On July 6th, 2022, Isabelle Gerretsen, a reporter for BBC Future Planet, wrote an article about using mud for buildings and its benefits.
Currently, the construction industry impacts the climate greatly, with it accounting for 38% of all carbon dioxide emissions. The materials used for construction are a major part, with concrete alone causing around 7% of all emissions. The mud could serve as the replacement for concrete as it’s recyclable and has a low impact on the environment.
Mud buildings also could prevent more greenhouse gas emissions besides construction. Once built, mud buildings have a high thermal mass meaning they slowly absorb and lose heat, keeping the temperature at a constant comfortable temperature and lowering the need for air conditioning.
There are other additional benefits too. Mud can improve air quality inside homes by letting moisture in by being porous. Mud buildings are sturdy against severe weather like floods and heatwaves. Salma Samar Damluji, a co-founder of the Daw’an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation in Yemen, mentions mud architecture’s ability to withstand severe events by saying that it can handle earthquakes and winds “because of the ability of its structure to distribute the load that it faces on its surface, unlike concrete or cement.”
However, Pamela Jerome, a U.S architect and the president of the Architectural Preservation Studio, comments on how mud buildings will do against severe weather is situational, saying that, “mud building’s resilience to earthquakes depends on the intensity of the seismic waves and the soil in which they are built.” She also said that the impact of floods depends on “whether they are built in a flood plain and have strong foundations.”
This has been shown by a flood in Yemen in 2008 that damaged 5,000 mud buildings in the Hadhramaut region that were built on a flood plain without many foundations compared to the 25 damaged in desert Wadi Dawan where the foundations were over 4.9 feet deep.
Still, though, Jerome recognizes the benefits of mud buildings and says, “Overall, this makes for highly sophisticated as well as sustainable design. Every mud house is comfortable, can be totally adapted and easily retrofitted with electricity and plumbing.”
Article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220705-the-sustainable-cities-made-from-mud
Currently, the construction industry impacts the climate greatly, with it accounting for 38% of all carbon dioxide emissions. The materials used for construction are a major part, with concrete alone causing around 7% of all emissions. The mud could serve as the replacement for concrete as it’s recyclable and has a low impact on the environment.
Mud buildings also could prevent more greenhouse gas emissions besides construction. Once built, mud buildings have a high thermal mass meaning they slowly absorb and lose heat, keeping the temperature at a constant comfortable temperature and lowering the need for air conditioning.
There are other additional benefits too. Mud can improve air quality inside homes by letting moisture in by being porous. Mud buildings are sturdy against severe weather like floods and heatwaves. Salma Samar Damluji, a co-founder of the Daw’an Mud Brick Architecture Foundation in Yemen, mentions mud architecture’s ability to withstand severe events by saying that it can handle earthquakes and winds “because of the ability of its structure to distribute the load that it faces on its surface, unlike concrete or cement.”
However, Pamela Jerome, a U.S architect and the president of the Architectural Preservation Studio, comments on how mud buildings will do against severe weather is situational, saying that, “mud building’s resilience to earthquakes depends on the intensity of the seismic waves and the soil in which they are built.” She also said that the impact of floods depends on “whether they are built in a flood plain and have strong foundations.”
This has been shown by a flood in Yemen in 2008 that damaged 5,000 mud buildings in the Hadhramaut region that were built on a flood plain without many foundations compared to the 25 damaged in desert Wadi Dawan where the foundations were over 4.9 feet deep.
Still, though, Jerome recognizes the benefits of mud buildings and says, “Overall, this makes for highly sophisticated as well as sustainable design. Every mud house is comfortable, can be totally adapted and easily retrofitted with electricity and plumbing.”
Article: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220705-the-sustainable-cities-made-from-mud