Adobe and Earth Walls
ADOBE AND EARTH WALLS
The course offers an entry level insight to some of the technologies recognised for the purpose of building different types of adobe and earthen wall structures. Adobe and earth wall technologies are amongst the earliest building methods of humankind with a long history and specification over thousands of years. As the form of building they are fully sustainable solutions with zero carbon emission and energy efficient realisation.
The selection of the traditional methodologies involves primarily those which are realistic even in modern times and there are still masters who are able to build houses using these kinds of technology. Though most of these methodologies are well-known in most parts of Europe and also worldwide, the forms of adobe and earth walls were selected based on the Hungarian practise evolved through the ages.
The modules are connected with each other and one is based on some former ones, also they might be continued in later chapters to explain the theme in discussion in a more detailed way. We can summarise the structure of the course and these connections in the following way:
The creation of adobe as a building material is shown as part of Module 1. The process explained here provides basis for cob wall building, tutorial of the second chapter (Module 2), while as part of Module 3 the user can learn the creation of adobe blocks from basically the same type of raw material. Module 4 also shows the creation of blocks, but instead of adobe here raw earth is used for the creation of the building elements. In two further chapters (Module 5 and 6) the rules of masonry bonds are explained: in the first film the first layer of a block masonry, while in the second one there is special focus on the bonding methods of the wall end and the wall corner. As part of the course the masonry work is only shown using earth blocks, but the building technique shown fully applies to adobe blocks too. Module 7 and 8 are about a completely different technology to the former ones: the rammed earth wall building, showing the processes in two parts (first video shows the first level of the formwork, while the second one a general level of it). Module 9 then shows a special cutting process which is in generally more characteristic to the cob wall technology rather than the rammed earth wall, but as part of this course this technique is shown on the rammed earth wall built in the former two modules (7 and 8). Finally the plastering work introduced in Module 10 is a method that can be applied on all former walls built before as part of the courses, shown in details on the surfaces of the earth block masonry wall.
Masters of the course: János Gáspár, István Lénárt, István Fridrich (Hungary)
Format of the modules: 10 pieces of video tutorials with voice-overs, subtitles and text-form descriptions
Full playtime of tutorial videos: 1
hour 14 minutes and 34 seconds