ENERGY EFFICIENCY & SUSTAINABILITY

ADOBE
CONSTRUCTION

SUBMITTED TO:
Ar. Bhavya Sahni

SUBMITTED BY:
Ayush Sharma
75196002
Semester 6
 Contents
Defination
Use
history
Availability
Manufacturing
Importance
Construction techniques
Characteristics
Enviromental impact
Properties
Thermal performance
Life cycle analysis
Advantages and disadvantages
Conclusion
Live examples
What is the meaning of ‘ADOBE’ ?
• a kind of clay used as a building material.
• a brick formed from adobe.
• a building constructed from adobe clay or bricks.

Uses of Adobe:
• Adobe is a material used for building that is made of organic materials such as earth, clay, straw, and so on. In Spanish,
‘adobe’ translates as ‘mudbrick’, and buildings that are constructed from adobe have a similar appearance to cob or
rammed earth buildings.

History of Adobe:
• Adobe is one of the earliest building materials known to mankind. Thought to be Spanish in origin, adobe actually
comes from the Middle Egyptian word “dbt,” which means “mud brick.”
• As Middle Egyptian eventually evolved into Coptic several centuries later, the word became “tobe.” This was taken into
the Arabian “al-tub” or “tuba”, which was later adapted into Old Spanish “adobe.”
• Building-wise, it is an ancient technique common in the Americas and the Middle East. The oldest known adobe
structural ruins date back to 8300 BC! Back then, the bricks were a mixture of clay, soil, sand, water, and sometimes
straw.
• The mixture was poured into a mold or was hydraulically pressed to form a brick, and was then air-dried or dried under
the sun. This technique is still used to this day (though highly modernized for most homes)!
Availability of construction materials
Adobe bricks (mud bricks) are made of earth with a fairly high clay content and straw. If produced manually the earth mix
is cast in open moulds onto the ground and then left to dry out. Adobe bricks are only sun-dried, not kiln-fired. When used
for construction they are laid up into a wall using an earth mortar. Before drying out, the finished walls are smoothed
down. Often a clay render is applied as a surface coating. 

Sustainable
• Sustainable construction is achieved using natural resources, such as
adobe, in such a way as to meet economic, social and cultural needs, but
not depleting or degrading these resources to such an extent that they
cannot meet these needs for future generations.
• Earth is a cheap, environmentally friendly and abundant building
material and has been used extensively for construction around the
world. Today the prevalence of earth as a building material may be
attributed to its proven durability demonstrated by the number of
ancient earthen buildings that remain standing today.
• Scientific work have demonstrated that adobe has low thermal
conductivity and high heat capacity enabling earthen building thermal
stability compared with concrete building. Computational fluid dynamics
has been proposed as a new tool to study the thermal behavior of
earthen building.
Importance of construction material
• Thick, round-edged walls
• Earthen materials such as adobe mud brick or masonry and stucco
imitations
• Natural, earth colors outside and inside
• Massive wood roof and ceiling beams, porch posts and doors
• Flat or gently sloping roofs
• Wall and roof parapet
• Projecting wooden roof beams (vigas) extending through walls
• Canales for draining water from roof
• Small, square windows set deeply in the walls
• Floor plan centered on an enclosed courtyard or patio
• Upper floors set back in steps
• Beehive corner fireplaces
• Benches built into walls
• Interior wall niches
• Brick, flagstone or wood floors
• Wide porches
Construction & Preparation

• Set aside some space in which to work and an area in which the bricks can dry for a time - up to
two weeks, possibly.
• Prepare a pit that will be used to mix your sand, clay, and water. One way to do this is to get
about 20 cinder blocks and arrange them in a square, two layers deep. Then line the inside of the
pit with a heavy duty tarp
• Obtain materials:
Sand (about half - 50% of your total volume
Clay (about a third of your total volume).
Straw (about 10 - 20% of your total volume
• Create a form for making the bricks
• Shovel together sand and clay in the pit & add water - enough to make the mixture soupy and mix
well.
• Lay out a tarp and shovel on several shovel loads of the mud and add handful of straw
Adobe house
 Adobe Construction

https://youtu.be/oeoc3oz-pM0

‘Earth built’ or 'breathable houses' are supposedly eco-friendly to produce, because they use
readily available, natural materials and building methods. Homes made from mud have been
used for thousands of years across many cultures, but they’ve been traditionally created by men.
 Thermal Performace
• Adobe is able to absorb heat during the day keeping the house cool
and then release this stored heat at night, warming the interior of the
house.
• This behavior is due to the high specific heat capacity of adobe which
is an important factor that allows this material to reduce the thermal
gradient of earthen houses.
• On the other hand, the ability of adobe to conduct heat is highly
dependent on its moisture content, with a strong relationship
between water content and heat conduction

Enviromental impact
• Theoretically, bulk of the heat loss and gain in any building is through
the wall. Hence, adobe as a good earth friendly material has a counter
effect on the prevailing environmental conditions.
• It is also noteworthy moreover, that; despite the seeming
overwhelming advantages of adobe as a construction material, it still
has a poor insulating property in winter.
• Adobe walls are very permeable; hence, the extent of dampness
miscellaneous equipment Heating Cooling Lighng Tradional Adobe
building
Advantages of construction materials
• Making use of Adobe bricks is probably one of the simplest forms of earth building. Adobe walls
have a number of advantages and relatively few disadvantages.
• As with other forms of earth construction, adobe bricks are a fireproof, durable yet
biodegradable, non-toxic building material which provide sufficient thermal mass to buildings to
ensure excellent thermal performance. Other benefits include low sound transmission levels
through walls and a general feeling of solidity and security.
• With adequate supervision this technique is highly suitable for owner builders, as no costly tools
or equipment are necessary and the essential know-how can be easily acquired on a training
workshop and through hands-on experiences.
• One of the biggest advantages of the Adobe system is that it allows the individual units or bricks
to shrink before they are placed in the wall. The risk of extensive shrinkage and cracking, which
would otherwise occur in soils of high clay content in a large monolithic wall, is prevented.
• The bricks can be cast from a wider range of soils and can cope with a higher clay content than
is suitable for in-situ techniques.
• Due to the production process and the nature of clay, adobe bricks have good water resistance.
Nevertheless it is very important to provide adequate weather protection of the earth walls,
especially in exposed situations. This is normally done with the provision of adequate eaves.
• The small Adobe units provide great flexibility in the design and construction of earth buildings.
Adobe bricks can be easily cut for fitting and can be provided with holes for reinforcing and
services.
• Many people find the pattern and texture of Adobe walls very attractive.
Disadvantages of construction materials
• Difficult to obtain building permits in some states and provinces
• Slow building method, but you are doing the work and saving money so it is a
trade-off.
• Insects are a issue such as termites, ants, scorpions.
• Walls being heavy require good footing.
• Adobe doesn’t handle the water well due to its low water resistivity.

Conclusion
• Adobe construction is the name given to any construction that uses clay. People have been
building houses out of dirt since ancient times, and it is a very common construction
method in many regions.
• The dirt is usually combined with something that binds it together and then dried in sun.
• The native people traditionally relied on adobe construction, and many people who live
there still use this building method.
• There are many basic approaches to adobe construction. In some cases, the bricks are
made from materials available at the building site. The mud will typically be placed in a
mold and allowed to dry, then piled onto the house structure using mud as a mortar.
• As the structures are built up, they will often incorporate elements of wood
construction in combination with the adobe for stability, especially for the roofs.
• One change in adobe construction from the ancient approach is the use of asphalt in
the clay mixture, which makes the bricks more water-resistant.
 The Cyprus case – LIVE EXAMPLE
• Historically, according to Antoniadou, Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Silica and
Sardinia and one of the oldest in the world. According to archaeological excavations, the first sign of civilization was
traced through date, back to the 9th millennium B.C. Louroujina, which is the subject for this research project, is one
of the town located in the island-Cyprus.
• There is plethora of professional perspectives on Cypriot traditional architecture. However, despite this profusion of
researches on Cypriot traditional houses, all the literature converges at a convivial point. According to the
classification of Cypriot traditional architecture typologies is basically under the stereotyped aegis of it modular
combination of the structure. These modules however, are a function of structural type, construction materials,
construction technique, and spatial features. In essence, according to the research of, the Cypriot architecture is
divided into three basic groups.

The building materials used in Louroujina is generally Adobe and mortal of the same material as the adobe
units ,stone and timber. Moreover, the most common type of building method here is a mix manner of
construction—stone and adobe
The typical adobe masonry wall is the typology common in Louroujina. The traditional buildings are built
exclusively with thick masonry (50–70 cm) which provides benefits in the sense of its thermal inertia and
thermal insulation. The earthen blocks are usually produced manually and are called “adobe” or “mud brick”
or “sun- dried earth block”
The Cyprus case – LIVE EXAMPLE
THANK YOU!