Project implementation: Brazil
Project development: Brazil
The exhibition proposal aims to discuss the possibility of large-scale construction with prefabricated elements in earth and straw for a sustainable construction path that can be easily achieved.
The idea of serial reproduction of the artifact, which does not translate into industrialized production systems.
Instead, we look at the popular and the work of the craftsman, that is, reproducibility according to the manual gesture with its specific virtues.
Earth and straw: domestic materials of human culture, are abundant construction resources in the territories and, together, form an opportune amalgam for architecture capable of self-structuring prefabricated blocks.
According to the latest IBGE Census from 2022, 87.9% of Brazilian households had exterior wall materials made of masonry or rammed earth with cladding, 7.2% were unclad masonry, and 4.1% were made of timber. This material is, therefore, one of the largest construction resources available in the country.
We present the test of a construction system for load-bearing walls in lightweight rammed earth, in order to contribute to the development of the technique and its applications: a block measuring 30x30x20cm, weighing 30kg and with a simple pressure load capacity of 8400kg to 15000kg (14 to 25kg/cm²).
Unlike foreign experiments in rammed earth prefabrication, especially the Austrian one, under the command of engineer Martin Rauch, which calls for mechanized efficiency in large-sized parts, here we sought a conceptual approximation with the research of Brazilian architect João Filgueiras Lima, in which every part must be sized to be carried by the hands of those working on the construction site.