EBUK - Earth Building UK Conference and AGM 2012, January 13th, York

Earth Building UK Conference and AGM 2012, January 13^th, York.

The conference will explore the use of earth and clay plasters with leading experts. The use of earth and clay plasters has increased in recent years, with interest groups concerned with the conservation of historic buildings, ecologically sensitive new construction, alongside a growing interest from industry in innovative materials. 

The conference is a brilliant opportunity to meet fellow EBUK member and exchange ideas.

Find out more on the website by following this link: http://www.ebuk.uk.com/index.php/?p=317

Conference Location: The Ron Cooke Hub at the University of York, Heslington, York. YO10 5GE. http://www.york.ac.uk/hub/facilities/

Conference fee: The conference fee for EBUK members is £42.00. This includes refreshments and lunch. If you are not already an EBUK member the conference fee is £63.00 (this includes a full year’s membership of EBUK).

Post conference tour: Saturday January 14^th 2012. A tour of York House, Malton to view the historic building and get an expert introduction to the earth mortars and plasters investigated and conserved in the recent conservation project. This tour will be with Nigel Copsey (Earth, Stone and Lime company) and Ben Gourley (University of York).

Showcasing your work: Space will be available for display of materials and products.If you offer services or products, the conference is a great place to showcase your work and support EBUK at the same time. You can promote your project or business at very reasonable rates throughout the conference. For example, for £160 you can put up a display next to the main conference room or for £60 put brochures into every delegate's conference pack. For more details about sponsorship email lu_ebuk@btinternet.com or telephone 01944 728441.

Students: Fancy a free conference? Load your images of earth buildings in the UK to our EBUK Flickr  stream.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/earthbuildinguk/

The EBUK directors will decide on a winning image and the winning image will be announced on the day.  We will reimburse the conference fees for one student. The winning image will be announced on the day.

Spread the word: Please spread the word of the Earth Building UK conference to your colleagues and friends – EBUK is a network fostering the understanding, appreciation and development of building with earth.

www.ebuk.uk.com

'Witchcraft versus smart power: who owns human rights in the postcolonial world?'

Interesting talk at St Catz College, Oxford. 8pm tonight!

'Witchcraft versus smart power: who owns human rights in the postcolonial world?'

The talk is based on historical research in Zimbabwe and the presentation is intended to stimulate questions and discussion, rather than provide a fully-formed argument. Prof. Jeater is looking to identify an interface between international political ideologies and local Zimbabwean understandings of human rights and community morality.
Prof Jeater has an interest in how indigenous ideas about spiritual and community well-being have been harnessed, distorted or destroyed by the work of international NGOs and solidarity organisations; about the consequences of this for politics in Zimbabwe in recent times; and about the implications for Suzanne Nossel's advocacy of 'smart power' as a way of maintaining US hegemony in a changing world.

The Small Change Forum: ingenious people make better places

One day conference hosted by community arts organisation, Multistory, and the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP), Oxford Brookes University

Friday 7 October 2011

Oxford Brookes University, Oxford

Creative cultural action, including participatory arts, as the catalyst for community development is the theme of this one day conference. To these ends it will explore how small, practical and mostly low budget creative interventions, if carefully targeted, can act as catalysts for big and long lasting change designed to improve people’s environments and opportunities. This simple but powerful ideal demands significant changes to the way we think, do and organise in order to sustain, which will be explored as both theory and practice at the conference.

The conference will be organised into keynote presentations, thematic presentations, afternoon break out discussion sessions, and final plenary discussions. Thematic presentations (case studies, papers and reflective pieces) will be organised into the following Small Change themes: doing, thinking and sustaining. These will be presented by practitioners from non governmental organisations (NGOs), creative arts and academic sectors.

Keynote presentations will be made by development practitioner, Nabeel Hamdi, and community arts consultant, François Matarasso. Thematic sessions will include presentations from Scott Burnham (independent consultant), Penny Evans (Knowle West Media Centre), Barbara Wood (Schumacher Foundation), Jamie Young (RSA), Julia Slay (New Economics Foundation), Mukul Dhawan (AzkoNobel: Let’s Colour Project), Liljana Alcheva (Habitat for Humanity, Macedonia), and Danielle Smith (NGO, Sandblast).

This event will launch The Small Change Forum, designed to promote small change learning and practice through its documentation and analysis of case files. Each event, as part of this initiative, will disseminate new ideas, tools, methods, practical wisdoms, principles in order to inform teaching and practice, and to create a policy environment conducive to change.

Registration and Costs

The conference fee is £30 / £20 concession. For registration please go to:

www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/oisd/architecture/cendep/conferences.html

For further information please contact Jeni Burnell, Forum Chair, at: jburnell@brookes.ac.uk

2011 Courses at CAT

Check out the 2011 short courses at CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology)

Eco Building from New (3 days)
This introductory course will cover ecological building design and is useful for those who want an overview and an introduction to sustainable building. Topics covered will include low energy consumption, green building technologies, healthier habitats, the use of environmentally friendly building materials and... read more

• Fri 01 Apr - Sun 03 Apr, 2011 

Straw Bale Building (5 days)  
Led by 'Amazonails' Strawbale building experts this course will look at the history and use of straw bale buildings, different techniques, planning considerations and how to build. There will be practical workshops on the load bearing method, plaster and render preparation, and... read more

• Mon 30 May - Fri 03 Jun, 2011

Eco Refurbishment (5 days)  
The vast majority of us will never design and build our own new eco-homes, yet our existing houses can make a massive contribution to our carbon footprint and wider environmental impact. This course covers ecological improvements to existing buildings, including energy efficiency, renewable... read more

• Mon 18 Jul - Fri 22 Jul, 2011
• Mon 26 Sep - Fri 30 Sep, 2011

Eco Interiors (3 days)
This weekend course will look at considerations for creating sustainable, low energy and healthy interiors in the home.  It will include sessions on spatial planning to improve the environmental performance of the... read more

• Fri 22 Jul - Sun 24 Jul, 2011

Appropriate Building Materials and Methods (5 days)  
Led by Maurice Mitchell, an architect and lecturer at CAT for over 25 years, daily lectures will cover earth building, ferro-cement, building using a wide range of timbers, and emergency shelters. The bulk of the course will involve the design and construction... read more

• Mon 25 Jul - Fri 29 Jul, 2011

Taster Day: Natural Plaster and Renders (1 day)  
This short course offers a practical introduction to the use of natural materials in renders and plasters. Following a talk on the history and modern practicalities of earth and lime, you will... read more

• Sat 06 Aug, 2011

Building with Earth (3 days)
CAT has an Information Centre and Shop with beautiful rammed earth internal pillars. Earth blocks were used in the construction of new toilet facilities. This course will cover basic methods and construction techniques, soil analysis and practical sessions in rammed earth techniques.read more

• Fri 02 Sep - Sun 04 Sep, 2011

Timber Frame Self Build (5 days)
A series of frames will be made and erected in the practical sessions, and classroom sessions will cover the timber frame method, ecological building methods, design for low energy sustainable housing and appropriate services for low energy buildings.

After the frames... read more

• Mon 24 Oct - Fri 28 Oct, 2011

suggested readings

The feasibility of earth block masonry for building sustainable walling in the United Kingdom
Journal of Building Appraisal (2010) 6, 99–108

Colin Williams, Steve Goodhew, Richard Griffiths and Linda Watson

 

Abstract

This article examines the possible use of earth block construction in the United Kingdom. The current and historical trends and distribution patterns of earth building in the United Kingdom and selected overseas countries are reviewed. The rationale for earth building is established, and the unique elements of earth block construction are identified. Economic and technical aspects of building with earth blocks are examined, and the cost of this process is highlighted as one of the major factors that is preventing the wider use of the technique. Methods of reducing the cost of building with earth blocks are examined, and the use of thin bed mortars is advocated as a possible way of reducing the labour cost of building, thereby making earth block building more economically viable. The article examines the structural questions raised by substituting traditional thick joint mortars with earth slurry mortars, and the thermal aspects of earth block walling are discussed. The article supports earth block walling as a sustainable alternative to more traditional walling construction.

Keywords:
earth; earth block; earth slurry; sustainable; construction
____________________

Regeneration of vernacular architecture: new rammed earth houses on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River
Front. Energy Power Eng. China 2010, 4(1): 93–99
Jiaping LIU, Rongrong HU, Runshan WANG, Liu YANG


Abstract

In rural areas of western China, most of the vernacular architectures are made of earth. In the process of urbanization, few residents like to build their houses with earth because the old traditional earth house cannot meet their requirement for higher standard of living. As a result, much more energy will be consumed if industrial building materials are used instead of earth. The regeneration of the traditional earth house, therefore, becomes a challenge in new village construction. This paper briefly describes a project about creating a new prototype of earth house for the migrants along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River to shed light on finding an appropriate approach for regenerating the traditional earth houses with the concept of low-energy housing. It includes an investigation of the traditional earth house and the environment condition of the new settlement, the new house design process, and the quantitative evaluation of the living quality of the new house. 

Keywords: earth house, low-energy housing, upper reaches of the Yangtze River, passive solar technique.

EBUK 2011 Conference and AGM - Earth Building in the UK

EBUK 2011 Conference and AGM
Earth Building in the UK – the practitioner’s perspective

18th January 2011. Arup Offices 13 Fitzroy Street London W1T4BQ
EBUK AGM 10.30 – 12.00am / EBUK Conference 13.00-17.00 pm

This conference explores the practitioner’s perspective of building with earth in the UK. Speakers include those working, designing, producing and practicing in the UK, sharing their experience with the market and the providers, addressing motivations and frustrations from the practitioner’s perspective.

Conference speakers include:
Dirk Bouwens (EARTHA) You will not believe it: Six Storey Earth Windmills and Maltings.
Tom Morton (ARC architects) title to be confirmed
Amrit Row (Space Magic Garden Design) Exterior unprotected rammed earth: the nervous landscapers perspective. A project in Bath.
Adam Weismann (Cob in Cornwall) The relevance of building with unfired clay in the modern construction industry.
Paul Mallion (Conker Conservation) Barriers to Specification and Adoption
Nigel Copsey (The Earth Stone and Lime Company) The historic and future use of earth mortars in Malton and beyond
Daniel Doran (BREEAM Materials Team, BRE) BRE Green Guide Ratings for Rammed Earth – a case study
 

A final conference timetable will be issued shortly.
 

Conference Costs: £15 EBUK members £35 non-members (includes subscription to EBUK for 2011).
The conference fee includes refreshments and lunch provided on the day. Please indicate any dietary preferences in your email.
 

To register for this event please email Louise Cooke stating your attendance at the AGM, Conference or both events. lucooke@btinternet.com.
 

Cheques to be made payable to EBUK
Send to: Louise Cooke, Old Bridge Barn, Yedingham, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 8SL.

Further information - www.ebuk.uk.com

Composting toilet, Oxford (part 3) ...work in progress...

rammed earth - BREEAM A+ material.

via:  Ram Cast

'The Building Research Establishment have pioneered their Environmental Assessment Method over a number of years. This is the first time an earthen building material has been included on this internationally recognised system of assessment for building materials. They compare and rate every part of a construction process and materials to set a datum for choosing materials for a project. Each element, walls, roof, openings etc. are then added together to reach a final rating for a building.
Rammed earth can now be rated as a building material both in the UK and by users internationally.'

Further info: Here 

Composting toilet, Oxford (part 2) ...work in progress...

Composting toilet, Oxford (part 1) ...work in progress...

 

Rammed earth workshop at Oxford Brookes

Last Friday, Oxarch architecture society - Oxford Brookes University - organised a rammed earth workshop with Rowland Keable. Despite the constant rain (yes, lots and lots of rain!!) it was good fun and, to be honest, I really missed ramming. Check out the photos!

"Huff as hard as you like - you can’t blow a straw house down"

Segue um artigo muito interessante publicado hoje no Times relativo a investigação sobre casas com paredes de fardos de palha. 

Créditos imagens : ModCell

Fonte:
Times Online, 20 de Maio 2010

Autor: Ben Webster, Environmental Editor

"Scientists have ruined the plot of a children’s fairytale by proving that straw houses do not necessarily blow down, even when subjected to an awful lot of huffing and puffing.
The first straw housing estate is being planned after tests showed that walls built of straw bales can be made strong enough to withstand hurricane-force winds. A two-storey straw house constructed at the University of Bath moved only 4mm (0.16in) when subjected to a force exceeding four tonnes, equivalent to 120mph winds.
Researchers pushed hydraulic jacks against the walls to simulate the wind speed. They concluded that even a three-storey straw house would be strong enough to survive the worst storms Britain is likely to experience. The house in the tests was made from prefabricated panels that consisted of wooden frames filled with straw bales and covered with lime render.
The heating bills for this type of straw house, which has walls almost half a metre thick, are 80 per cent lower than for modern homes made from bricks and breeze blocks. The carbon footprint from the construction and materials is also far lower because straw locks in carbon as it grows.

Pete Walker, director of the university’s Centre for Innovative Construction Materials, said there could be a net carbon reduction if transport emissions were avoided by purchasing straw from local farms. “We hope the data will help strengthen the case for the mainstream building industry switching to using more sustainable building materials like straw,” he said.

“It can be difficult to get a loan for a straw house because of the perception among some building societies that they are not as strong. But we have shown that the BaleHaus design is robust and suitable for the windiest places, though that doesn’t quite include building one on top of Snowdon as a replacement restaurant.”

Professor Walker said that the house had also passed fire tests, with the lime render preventing flames from reaching the straw for one and a half hours, well over the 30-minute minimum under safety regulations. The greatest risk to straw houses is from moisture, which can cause the straw to decay. The university is planning to test how the panels would cope with a flood this summer.

Professor Walker said that lime render was breathable and this should allow any moisture to escape. “If you get an inundation we don’t yet know if the straw dries out quickly enough before it starts decaying,” he said. “But even in the worst-case scenario, the straw could be replaced in a panel for only a few hundred pounds.”

He added that the homes should last more than 100 years if they remained occupied and any leaks were quickly repaired. In Nebraska there are several straw bale buildings dating from the early 20th century.
The BaleHaus design used by the university requires eight panels for each storey. Once the concrete foundations are in place, it can be assembled in four days, compared with a minimum of four weeks for a conventional home.
An affordable housing co-operative in Leeds is planning to submit an application within three months for 20 straw homes in the Kirkstall area of the city. A single-storey apartment will cost £60,000 and a four-bedroom terrace home £160,000.
The homes will have slightly smaller rooms than conventional houses of similar overall dimensions. The straw bales are 490mm thick, compared with 300-350mm walls in a new brick home.
Professor Walker said: “This is an issue for developers that want to pack as many houses as they can into a space.” But he added that developers using straw would find it much easier to meet the Government’s target to make all new homes “zero carbon” from 2016. "

"A low impact woodland home"

As imagens que vos mostro hoje estão disponíveis no website de Simon Dale, o autor e construtor de uma casa muito especial. Simon tinha a intenção de habitar uma casa que respeitasse a natureza e que tivesse o mínimo de impacto ambiental possível, foi então a partir desta premissa que resolveu construir para si e para a sua família este magnífico espaço.

Deixo também um excerto da sua página, onde se descreve a estratégia para a construção da casa:

"Some key points of the design and construction:

Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthaetically fantastic and very easy to do
Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring...)
Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful
Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
Water by gravity from nearby spring
Compost toilet
Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again."

Clique AQUI para aceder à página A Low impact woodland Home.

Créditos das imagens: www.SimonDale.net

Down to Earth - Paul Oliver, London

O belíssimo edifício do RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) em Londres, recebeu ontem Paul Oliver, figura incontornável do estudo da arquitectura vernácula no mundo. Na sobrelotada sala de conferências, mais de 300 pessoas assistiram atenciosamente a uma palestra que desta vez, embora como de costume sobre as tradições vernáculas, incidiu particularmente sobre as arquitecturas em terra.

Depois de iniciar a apresentação com uma ironia à imagem pobre que as televisões e rádio britânicas tendem em passar sobre as construções em terra, Paul Oliver conduziu a audiência numa viagem alucinante por todo o mundo, através de fotografias captadas durante algumas das suas viagens. Mali, Nigéria, Gana, Tunísia, Argentina, EUA e Reino Unido foram alguns dos países retratados.

Falou-se de técnicas, materialidade, morfologias, cultura, contexto, sociedade, estética e muito mais. Tudo isto com um denominador comum: o material terra.

Após o fecho da conferância, a audiência seguiu para a inauguração da exposição Djenné: African City of Mud, onde estão expostas uma série de fotografias relativas à construção em terra no contexto do Mali.

Como já referi, este ciclo de conferências vai prolongar-se até ao final de Abril, como tal existem ainda bastantes oportunidades para assistir às mesmas e visitar a exposição. Bem sei que para muitos pode estar um pouco fora do caminho, no entanto, caso estejam a pensar visitar Londres é de aproveitar fazê-lo nesta altura...

Deixo mais uma vez o link para o programa:

http://www.soas.ac.uk/anthropology/events/artofmudbuilding/

DIY Rammed Earth Manual Available - Michael Thompson

Imagens extraídas de http://rammedearth.webs.com/

Recebi via email o pedido de divulgação de um manual de construção em taipa, escrito por Michael Thompson, responsável pelo abrigo de jardim mais conhecido do Reino Unido.

Deixo aqui algumas das suas palavras.

"I have released an early opportunity to enable everybody and anybody to pre-order my new DIY Rammed Earth Manual which will be available from the 1st March.

It would be fantastic if you would like to pre-order a copy as it would give me an idea on how many to get printed, but please don't feel under pressure to do so."

Caso estejam interessados podem aceder ao seu WEBSITE e fazer então a pré-encomenda do manual.

Inverno gelado...

workshop - fardos de palha

O entusiasmo pelos métodos de construção mais sustentáveis tem vindo a crescer visivelmente. Para além da terra também outros materiais têm angariado fiéis seguidores, tanto aqui no Reino Unido como em tantas outras partes do mundo.
Este é o caso da palha que, quando aglomerada em fardos, pode também ser utilizada para erguer paredes transformando-se num bloco de grandes dimensões com excelentes qualidades térmicas e acústicas.
Passei o dia de sexta-feira num workshop de construção em fardos de palha que antecedeu uma conferência com o mesmo tema. Já tinha experimentado construir com este material numa ocasião anterior, há coisa de 4 ou 5 anos, e a sensação de que estava a lidar com um material de grandes potencialidades voltou a estar bem presente na minha mente.

A falta de massa térmica no material pode ser facilmente compensada com um reboco de terra de espessura considerável, o que proporciona ao ambiente anterior conforto quer em termos de temperatura, quer em termos de níveis de humidade relativa. Em edifícios de fardos de palha erguidos em zonas excepcionalmente frias, já foram inclusive registadas temperaturas internas na casa dos 20ºC quando no exterior se liam -20ºC, isto sem recurso a qualquer aquecimento.
Obviamente que para tal acontecer todos os elementos do projecto têm de trabalhar em conjunto. Não basta ter paredes de fardos de palha para que uma casa seja imediatamente confortável. No caso que referi anteriormente, a fachada Sul era completamente composta por vidro triplo e o conceito de construção da casa baseava-se no passivhaus standard, ou seja, estes níveis de conforto seriam provavelmente igualmente atingíveis com recurso a outro tipo de materiais de construção.

Tal como na construção em terra, caso nos preocupemos com a energia incorporada, será importante considerar o nível de mecanização envolvida no processo. Este facto influenciará decisões como por exemplo rebocar as paredes à mão ou com terra projectada.

Este material, a par de outros, entre os quais se encontra a terra, será com certeza uma boa opção para quem deseja construir de forma mais sustentável e em harmonia com a Natureza.

Taipa isolada pelo exterior

Ontem assisti a uma conferência sobre o tema “Construção em Taipa” apresentada por um dos especialistas na matéria aqui do Reino Unido de nome Rowland Keable. A mesma realizou-se após um workshop, no qual infelizmente não tive oportunidade de participar.

Uma vez que este evento de dia completo teve lugar no campus da Oxford Brookes University, o público era constituído na sua maioria por estudantes que desconheciam o conceito da Taipa, pelo que o conteúdo da conferência teve sobretudo a intenção de abordar os conceitos básicos da construção em taipa. Vimos excelentes exemplos de trabalhos desenvolvidos por Rowland Keable, inclusive algumas imagens fresquinhas de um edifício de que vos falei aqui num post anterior e que se encontra já bem perto da sua finalização.

Fiquei especialmente interessada num dos exemplos apresentados, uma sala de aula de uma escola em Battle, Sussex onde a taipa é utilizada como parede interior, sendo revestida pelo exterior com isolamento e ripado de madeira. Uma vez que esta foi exactamente a solução que utilizei como exemplo tanto para o meu ultimo trabalho de design do mestrado como para a tese final (modelo desenvolvido em IES-VE para determinar o desempenho térmico de um edificio de taipa isolado pelo exterior) fiquei muito satisfeita por saber que esta já a ser aplicada no Reino Unido, e, segundo os utilizadores do edifício, com excelentes resultados. Ao que parece, a sala de aula dispensa praticamente o uso de aquecimento durante o Inverno e durante o verão é o único espaço totalmente confortável em todo o campus da escola.

Se a isto adicionarmos o facto de o revestimento exterior proteger a taipa propriamente dita das agressões do clima inglês (chuva, vento, etc.) então a combinação dos elementos aplicados aproxima-se da perfeição.

Será este o caminho a seguir para a utilização da terra em países com o contexto climático semelhante ao do Reino Unido? Fica a questão.

As imagens abaixo apresentadas são da autoria de Rowland Keable (©2007 Rowland Keable) e encontram-se disponiveis no website Ram Cast CIC

Earthbag building in Oxford (Part 1)

Por várias vezes demonstrei interesse pela técnica da construção com sacos de terra por acreditar ser de facto uma forma de erguer rápida e eficazmente uma qualquer construção.

Este interesse aliado a um imenso monte de solo que tinha no jardim, a aguardar que algum uso lhe fosse atribuído, foram razões suficientes para experimentar por mim a técnica da construção em sacos de terra. Foi assim que começou a nascer um humilde banco de jardim, estrategicamente posicionado para receber o Sol de Inverno (não que ele se mostre muito por estas bandas, mas...). Posso dizer que foi acima de tudo uma experiência divertidíssima!

O post de hoje revela imagens do início do processo e será complementado num próximo, já com o banco terminado e também com uma descrição mais completa do mesmo.