ALTERNATE MATERIALS WORKSHOP

Guides:

Ar. Tejaswini Krishna P

Ar. Surendran Aalone

Ar. Anjali Cheriyath

The workshop focussed on the basics of earth construction. It dealt with earth bag construction, adobe blocks as well as mud and lime plaster.

• - The workshop started off with understanding the components of mud and their influence on the behaviour of the mud.

• Numerous samples were collected and simple tests were conducted to understand their compositions.

• Based on that Adobe block composition was tested and blocks were made.

• We filled earth bags and made a low katte like structure.

• On which we used mud plaster.

TEST CONDUCTED:

These tests helped us analyse the composition of the mud.

The next test involved testing one sample in numerous states such as dry, humid, viscous under different treatments such as just filled, tamped, compacted.

Observation - the dry, compacted turned out to be the one that held form the best. This is because the soil had the right amount of moisture which helped in holding the form

Earthbag Construction

• The first step was to clear the area and level out the ground.

• As the foundation, Clay hollow blocks were laid out, and is ensured that they are at the same level.

• Rice sacks were used as the earth bag. In this around 2.5 bandlis (pan) semi-sieved yellow soil was filled.

• Before placing the bags, a layer of chicken mesh is laid enough to cover it till the top.

• The bags were laid on top. They were levelled out using a Dhamma.

• Before laying the next course, 2 rows of barbed wire is added to bind theearthbags.

• Same process was repeated for another course.

• After the final course, the chicken mesh was overlapped and tied using binding wire.

Adobe Blocks

In groups, we tried numerous compositions of mud, sand, husk, straw, cement and water to make adobe blocks. 6 groups tried 2 variations of composition.

Method

• First,the soil is made sure is free of gravel and has less or no organic matterthe red soil is sieved using a 9mm mesh.

• The adobe block mixture was put onto a tarpaulin in a ratio ofRed soil - 2

Yellow soil - 0.5

M sand - 0.5

Rice husk - 0.25

Straw - 0.25

Cement - 0.25

Water - to consistency

• The dry was mixed on the tarpaulin by pugging it by using legs and shifting the tarp over to the sides.

• The ground is cleared of any waste.

• The mould is rubbed with a wet sponge.

• M-sand is dusted on the ground so that the blocks can easily be removed.

• The adobe mixture is then thrown in the mould with force in order to make sure that the corners are filled.

• Once the mould is filled, the top is levelled using a float.

• Once all the blocks are filled, the mould is removed by tapping it to remove the blocks.

• Cement was dusted on top to speeden the drying.

Mud Plaster

• A mixture of red soil, yellow soil, husk, straw and cement made the rough plaster.

Application:

The rough plaster is applied by taking little plaster in our hand and hitting it onto the wall / earth bags.

It is then smoothened using the palm with light pressure