gestures, our program and policy. Artistic impulses appear now and then, such as the lightning pattern formed with mud bricks by the mason, or an impulse to sculpt a tortoise on a balustrade. We submit with a certain reverence to the laws of earth, mindful of its purity, its forgiveness and promise.

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— Simone Swan, Adobe Alliance 

About Swan’s Adobe House

The east patio is a comfortable place for dining in the summer and eating breakfast in the winter, while the west patio invites one into the noon shade during the summer. An east porthole near the head of a built-in adobe bed allows one to greet the sunrise.

The two courtyards provide natural ventilation. Predawn temperatures pave the courtyards with colder air; heat formed on the walls creates eddies, which stirs the colder air. At this moment, the coolness enters the house through opened windows, which are closed when the sun’s heat appears. Here in Presidio, Texas, on this fringe of the Chihuahuan Desert, we have temperatures of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

I favor the 2-foot-wide floor-to-ceiling windows, which tend to keep out the sun’s glare while, as you walk by, you glance out at eight tiers of blue sierras to the south in Mexico. Some windows are aligned so as to see through the room, through the patio and through a room on the other side.

The space appears magically vast where the Great Hall (10 feet by 50 feet and 16-feet high) meets two 14-foot-high vaults at right angles: the living room vault, 10 feet by 21 feet, and the dining-kitchen vault, also 10-feet wide but 23-feet long. New visitors enter gasping at the unexpected spaciousness, which is amusing when you consider that each room is humbly 10-feet wide. They are welcomed onto adobe floors that are comfortably soft to tread.

— Simone Swan

Catherine Wanek is a writer and photographer specializing in natural building techniques. Her books include The New Strawbale Home and the forthcoming The Hybrid House.
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  • Inga 8/13/2009 11:26:33 AM

    I actually live in Klagenfurt, Austria but have joined forces with Marcin Jakubowski at Factor e Farm in Missouri to build a wonderful structure right here on the farm. I had taken an earth brick building course at the University of Kassel, Germany under the direction of Prof. Gernot Minke (the Pope of earth brick building). The actual trainer for the course was Dittmar Hecken, a former student of Prof. Minke. I was able to convince him to come out to Factor e Farm and run this workshop for us at the end of September.

    Below is a short description and invitation to this workshop. I hope you will be able to include this invitation on your blog and/or in the next newsletter you send out to your friends and members, it would be a tremendous help to us.

    Thanks in advance for your support!

    Kind regards,

    Inga - The Village Elder

    Ingeburg (Inga) von Boehm-Bezing

    ============================================================

    Compressed Earth Block (CEB) Vault Home - Immersion Workshop

    When: End of September, 2009 - 5 or 10 day workshop options

    Where: Factor e Farm, Kansas City Area, Missouri, USA

    More information: http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=931

    In this immersion workshop, you will be building a beautiful vault-roof structure with a living roof and solar design. We are using local soil and roof from this same soil, and aim to complete one structure. Learn the techniques for this building, and if you are curious, you have a rare chance to learn about building the brick press and tractor themselves. We are using equipment that we designed, built, and open-sourced. We are developing open source technology - because it's good for the world. Do you want to live right but you are cash-poor? We are building the tools and techniques that can help you. Join us.

    Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D.
    Open Source Ecology
    http://openfarmtech.org
    opensourceecology at gmail dot com
    Skype: marcin_ose

  • Dr. Judy Ann Fisher 5/26/2009 10:19:09 AM

    Thanks for the article on the adobe home. I have been interested in this type of building since 1975 while in graduate school (city planning) at Howard U. I have a ministry in Haiti and I want to know if this type of housing can be adapted to the tropics? We are a 501(C)3 nonprofit and I would like to develop a proposal to build a demonstration project with this type of structure for the poor in a rural area of Haiti.

    I included Farthy's work in my doctoral dissertation, so I am extremely interested in the possibility of constructing a building of this nature. Please let me know the possibilities of tropical adaptation, etc. I can work in partnership with the GOC University in Haiti. The president and founder, Dr. Fritz Olivier is an architect and a board member of this organization. Thanks for your reply a.s.a.p.

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