Instructional video on making mud brick for a mortar test using clay and sand.

Mud brick making

After much trial and error we learned that this is the most effective method for cobbing a house.

さとう珠緒 Tamao Sato shapes a mud brick and we get a glimpse of her crazy huge platform shoes.

Don Israel's house

http://blog.inakahome.com http://www.inakahome.com On this work weekend, we continue mud brick experiments and start painting the roof

Mudbrick Vineyard, Waiheke Island, 2 February 2007

After spending a couple of weeks doing hard labour, the garden is transformed.

Jade at home with Dad, Jason Tomlins, Australia

A fiberglass reinforced polymer mold, of bolt-together panels that serves as basis to build a dome structure of concrete, adobe, cob, mud brick or other locally available material.

Alex, Sue and local APHEDA staff spent the day running a workshop on building 'cob' ovens from mudbricks from scratch. Trainers from APHEDAs partner organisations were learning the skills to then take back to their communities. The ovens are designed to reduce the amount of pollution produced by conventional fire cooking. The oven design uses only materials and resources that communities would already have, or could access easily.

Jade at home with Dad, Jason Tomlins, Australia

( In memory of Bam earthquake in Dec 2003 ) Bam, town (1996 pop. 70,100), Kerman prov., SE Iran, on the intermittent Bam River. Located on the western edge of the Dasht-e Lut, Bam is a trade center in a henna-growing region. Dates and other fruits are also grown; Its historic fortress, established 2,000 years ago, is one of the world's largest mud-brick buildings. Other noted buildings date from the Safavid period (1499--1736). Bam declined after the Afghans invaded in 1722, and from 1890 to 1932 was a military garrison, but has been restored since. Much of the town, including its historic monuments, was devastated by an earthquake in Dec., 2003; more than 26,000 people died.

Chinguetti la bibliothèque du désert Chinguetti (Arabic: شنقيط) is a ksour or ancient trading centre in northern Mauritania, lying on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Founded in the 13th century, as the center of several trans-Saharan trade routes, this small threatened city continues to attract visitors who admire its spare architecture, exotic scenery and its ancient libraries. The indigenous Saharan architecture of older sectors of the city feature reddish dry stone and mud-brick houses,featuring flat roofs timbered from palms. Many of the older houses feature hand-hewn doors cut from massive ancient acacia tress that have long disappeared from the surroundings. Many homes include courtyards or patios that crowd along narrow streets leading to the central mosque. Notable buildings in the town include The Friday Mosque of Chinguetti,an ancient structure of dry stone featuring a square minaret capped with five ostrich egg finials; the former French Foreign Legion fortress; and a tall watertower. The old quarter of the Chinguetti is home to five important manuscript libraries of scientific and Qur'anic texts, with many dating from the later Middle Ages. The Chinguetti region has been occupied for thousands of years and once was a broad savannah. Cave paintings in the nearby Amoghar Pass feature pictures of giraffes, cows and people in a green landscape quite different from the starkly beautiful sand dunes of the desert landscape found in the region today. The city was originally founded in 777, and by the 11th century had become a trading center for a confederation of Berber tribes known as the Sanhadja Confederation. Soon after settling Chinguetti, the Sanhadja first interacted with and eventually melded with the Almavorids, the founders of the Moorish Empire which stretched from present-day Senegal to Spain. The city's stark unadorned architecture reflects the strict, "Malikite" Islamic beliefs of the Almavorids. After two centuries of decline, the city was effectively re-founded in the 13th century as a fortified cross-Saharan caravan trading center connecting the Mediterranean with Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the walls of the original fortification disappeared centuries ago, many of the buildings in the old section of the city still date from this period. For centuries the city was a principal gathering place for pilgrims of the Maghreb to gather on the way to Mecca and it became known as a holy city in its own right, especially for pilgrims unable to make the long journey to the Arab Peninsula. It also became a center of Islamic religious and scientific scholarship in West Africa. In addition to religious training, the schools of Chinguetti taught students rhetoric, law, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. For many centuries all of Mauritania was popularly known in the Arab world as "Bilad Shinqit, "the land of Chinguetti." Chinguetti is sometimes said to be the seventh holiest city of Islam. There is no recognition of this claim outside of West Africa, but whatever its ranking, the city remains one of the world's most important historical sites both in terms of the history of Islam and the history of West Africa. Although largely abandoned to the desert, the city features a series of medieval manuscript libraries without peer in West Africa, and the area around the Rue des Savants was once famous as a gathering place for scholars to debate the finer points of Islamic law. Today its deserted streets continue to reflect the urban and religious architecture of the Moorish empire as it existed in the Middle Ages. Today, along with the cities of Ouadane, Tichitt and Oualata, Chinguetti has been designated as a World heritage site. The Friday Mosque of Chinguetti, is widely considered by Mauritanians to be the national symbol of the country. Mauritania's recently discovered offshore oilfield was named Chinguetti in its honor. While difficult to get to, Chinguetti's stark beauty and exotic, medieval Islamic architecture make the region an interesting, if challenging, tourist destination for both the adventurous traveler and the Islamic scholar. VALPARD FILMS http://valpardfilms.free.fr

GSE-DVD-SILK - Steeped in history, colored by centuries of lore, a journey along the ancient route of the Silk Road is the ultimate travel experience. This exciting program follows the historic Silk Road across the mountains, oases, and deserts of western China and Central Asia. Join us on a journey along one of the most famous routes of history and experience these extraordinary places: # Starting from the modern Chinese capital of Beijing, we travel to the ancient Chinese capital of Xian, head of the Silk Road. # Dunhang at the edge of the Gobi Desert, where ancient Buddhist treasures dazzled nineteenth century European explorers. # The western most remnants of the Great Wall, and the low, hot Turpan Oasis, where ancient mud-brick cities are returning to the sands. # Across the fearsome Taklamakan Desert to Hotan, where silk is still processed in the centuries old traditional manner. # Kyrgyzstan, a country where nomadic herders spend the summer in yurts. # The Uzbek cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukara and Khiva noted for their stunning Islamic architecture, hand woven carpets and lively markets. # Remote and extraordinary Turkmenistan. Travels across Central Asia in the footsteps of Marco Polo and the silk merchants' caravans from Beijing to Samarkand, past Magao Cave dwellings, through the Taklamaken desert and wild mountain passes into Kyrgyzstan, and onward to Uzbekistan.

Slideshow of the recent travel in Mali (West Africa). The land of the Dogon (the people who came from the stars). The sailing over the Niger up to Timbuktu "The desert's door". The mud brick Great Mosque of Djenne.

Model house 4A - tested on a shake table using the Mw 7.7 earthquake from El Salvador (January 13, 2001)... Simuluation S7 (S100%)... after simulations at 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% and 125%... damaged but still standing!

Go to http://www.kleiwerks.org for a wealth of free natural building photos and resources. Why is exploring natural building alternatives so important? 95% of our original forests have been destroyed. Current building construction accounts for... # 40% of the world's energy usage # 40% of the debris dumped in landfills # 18% of the world's fresh water usage And results in 30 years of debt for the average home owner. This video is about the reintroduction and refining of traditional common sense, on site building practices across the globe. Kleiworks at http://www.Kleiwerks.org has trained locals in the art of natural building in Thailand, Argentina, the United States of America, Laos, China, Burma, India, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Australia, Brazil and England. Even if you're not building a home you can help revive sensible, sustainable, ecologically friendly building by making a tax deductable donation to the kleiworks training fund at http://www.kleiwerks.org/support_us.php

San Diego, with its superb coastline, near-perfect climate and Mediterranean facade, makes it the quintessential Southern California beach city, but there's no chance to develop ennui and boredom. The smorgasbord of museums at Balboa Park and the historic Old Town, the famous San Diego zoo and the equally famous SEA World, and fine beaches such as in Coronado and La Jolla Cove will fill up anyone's appetite for sights to see. The Old Town is the site of the original pueblo (village) that sprang up in San Diego below the mission and fortress back in the 18th century. It preserves five of the original adobe (mud brick) buildings alongside scores of recreated structures, including a schoolhouse and a newspaper office. It's a pleasant place to soak up some history, browse for souvenirs and perhaps enjoy a Mexican meal. Across from the visitor center is La Casa de Estudillo, a restored adobe home filled with authentic period furniture. Just off the plaza's northwestern corner is The Bazaar del Mundo, a colorful collection of import shops and restaurants, and a good place for a stroll. Rising from water's edge on the quaint island of Coronado and facing the Pacific Ocean, the Hotel del Coronado is considered one of America's most beautiful beach resorts. A classic historic hotel, The Del was built in 1888 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977, for being one of the few surviving examples of an American architectural genre: the wooden Victorian beach resort. Not far from downtown La Jolla — an upscale hamlet of hotels, boutiques, and galleries — lies La Jolla Cove, a swimming and diving paradise. This tiny beach nook is sheltered by picturesque cliffs and offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean in an intimate setting. La Jolla Cove has some of the clearest water of all San Diego beaches, and children delight in watching families of seals lounging on the shore.

Giovanni Ebono interviews Nina Bishop about the passive solar mud-brick house that she built over ten years in Mullumbimby. Around 200 people visited the house during Sustainable House day.

First full-scale retrofit of an adobe house using the QuakeSafe Adobe reinforcement system

Luis Pedron of Fanclubx.com interviews Aliona van der Horst Director of "Voices of Bam" at the Tribeca Film Festival 2006. Cameraman and Editor for Fanclubx.com: Sherwin Morada Synposis of "Voices of Bam": As much as the sight of disasters repels us, we often find it difficult to avert our eyes. But it is hard not to be frustrated and a little nauseated by the standard reporting method of sticking cameras and microphones into the faces of bruised and dazed survivors while repeating the pointless question: "How did it feel?" Voices of Bam offers a completely different portrayal of disaster-one far more sensitive than mere reportage-as it accords its subjects enormous dignity while giving them an opportunity to express themselves with a rare, simple eloquence. The powerful earthquake that struck the ancient city of Bam in southeastern Iran on December 26, 2003, killed over 43,000 people, injured 20,000, and left 60,000 inhabitants homeless. Much of the city, including a 2,000-year-old mud-brick citadel that was universally revered as one of the world's architectural heritage sites, was completely leveled. Inspired by snapshots uncovered in the rubble-which are the only remaining tangible reminders of life before the quake-the filmmakers almost seem to be overhearing the city's inhabitants, who try to go on with their lives one year later. The film thus speaks volumes about the relationship between men and women in Iran, and about their relationship to God. The grief and guilt expressed by the survivors strike a universal chord, and the indomitable life force they embody is unforgettable.

Video is from "Paradise Found - Islamic Architecture from Timbuktu to Asia" by Waldemar Januszczak The mosque of Djene goes in well as an example African art, the community together working with mud looks like fun Can see the whole video link bellow: http://www.videosift.com/video/Paradise-Found-Islamic-Architecture-from-Timbuktu-to-Asia The Tomes of Timbuktu: "The manuscripts on loan to the museum include writings on the Koran, animal rights, women's rights, food preparation, travel, the making and playing of musical instruments, art and conflict resolution. Among those who wrote about conflict resolution is Oumar Tall, a 19th-century scholar from Timbuktu. "Tragedy is due to divergence and because of a lack of tolerance. In the tradition of the Prophet, it is written that those who keep rancor in their hearts will not benefit from divine mercy . . .," he wrote. "It is written by the Guide of mankind that he who associates himself with God and kills voluntarily will not be pardoned. "Glory be to he who creates greatness from difference and makes peace and reconciliation." By bringing these manuscripts to the United States, Abdel Haidara later tells me by e-mail, he hopes to show that tolerance has a valued place in Islamic tradition." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45889-2005Feb23.html About what the narrator said regarding the age of Djene, I feel obliged to point out Kerma is thousands of years older

A quick video showing the construction of a strawbale house in Adelaide.

Mudbrick Vineyard, Waiheke Island, 2 February 2007