The Earthbag or "Superadobe" Building Method
Many people may be familiar with earthen building methods such as adobe and rammed earth. In Earthbag building, these methods are coupled with the time tested method of building with sand bags. Sand bags have often been used as durable barriers to absorb shock and have proven extremely flood resistant. Earthbags are sacks of earth or insulation that are arranged one row on top of the other to create extremely resilient, often domed, structures. The basic structure looks much like an upturned coiled clay pot.
History
The Earthbag building method was developed into its current state by Persian Architect Nader Khalili
The Materials
- Bags
- Earth (most types-clay, sand, etc)
- Barbed Wire
- Gravel (optional)
The Tools
- Shovels
- Tamping tool
- Bricks/weights
- Nails/wire
- Buckets
- Hose
- Sheetmetal Slider
- Pliers
- Ladder
As some of these tools may not be needed in your particular earthbag project, some may also become necessary. A leveling board, hoes for digging and other materials like rubber mallets may come in useful.
building Tips
The bags: Often used are Polypropelene rice or feed bags. These are durable, readily available and have a high UV resistance. The thing about the bags, though, is that no matter what they will eventually rot off. This is natural and shouldn't be a problem since, according to Nader Khalili, the contents of the bags settles into its permanent form within 3 days.
Bibliography
The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture. Founded by Nader Khalili, this non-profit foundation has a great website spanning technical innovations published by NASA for lunar and Martian construction, to housing design and development for the world's homeless for the United Nations.
A well documented example of building with earthbags, especially helpful in detailing materials and tools.
See Superadobe as well and maybe join these pages.