Sana’a is a city made entirely out of mud with structures built entirely out of the material and decorated with geometric patterns. The buildings in this city are thousands of years old, and yet are still inhabited today.
Mud buildings have very good insulation, are sustainable, and can be easily adapted for modern use. The buildings tend to stay cooler than concrete buildings in the summer, causing air-conditioning costs to decrease. Since mud bricks are made from ferrous soil, sand, and water, their production process is completely renewable and requires “no resource-intensive manufacturing facility, no electricity and no diesel fuel ― only water.”
Doudou Dème, who founded the Elementerre that creates mud -based building products, said, “It’s totally renewable. You add water to it and make mud again. It’s a complete loop.”
Concrete has a very large carbon footprint, and it accounts for 8% of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere. Additionally, the air conditioning used in the building will also create a lot of waste. By using mud bricks as the primary building material, a lot of money and energy can be saved.
Mud walls have a high thermal mass, meaning that they absorb solar radiation to prevent a house from becoming too hot, and then release it at night. This will allow temperatures inside of the houses to remain at a comfortable level all the time.
Mud bricks are also recyclable. Mud is very moldable, and a mud home can be easily modified. Trevor Marchand, former professor of social anthropology at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and author of The Masons of Djenné, said, “There is a dynamism to it. Mud is very malleable and it responds to the changing demographics of a home.” This means that extensions can be easily added to a home if the family grows, and parts of the building can be left to turn back into soil if a family shrinks.
These mud bricks are a potential building material that can create renewable, sustainable, and functioning buildings in the future.
Link to Article:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220705-the-sustainable-cities-made-from-mud
Mud buildings have very good insulation, are sustainable, and can be easily adapted for modern use. The buildings tend to stay cooler than concrete buildings in the summer, causing air-conditioning costs to decrease. Since mud bricks are made from ferrous soil, sand, and water, their production process is completely renewable and requires “no resource-intensive manufacturing facility, no electricity and no diesel fuel ― only water.”
Doudou Dème, who founded the Elementerre that creates mud -based building products, said, “It’s totally renewable. You add water to it and make mud again. It’s a complete loop.”
Concrete has a very large carbon footprint, and it accounts for 8% of the carbon dioxide that we emit into the atmosphere. Additionally, the air conditioning used in the building will also create a lot of waste. By using mud bricks as the primary building material, a lot of money and energy can be saved.
Mud walls have a high thermal mass, meaning that they absorb solar radiation to prevent a house from becoming too hot, and then release it at night. This will allow temperatures inside of the houses to remain at a comfortable level all the time.
Mud bricks are also recyclable. Mud is very moldable, and a mud home can be easily modified. Trevor Marchand, former professor of social anthropology at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and author of The Masons of Djenné, said, “There is a dynamism to it. Mud is very malleable and it responds to the changing demographics of a home.” This means that extensions can be easily added to a home if the family grows, and parts of the building can be left to turn back into soil if a family shrinks.
These mud bricks are a potential building material that can create renewable, sustainable, and functioning buildings in the future.
Link to Article:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220705-the-sustainable-cities-made-from-mud
