MUD (ARCHITECTURE)

– as a building
material
• Mud Architecture is basically studying mud as a building material
which has already being tested and tried for thousands of years.
The property of this material is very different from the ones which
are in used in modern day construction hence the method of using
it is very different.
• Examples: In Egypt the grain stores of Ramasseum built in adobe in
1300BC still exist; the Great Wall of China has sections built in
rammed earth over 2000 years ago. Iran, India, Nepal, Yemen all
have examples of ancient cities and large buildings built in various
forms of earthen construction
Introduction
• Mud has been the most essential building materials since the dawn of the man.
• Approximately 58%of all buildings in India are of mud brick.
• Mud is a building material which has already being tested and tried for
thousands of years.
• It is used in modern day construction and the method of using it is very different.
• Mud has its own limitations which can be overcome by certain techniques.
• The main advantage of mud is we do not need lot of energy to manufacture it
unlike other materials.
Mud construction is mainly found in places which are relatively dry and have
mud in abundance.
The mud – house uses minimal energy, is comfortable year round.
• The mud – house construction uses only
simple natural materials, which are any
digging soil from the earth mixed with water
and added up with paddy or hay or any
dried fiber or even recycling garbage.
• Mud house construction is durable and can
be easily rebuilt .
• Mud construction also provide natural air
conditioning which provide cool air from the
Lab, Auroville Earth Institute
massive walls.

Auroville Earth Institute

• Why Mudas a Building Material?
• Energy Consumption
• In mud construction, minimum fossil fuel energy is consumed and is naturallyabundant
throughout the world. Where as in brick construction fossil energy is consumed for
manufacturing process and transportation.
• Recycling
• Recycling of modern materials for building construction results in high cost. Recycling of
soil does not need fossil fuel, labour require is also less. The characteristic of recycled soil
for construction remains the same whereas in modern building material situ acquires
inferior character after recycling.
• Abundance
• The abundance availability of soil in large areas help the economically weaker section of
the society to afford the mud construction. It is easily adaptable and the technology can
be transferred easily.
• Housing Demand
• A huge deficit of housing demand in urban and rural areas linked with limited resources
on all fronts make it absolutely essential that the housing solution have to be best
effective, through optimal and efficient use of all resources of land, finance andbuilding
material.
• SOIL TYPE
• Gravel: Small pieces of stone varying from the size of a pea to that
of an egg.

• Sand: Similar small pieces of stone, which are small buteach grain,
is visible to the eye.
• Silt: The same as sand except that it is so fine thatyou cannot see
individual grains.
• Clay: Soils that stick when wet - but very hard when completely dry.
• Organic Soil: Soil mainly composed of rotting, decomposing organic
matters such as leaves, plants and vegetable matter. It is spongy
when wet, usually smells of decaying matter, is dark in color and
usually damp.
• SOIL USABILITY

• Gravel: alone is of no use for mud wall building - the tiny lumps
of stone have nothing tobind them together.
• Sand: similar to gravel, it is of no use for wall making by itself -
but if mixed with clay, it is the ideal mud wall building soil.
• Silt: by itself is also no good for building walls. It will hold
together but is not strong. Furthermore, it will not compact so it
is also of no use for pressed blocks or rammedearthwork.
• Clay: can be rammed or compressed but in drying outthey often
shrink. During the monsoon they get damp and expand again
and crack form.
• Organic Soils: are mainly useless for wall building.
.• Gravel - No Good
• Silt alone - No Good Plus stabiliser - Good
• Sand alone - No Good Plus Clay - Good
• Organic Soil - No Good
• Clay alone - No Good - Plus Sand Good
Tests
• There are two kinds of tests:

– Field tests
• Colour tests
• Touch and smell test
• Biscuit test
• Hand wash test
• Cigar test
• Adhesion test
– Lab tests
• Sieve test
• Sedimentation test
COLOUR TEST
• Procedure
– Observe the colour of soil.
• Interpretation
– Deep yellow, orange and red, ranging to deep browns
indicate iron content which is good as building mud.
– Greyish or dull brown, ranging todirty white indicates
more clay.
– Dull brown with slightly greenish colourindicates
organic soil.
TOUCH & SMELL
• Procedure
– Rub small quantity of dry soil on palm to feel its texture.
– Moisten the soil and rub again.
• Interpretation
– Soil that feels course when dry but sticky when wet contains
lumps of clay.
– Soil that feels course when dry but gritty when wet contains
sand.
– Soil that feels course when dry but little gritty when wet
contains silt.
– If the wet soil gives off musty smell then it contains organic
matter.
BISCUIT TEST
• Procedure
– Make a smooth paste from the soil removing all gravels.
– Mould it into a biscuit of 3cm diameter and 1cm height.
– Leave it to dry and observer for shrinkages or cracks.
– Break the biscuit to noting how hard it is.
• Interpretation
– If biscuit cracks or leaves gap from the mould then it contains more
clay.
– If its very hard to break then soil contains more clay.
– If it breaks easily and can be crumpled between finger then it has
good sand-clay proportion.
– If breaks and reduce to powder then the soil has more sand or silt.
HAND WASH TEST
• Procedure
– Play with wet soil till your hands get thoroughly dirty.
– Wash your hands to see how difficult it is to clean.
• Interpretation
– If hands get cleaned quickly, then soil contains more sand.
– If it takes little time to clean and feels like flour then soil
contains more silt.
– If it feels soapy or slippery and takes time to clean then soil
contains more clay.
CIGAR TEST
• Procedure
– Make a smooth paste from the soil removing allgravels.
– Roll it on palm to make a cigar.
– Slowly push it outside yourpalm.
– Measure the length at which it breaks.
• Interpretation
– Length below 5cm - too muchsand.
– Length above 15cm - too muchclay.
– Length between 5cm to 15cm - good mixture of sand and
clay.
ADHESION TEST
• Procedure
– Make ball out of wetsoil.
– Pierce a knife into it andremove.
– Observer the knife after removing.
• Interpretation
– If little soil sticks on the knife then it has more silt.
– If lot of soil sticks on the knife then it has more clay.
– If the knife is clean after removal than the soil has
more sand.
SIEVE TEST
• Procedure
– Passsoil from series of standard sieves set on top of on another
with finest sieve atbottom.
– Observer the soil collected in eachsieve.
• Interpretation
– Silt will be collected in lowermostsieve.
– Gravels will be collected on top.
– Sand and lumps of clay will be collected in
intermediate sieves
SEDIMENTATION TEST
• Procedure
– Take a transparent cylindrical bottle or jar of 1Lt.Capacity.
– Fill it with ¼soil and ¾water.
– Shake well and allow it to settle for 30 min.
• Interpretation
– Coarse gravels will be settled at bottom,followed by sand,
silt and clay on top.
– Measuring the layers will give us theapproximate
proportions of eachcontent.
 STABILISERS
• When the available soil is not suitable enoughfor
construction then the soil can be used by
manipulating its composition by adding suitable
stabilizers.
– Stabilizing enhances the given property of the soil type.
– Increase Tensile and Shear strength.
– Reduce shrinkage.
•Straw,plant juices,sugar
Cow dung,animal urine,
Oil and gumArabic.
Various construction methods are:

Stacked earth (COB)

Pise or rammed earth
Adobe
Wattle & daub method
Formed earth (Straw Clay)
Earth filled in
Compressed earth blocks
Extruded earth
Cut earth
 SYSTEMS OF BUILDING
COB is good for anything except height. It is particularly
good for curved or round walls.
PISE OR RAMMED EARTH is strong and ideal for solid, Austin
squat, single storey houses.
ADOBE or SUN DRIED BRICKS can easily cope with two
storey houses.
PRESSED BRICKS smooth and very strong and can build
three storey.
WATTLE & DAUB is elegant and fine for Seismic Zones.

Tamil Nadu, – Village house, India

 COB
• With only a little water to form a very stiff mud, a large lump is roughly
moulded into the shape of a huge elongatedegg.
• The usual size is anything between 12 to 18-inches, (30 to 40-cm) long
and about 6-inches (15-cm) in diameter.
• A row of these cobs of mud are laid neatly side-by-side -preferably
somewhat pressed together.
• Then another row of cobs is laid ontop.
• When three or four courses have been laid, one above the other,the
sides are smoothed over so that the holes and cracksdisappear.
• Openings for doors, and windows are a problem, which can be solved by
using temporary vertical planks or shuttering.
• Another very simple shuttering for openings is to use emptykerosene
tins.
 cob "A mixture of straw, gravel, and unburnt clay; used esp. for
walls."—Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, Cyril M.Harris,
ed., McGraw- Hill, 1975, p. 111.

• cob wall "A wall formed of unburnt clay mixed with chopped straw,
gravel, and occasionally with layers of long straw, in which the straw
acts as a bond>"— Dictionary of Architecture and Construction,
Cyril M. Harris, ed., McGraw- Hill,1975, p. 111
ADOBE
• Bricks are made in an open frame, 25 by 36 cm (10 by 14 in) being a
reasonable size, but any convenient size is acceptable. The mixture
is molded into a frame, and then the frame is removed after initial
setting. After drying a few hours, the bricks are turned on edge to
finish drying. Slow drying in shade reducescracking.
• The same mixture used to make bricks, but without straw, is used
for mortar and often for plaster on interior and exterior walls. Some
ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect
against rain damage

Tamil nadu, India Tamil nadu, India

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
 WATTLEAND DAUB

• Wattle and daub method is an oldand common

method of building mudstructures.
• There bamboo and cane frame structure that Somalia, Genale - Village huts
supports the roof.
• Mud is plastered over this mesh ofbamboo cane
and straws
• Due to excessive rainfall the Wattle andDaub
structures gets washed off.
• However, the mesh of cane or splitbamboo
remains intact and after the heavy rain is over
the mud is plastered on again.

France

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
Compressed Earth Blocks (CSEB)
Rammed Earth Blocks
• has developed from the cob wall so asto
standardize or regularize the thickness of the
wall.
• It is also an attempt to increase the strength of the
wall by ramming it. It is known astheRammed
Earth method.
• Two parallel planks are held firmlyapart by metal Morocco
rods and clips or bolts, or by small cross pieces of
wood.
• Stiff mud is thrown in between these two
planks and rammed down with either a
wooden or metal ramrod.
• When one section is completed and hard, the two
boards are moved along and the process is
repeated
• The two planks are then raised up and a second
India, Ladakh
courseof rammed earth is repeated over thefirst.
Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
CUT EARTH:

•In areas where the soils was cohesive

and contained concretions of carbonates
the soil was cut in the shape of blocks and
used like bricks or stones.

•Such examples are found typically in

tropical areas where lateritic soils give a Burkina Faso, Quarry of Kari
wonderful building material.

•Lateritic soils can be found in two

natural states:

India, Orissa India, Orissa

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
•Soft soils- which will harden when exposed to
air due to chemical reaction of the soil
constituent with the air (carbonation reaction).
This natural reaction is called induration
•Such soils can be found on the west coast of
India, from Kerala to Goa.
•Hard crust- which was long ago a soil and has
already hardened (indured) through the ages.
•Orissa in India show wonderful examples of
such soils and blocks. India, Orissa
•In areas where the soil is not cohesive enough,
people have used topsoil and grass to create
blocks.

Burkina Faso, Quarry of Kari

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
Kerala, India India, Goa

India, Old Goa India, Orissa

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
EARTH FILLED-IN :

•Humid soil was traditionally poured into

wooden lattice works. Thus, it gave some
thermal mass to light structures as well as some
acoustic insulation.

•In recent times, dry soil has been poured into School of Architecture, Germany
synthetic textiles which are hold outside by
wooden poles driven into the ground.

•Dry soil is also being poured into long

synthetic tubes, which are staked upon each
other.

School of Architecture, Germany

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
•Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and
Architecture) does an extensive use of filled in
technique.

•They call it Super adobe construction and they are

USA, California, Cal-Earth
building what is called Eco-domes. Super adobe
structures are an excellent example of green
building techniques.

•They use Tubular roll of sandbag-type material

which are filled with earth. A barbed wire is use to
bind the earth tube together. Later on the earth
tubes are plastered with stabilised earth plaster.
USA, California, Cal-Earth

USA, California, Cal-Earth

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
EXTRUDED EARTH :

•The earth extrusion technique has been

used since a long while in the fired brick
industry.

•Stabilised earth, at a plastic state, is as well

extruded through a machine which gives
the desired shape. France

•The blocks are often hollow and are cut to

the desired length.

•This technique of stabilised extruded earth

was developed in the 20th century.

Burkina Faso
Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
•Compared to the brick extrusion in the
fired brick industry, stabilised extruded
earth bricks show a major inconvenient.

•The soil required for stabilised earth is

much sandier than the one for fired
earth.

•Thus the soil is more abrasive and the

machines get damaged at a much faster
rate.
Burkina Faso

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
FORMED EARTH (Straw Clay) :

•Very clayey soil, in a liquid state, is poured on

straw, which has been chopped to the desired
length.

•The mix is generally tampered afterwards into

forms. Belgium

•These walls are not load-bearing.

•they are light, have a very high thermal

insulation value and must be built in a wooden
structure.

Germany
Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
•It was traditionally used in Germany and
was re-used for reconstruction after the 2nd
world war.

•It is mostly known with the name Straw

clay.

•Straw clay can be used as a filler wall,

Germany
formed between a wooden structure or as
prefabricated blocks.

Germany
Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
Examples of mud construction-

Taos Pueblo (New Mexico) Arg-e bam (southeastern Iran,)

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
 Shibam (Yemen) Siwa oasis (western egypt)

Djinguereber Mosque (West Africa.) West Africa (Uzbekistan)

Ref-http://www.earth-auroville.com
 TREATMENTAGAINST TERMITES
• Mud is the natural home of termites
so in areas where they are common
the same precautions have to be
taken as in all buildings to prevent
their moving up into the walls and
eating wooden frames etc.
• A one-inch thick layer of mortar
(one part of cement to 3-parts of
sand) can be laid all over the top of
the basement wall before building
the mud walls above it. This is
helpful in keeping out both termites
and damp.
 TREATMENTAGAINST TERMITES
• Even better is to construct an apron
of burnt brick or stone (or it can be
rammed earth) all round the
building (to prevent damage to the
walls by splashing, of rain water) and
this too can be plastered over with a
rich cement mortar.
• Any thin sheet metal may be laid
over the basement wall with a 3-
inch downward projection before
starting to build the superstructure
mud wall above. This is expensive
but very effective.
• There are various chemicals on the
market, which can be used.
 WATER
• Water and dampness are one of the
major problems for mud as
construction material.
• The best way of protecting anywall
from either rain or sun is to have a
good big overhang to your roof.
• The sloping, or pitched roof isbetter
because the walls need not be so
high as for a flat roofed house.
• Provide trenches round the house to
receive dripping water and drain it
away.
Advantages of Mud:
• Environmental impact:
• To save natural resources.
• Using neither cement nor rock (Save our mountains).
• To save building materials:
• Main materials are soil and water, mixed to be mud, if the mud is too sticky, we
can add up with paddy husky or rice straw or local fiber weed or bamboo.
• Energy use :
• To save energy.
• Cool in summer (Inside building temperature is about 24°c to 26°c.
• Warm in Winter (Automatic control temperature by passive cooling system)
• Capital Expenditure:
• To save money .
• No air – conditioning, no electricitybills.
DISADVANTAGEs-
Humidity is the crucial factor, mud-house will easily catch fungus.
The brand- new mud-house may have foul odour of crushed green leaves.
Erodes easily by water.
Low tensile and shear strength , hence , roofs difficult.
Susceptible to mechanical damage, rodents and burgles.
Grip between earth and wood is very weak , hence, framed doors and
windows are not possible.
Requires regular maintenance.
Not fire proof and not termite proof.
 Ar.Laurie Baker

• The thing that hit me in the eye, right from the

beginning, was that an enormous amount of use was
made of mud! The first thing I discovered was that
mud is one thing in one place and a different thing in
another. It is used for different purposes and is used
in different ways! Thereare different techniques of
sticking it together and making it into a wall or
whatever. This varied considerably, even sometimes in
a matter of a few miles, from one district to another”