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If you stopped by the Green Living Center opening last Saturday you may haveseen Brian from Urban Earth Solutions out front molding some sculptures with cob - a mixture of earth and straw. I got to talking to him and realized we need to work some earth building into our projects! Not only is it the most local building product of them all, but earth has thermal mass qualities that can help prevent air conditioning. I think cob would be a great way to build the benches in our plaza, and rammed earth may be the way to go to get the thermal mass we need on some walls in the Gallery. At 12-14 inches thick, it has more potential in our tight sites than straw bale and adobe which tend to be thicker.
Plus it has an echo to what we are supporting in Burkina Faso!
Steve
8 responses so far ↓
1 dustin // Jun 23, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Steve,
I’ve thought about this very topic in the past and have had more than a few conversations with colleagues about using these building methods within Sacramento. The big question is how the Building Department will react to the alternate methods of construction. Might they have issue with it or surprisingly embrace it? Have you had any discussion to get their perspective?
2 Ian M. // Jun 23, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Your best bet in Sacramento, without getting too political, are the insulated concrete products.
Check out the Mercado District in Tucson, AZ. There are some awesome rammed earth rowhouses there.
If you really want to make your projects more thermally efficient, go to a party wall construction between units. This has to be marketed differently, but so do alternate building methods!
Another cool thing going on are geothermal neighborhood-wide installations. This essentially connects individual properties to a central plant.
3 steve // Jun 23, 2008 at 10:50 pm
We haven’t run the idea by the building department yet to get their reaction. Starting off with some wall sections may be the way to go. Since the Great Wall of China is rammed earth we have some history to work from.
4 dustin // Jun 24, 2008 at 6:34 am
excellent point…”see here Mr. Building Department, durable, fireproof and will last for many years.” What’s not to love!
5 Chris // Jun 26, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Levi,
I agree completely. I believe Rammed Earth is a great design feature, and can be finished to be quite beautiful as well. I also think the building departments would want some testing in order to really accept it as a building material. Maybe a little research into other houses in the area that have used Rammed Earth and how they got through is in order.
6 Chris // Jun 26, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Just that quickly. I love the internet:
http://www.rammedearthworks.com/
7 William Burg // Jun 26, 2008 at 9:46 pm
have y’all talked to Jamie Cutlip, who is working on the city’s new green-building policy, about this?
8 steve // Jun 27, 2008 at 3:55 pm
The Tucson projects Ian pointed out are very cool -http://www.rammedearth.com/mercado.html
Brian said there aren’t any examples here in Sacramento of rammed earth, but some houses up by Nevada City and I think some wineries have been using it in Napa.
West Sacramento will be where we want to try it out, but we should check with Jamie too and see if they are ready for it!
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