Who we are: New Earth UK

Our work grows out of 18 years of training in earth architecture with renowned
humanitarian architect Nader Khalili, resulting in Cal-Earth Institute in California; and
five years learning sustainable living from Ansari Sufi healers in New York. We work
with grass roots projects in diverse countries, teaching what we know, and letting the
earth architecture grow in its own way. I am here to show you one of the technologies
we developed with Nader Khalili, called Superadobe, sandbag and barbed wire system.

“At Cal-Earth, along with Iliona, his partner and third

wife, Khalili developed Superadobe, a system of
building with earth-filled sandbags and barbed wire,
and covered with plaster.”
- from “Great Peacemakers” by Ken Beller and Heather Chase

Nader Khalili
Humanitarian
Architect and
Author 1936-2008.
He was a visionary
architect rooted in
the third world, who
was educated and
lived in the West.
Sandbag and Barbed wire technique

Imagine long or short bags filled with the earth that is on the
site, and arranged in layers or long coils (compression, low-
tech). Strands of barbed wire between them act as both
mortar and reinforcement (tension, hi-tech), like velcro
sticking the layers together. It can be filled with almost any
material ranging from pure earth (adobe) to pure concrete,
including stabilized earth, and recycled materials. Stabilizers
such as cement, lime, or asphalt emulsion may be added.
 Planetary Design, published by NASA
The “Superadobe” concept was originally presented by Nader Khalili in 1984 to NASA at
their first conference on “Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century”, and
published as “Velcro-Adobe” (earth-filled velcro sacks) for building habitats on the moon
and Mars using in-situ resources. Later at Cal-Earth, research and development applied
the concept as sandbags and barbed wire for an answer to human shelter here on earth.

NASA: “Khalili’s
perspective on lunar
architecture provides
an interesting and
thought provoking
contrast to ‘orthodox’
scenarios.”
The technique won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2004 as,
Emergency Sandbag Shelter
Selected by UNDP,
UNHCR for:
Minimum size
Minimum cost
Maximum speed
Minimum skill

4
 Emergency Sandbag Shelter and Eco-Villages
A Human Right to Shelter
• “Anybody in this world should be able to build a home for his or her
family with the simplest of elements: earth, water, air, and fire”.......
a home, a sustainable community, a city…

• “Every man and woman is a doctor and a builder, to heal and shelter
themselves” – words by architect Nader Khalili

Our first Home in this Earth: “Yes Way”…”No Way” (by child): Homeless mothers’ centre, Guatemala.
 Climate change and Homelessness
There are over a billion homeless in the world today, and the number of refugees has risen
above 50 million; WHY? The Elements of Disaster are human-made, but called “Act of God”.
Then we ask “Do you have insurance?” or “When is the United Nations coming to help?”
EARTHQUAKE
FLOOD
FIRE
CYCLONE

DROUGHT, WAR, FAMINE

 Return “Sustainability begins
Rehabilitation with a person”
• We ask, why me? And we look for
someone to blame. But these are not
the right questions. We should be
asking how can I build my home
differently to avoid disaster?
• Our relationship with the earth and in this earth
our survival as a human race depends in this earth
on our ability to ask forgiveness.
in this
• Repentance means ‘return’ in the
language of many religions: return to immaculate field
our Maker, to the Origin. we shall not plant
any seeds
except for
compassion
except for love
- Rumi

Quest, Direction
• A quest is what moves you and guides you
as a compass in your life.
• “My quests became more meaningful when
my goals met with others’ needs and goals.
And I became important, in my own heart,
only when I reached the others, as a drop
of water becomes important only when it
reaches the sea.” - Nader Khalili, Racing
Alone
 Universal Elements of:
Earth
Water
Air
Fire
• “Earth, water, air, and fire,
are obedient creatures.
They are dead to you and
me, but alive at God’s
presence.”
 Arch, a Timeless Principle
• An arch is a cut of a circle. It stands by itself in gravity. From a single
arch whole cities may be generated by vaults, domes, apses. There is
no limit what material can be used to make an arch. The arch
demonstrates stability in harmony with gravity, and not fighting it.
Each vertebra in our spine it like the building blocks of an arch, at
repose in gravity, thus a person can experience an arch
 EMERGENCY SANDBAG SHELTER (TRAINING GUIDE)

1) Collect the tools above. 2) Prepare the earth mix which is stabilized with cement or lime, or asphalt emulsion. 3) Add enough water to ball together when squeezed,
yet not leave the hand wet. If no cement/lime is available, use raw earth for a temporary shelter. (Experimental - try snow in bags and compact.) 4) Place the door away
from wind and water.

5) Dig the foundation trench 30 cm (12”) deep. 6) Level and compact. (The foundation will be 2-3 completed bag rows.) 7) Place the bag in the trench, fold the end
under to close, and start filling upright like a short column (using long tubings or standard sandbags). 8) Always put in 2-3 cans of earth and shake to the end. 9) Use
gravity's help by sloping the bag on your leg, and walking backwards as it fills - do not strain (if it is hard and feels heavy you are not doing it right). Let the bag fill as full
as possible and check the position with the compass tool. 10) Twist and tuck under the bag ends to close.

11) Compact the filled bag as hard as you can using a tamper, to make a smooth, solid, uniform block. Only compacted earth becomes strong. 12)10Attach continuous barbed
wire - 1 wire for domes up to 4m (12 ft.), 2 wires for bigger. Where breaks occur, overlap the wires by 65cm. 13) Continue coiling bags.
 EMERGENCY SANDBAG SHELTER (TRAINING GUIDE)

14, 15) You must use 2 Compasses to make the dome shape. Use chains or other non-stretchy cable-rope. Attach one in the center (Center Compass), and extend the
length at every row according to a second one at the perimeter (Height Compass). If any bags do not conform to the compass remove them and re-build. 16) Pre-cut
bags for a doorway knock-out panel. Stabilized earth must be cut after tamping at every row - don’t let the cut stick back together. 17) Punch out pre-cut panels to open
after at least 5 rows above, or when the dome is completed.

18) Insert pipes for windows sloped to outside for rain. 19) Coil upper rows, but don’t stand on the wet bag. 20) Fill and place bag above the row below and work it
inwards to meet the compass circle. Tamp the bag with gentle slope to outside. Close the top or leave a small skylight. 21) Add a protective entrance (door vault) to
buttress the door opening. Entry is arched or sloped, short or tall.

11 with a water-
22) Plaster the exterior before bags disintegrate and 23) waterproof with locally suitable materials to resist moisture and erosion. 24) On top, finish
resistant cement/lime plaster such as Reptile (cement or lime mud-balls) layered from bottom to top, or 25) a smooth cement or lime plaster finish.
 A Wall makes a Neighbourhood
• Time Lapse of coiling an
Eco-Dome Moon Cocoon
 Compass guides the form
makes the connection
• To generate a dome we use one compass in the middle for a
hemisphere, or two compasses for any other dome shape, one
which is always changing and one which never changes. A
chain or cable is best, as it does not lengthen when wet, as
rope does.
• Only the highly trained mason needs no compass other than
his own arms length.

…..love said to me
You are not
crazy enough
you don’t
fit this house

i went and
became crazy
crazy enough
to be in chains….

- Rumi

• The Compass is an analogy of our connection with each other. It

provides a community focus. It guides the relationship between a person
and their work. The inner surface of the dome must be accurately built
to the compass curve, to withstand extreme forces with low-strength
earth material. Thus it guides the connection between one building
block and its neighbour. In a shell structure weight is evenly distributed
between all the elements (blocks, bags, earth particles).
Gravity: Shell Structures
• The strength of shell structures with
barbed wire reinforcement makes the
structures resistant to windstorms,
floods and earthquakes.
• Building in harmony with gravity results
in the strongest, most disaster resistant,
and most efficient design. creating the
maximum space for minimum material,
which is called a shell structure.
• At every moment gravity guides the
builder, who becomes a part of the
weight of the earth, the form of the
shell, and the magnetism of the centre,
just like the sea creature within the
shell who spins their mother-of-pearl,
waterproof home out of sea water.
 Structural Strength: Safety
CNN: “They meet all building codes, are energy efficient,
weather tight, and so solid they passed the most grueling
stress tests.”

•Life size model structures were built successfully

passed strict California’s strictest “seismic zone 4”
tests.
• Tests and engineering were approved in the U.S.
by the International Conference of Building
Officials (ICBO).
• Stabilized earth in the bags improves the
sandbags accepted resistance to flooding and war.
Approved housing plans in California
 Design with Qualities and
Playfulness
• Starting with the industrial design method of synectics, we
identify with each part of the design problem and solve it
within ourselves. We call this process “Research and In-
search”; it is a dynamic contemplation. Depending on tradition,
a person may use the qualities of the Universal Elements, such
as is used in Alchemy, herbalism and astrology, in the West, or
the 99 names of Allah/God used in the Middle East, or Feng
Shui and Acupuncture in the East, or any other respected
system of qualities with which the researcher is familiar.
• The researcher must be prepared to let go all assumptions and
devote themselves to scientific method.
Sun and shade, heat and cool, energy
water, air, movement,
pressure, flow
Clustering, Modular Geometry

• Efficiency:
Nature
builds
maximum
space for
minimum
material.
 Repetition

An arch is like a prayer

Its strength is is in unity
Its beauty in its repetition

Modular geometry can be generated

using 3-D printing, with extruded
earthen materials, stabilized with
micro-organisms or solar fire.
When you put your hands in the earth you
connect to your intuition
earth is not dirt,
it is better than gold”
- Khalili
 “earth turns to gold
in the hands of the wise
gold turns to dust
in the hands of the foolish”
- Rumi
Gratitude: Home
the children of Adam
are members of one body
all created from the same essence
if one limb is in pain,
others cannot be at ease
if you are indifferent to another’s pain
you cannot be called a human
-Saadi

“Earth is a
conscious being,
so be considerate,
be thankful, and
do not be
wasteful.” –
Murshid Taner
Ansari
• www.new-earth.org.uk
• newearthuk@gmail.com
• In Cyprus c/o Sofia Matsi
sofia.matsi@dr-rath-foundation.com