Circular houses, made of earth, built by their future inhabitants with their own hands, friendly to the environment and low cost. For many, this will sound like architecture from remote times, whether past or future, but in reality it is a bio-construction technique known as superadobe and, above all, a viable route to one day be able to have your own home.
«A system focused on housing construction as a basic human right, where each person participates in the creation of their own homes and communities, preserving the planet’s natural resources and energy«, thus defines the superadobe Angel Montes de Ocaa specialist in this technique and who has been practicing and teaching it in Mexico for more than a decade, specifically in Tepoztlán, Morelos.
A home originally designed for the moon (and works amazingly on Earth)
The superadobe was created by the Iranian architect Nader Khalili (1936–2008) and presented to NASA as an alternative to build houses on the moon and Mars. Its incredible structural resistance, which implies the almost exclusive use of raw material from the immediate environment (earth), as well as its thermal qualities, make this system a more than viable option for any terrain.
How does superadobe work?
Long sacks are filled with earth and secured with barbed wire. They are arranged circularly and arches are mounted. «It is a great adobe, long and flexible. They are long sacks that are filled with the available soil, forming layered rings that work in compression, with strands of barbed wire placed between them to act as mortar, working with tension, creating arches that in turn form domes or vaults», explains Ángel in an interview, and quotes Khalili: «With this construction technique we are not abandoning technology; we are keeping the best of the past, moving towards the future«.
Precisely, this structure of arches and vaults gives houses an earthquake-proof resistance. In this sense, it is a design that integrates traditional earthen architecture with the safety standards of contemporary cities. According to Montes de Oca, superadobe structures meet all the guidelines required by the building codes of the state of california in terms of earthquakes, and also stand out for their resistance against fires, floods and hurricanes.
What are the great advantages of superadobe?
The structures that result from building with superadobe have remarkable qualities – it is no coincidence that it is one of the bioconstruction techniques that attracts the most attention around the world–.
Sustainable: due to the efficiency of materials and resources.
Economic: for the use of materials from the environment and the possibility of building the house, mostly, with your own hands. The square meter of a superadobe house is around $3,500 Mexican pesos ($150 USD).
Anti-seismic: for its system of arches and vaults.
Aerodynamics: for its shapes and circular spaces.
Thermal: by the thickness of the walls and the thermal nature of the earth.
Aesthetics: Although somewhat subjective, many people find superadobe houses to be especially beautiful.
Where to learn to build houses with superadobe?
There are books in which, in a rather didactic way, the authors explain step by step how to build a structure of super adobe. One of the most popular is Emergency Sandbag Shelter and Eco Village, from Khalili. In case you want a more experiential learning, we suggest you look for a workshop. If you live in Mexico you can write to Ángel ([email protected]), or do it through the site arquitecturaenarmonia.com or his Facebook page.
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