Rammed Earth Cookstove Project in Chad

Remember the ingenious F.I.R.E.S. rammed earth stove project developed by Tristan Cooper for the East Africa Trust?

Now Envodev, an NGO whose mission is to develop vocational opportunities that correspond with the need for better cooking methods and more efficient cooking energy will be launching their own version this summer in Chad to enhance their eco-charcoal project.



Most Chadian households rely on wood or charcoal burned in what is essentially a wire basket to cook their meals and beverages.
Can you imagine trying to make breakfast with a few little ones milling around this device?

Obviously this technology is woefully inefficient and poses immediate and long-term health risks to its users,  mostly women and their families.

Fortunately, it is customary in Chad for girls and women to grind flour from grain and manioc with ironwood pestles. Through Envodev's programs, these traditional skills are now being applied to the production of an energy-efficient, economical fuel source and further, to the construction of rammed earth cookstoves to burn said fuel, giving women good paying jobs that men lack the strength and endurance to accomplish.

 To quote Mark David Heath, from whose personal networking page I pinched the preceeding photos:

Since the mortar and pestle are traditional "women's tools," by having the women ram the soil with the pestle sticks we got past the cultural issue of women working in construction. In fact, none of the men could ram the soil for days as the women did.  The women would ram 8 hours per day, 6 days per week, for weeks.

Mr Heath's photos highlight not only the eco-charcoal project, but also the world's largest contemporary rammed earth enclosure near Kome, standing proud after nearly a decade of  typical weather. In this part of the country, that means more than 40 inches of rain each year.
When implemented, this project will counteract deforestation, provide skills and employment, improving air quality and the well-being of women and children.
Does this project resonate with you?
Do you enjoy the information provided here at Rammed Earth is for Everyone, year after year?
Perhaps you might consider showing your appreciation by making a donation in our name to Agro-Charcoal in Chad as Vocational Enterprises.

At post time they are just $12,825 short of the budget goal for this project. 
  
This site sees about 1500 readers each month, ten dollars from each of us would get this project off to tidy start.  

I shouldn't have to remind anyone who has read this far that there is very exciting work being done on the continent of Africa  to further the field of modern rammed earth construction. It can only help those in the "developed" world to share resources with those who can make the boldest use of them. Support for Envodev's projects will further enhance the use of earth as a modern construction material throughout Africa, while providing environmentally sensitive skills and education to underserved communities.

It sure would be nice to see them build their charcoal center from our favorite building material.
 

1924 or The Eternal Present

Here's an 89 year-old newspaper article extolling the advantages of constructing a home with compressed soil, courtesy of the Special Collections librarians at the Sandusky Library in Sandusky, Ohio, USA.

The house in the lower right of the illustration is Oakmont, the Cabin John, Maryland  home of Dr Harry B. Humphrey featured in the famed  USDA Farmer's Bulletin 1500 - Rammed Earth Walls for Buildings  as well as Anthony F. Merrill's The Rammed Earth House.  

Dr Humphrey (uncle of Vice President Hubert) was a phytopathologist with the Bureau of Plant Industry at the U.S.D.A., where he came across a pamphlet from South Africa dealing with rammed earth construction. His wife Olive designed the home, which was constructed in 1923 with the help of a carpenter and the Humphreys' two sons. The house still stands, weathering dozens of hurricanes, oceans of rain and record-breaking blizzards that have struck the area since its construction.

from the Sandusky Star-Journal

How to Build House of Dirt; Cheapest on Record

Laughing at Contractors

by Charles P. Stewart, NEA Service Writer

Washington, March 25, 1924

If you want a house but can't afford it, build with ordinary dirt.

Wear? For centuries. The dirt turns to stone.

looks? See the accompanying picture.

Cost? Nothing for the dirt. Day wages for a little unskilled labor.  Whatever you please to pay for plumbing and other accessories. 

All this is according to Edward W. Coffin, a well-known Washington mechanical engineer.

"It's a very old style of building," he says "known as 'pise de terre', which means 'rammed earth.'

"Pliny, the Roman, tells of its use by Hannibal 150 years before Christ. Thomas Jefferson recommended it but wood was too plentiful in America in those days. The oldest house in the United States, at St. Augustine, Fla., was built thus.

Such a house, built in 1773, stands in Washington today, better than when it was new. And Dr H.B. Humphrey, Department of Agriculture, has just finished a rammed earth house here. City building inspectors say it's one of the solidest, best-built in town.

"The system is unpatentable-- free to all.

"It solves the problems of cheap home building. A rammed earth wall's cost is less than a quarter of the cost of brick, much less than half the cost of concrete, at least two thirds less than a subsided frame.

"Rammed earth mustn't be confused with adobe, sod or mud and straw.

"Any earth which clods in plowing will do. Pure sand won't pack. Clay cracks.

"Twelve per cent. moisture in the earth is about right. It must be sifted, to break up clods and remove vegetable matter.

"Only one mold form is needed, an advantage over concrete. But the mold must be very strong-- at least 2-inch planed planks, heavily braced, and held together by iron tie-bars. The pressure of hard ramming is terrific.

"Put the mold on an ordinary foundation. Fill it 5 inches deep with sifted earth. Pound with 15 to 20 pound iron rammers until it's so hard its rings, as a pavement rings.

"Then put in another 5 inches and repeat until the mold is full. After that, remove the mold, set it up again and go on.

"Openings are left for doors, windows, fire places and chimneys by putting blocks in the earth and taking them out when the earth around them has been rammed..

"During building the exposed sides won't be affected by rain, but the top should be protected, with tar paper or boards.

"After six weeks drying, in ordinary summer weather, the wall becomes rocklike. It may be finished outside as desired; stucco, pebble dash, cement or tar. The inside may be treated in any of the usual ways --with paper on a coat of sizing, water color paint or plaster.

"The walls are 12 to 24 inches thick and will bear 100 times the weight put on any house. They will do for a  building up to three stories high."

speaking of rammed earth workshops

As has been shown time and again on this blog, it not necessary to use pneumatic tampers or rammers to build a rammed earth wall, but if you decide to go that way you will need something to power them.

Perhaps a compressor that carries its own form-ply and walers?

This is  Al Nichols' home-brewed, street-legal earth (and snow) compressor in use at his rammed earth wall building workshop last spring. Al built it from recycled materials and off-the-rack parts from Princess Auto  at a cost of around $1200 CAD, which is about a month's rental on a comparable machine.

Al's workshop was quick and dirty, fast and loose. No slide show, no feelings talk, just action.

  

 The sand and gravel was delivered to the site pre-mixed.

 Gnarly old tamper.

Yes, that formwork is being erected on the cold, hard ground. There is no footing, there is no foundation, nothing below grade.

Form-ply clamped on to a 2x10 (or 12"?) end panel along with some walers.

 Then wooden wedges were tapped between the pipe and the end panel for more stability.

More wedges down below to get things "levelled."

 How's this making everyone feel?

I'm sensing a sharp intake of breath in the coastal regions...

 And the form is ready to fill. Yes, we are looking skeptical.

There was a ratio at work here; 15 shovels of soil to one of portland cement or so? It was not presented as an exact science. Sometimes we threw in a bit of pigment.

 

We came back the next day to remove the forms. Despite my misgivings about the forming system,  a fine, sturdy wall embedded with a whimsical glow in the dark star was revealed.

 

After one year in a snowy Canadian winter it shows no sign of spalling or frost heave, nor has it fallen over.

Parlons Pise

Rammed Earth in South Carolina

The Church of the Holy Cross, a Gothic Revival structure designed by Edward C. Jones gets a lot of attention when it comes to historical earth construction, but it did not spring from the soil without regional prescendent.

In 1821, Dr. William W. Anderson, a Maryland native, used the technique to rebuild the wings of the Borough House, the main building at his Hill Crest Plantation, and several outbuildings. In 1850, Anderson persuaded the Episcopal congregation of Stateburg to use pisé de terre in constructing the Church of the Holy Cross.



The big house has rammed earth on the main floor. It would be nice to get a look at those footings.


 Everyone likes plans!



 My favorite building on the compound is the doctor's office. Dig its Federalist austerity.

 



The Borough House and its outbuildings constitute the largest complex of pisé de terre buildings in the United States, recognized as National Historic landmarks, hence these lovely photos from The Library of Congress.

Tapia Pisada in Columbia / Pise en Colombie

Bien sur, c'est en francais! C'est d'accord, nous sommes tous bilingues au Canada.

Construction des murs de pise en Barichara, Colombie. Nous n'avons pas besoin d'une brouette!

This project is dedicated to create Artepolis, a convention center and training for art and culture in Barichara, Colombia,

We are aiming to create a meeting platform for artists. We are hoping to invent, through the arts, new ways of sharing cultures. The artists will work, during their stay, with the locals, colombian artists and the other artists in residence.
The focus is on meeting and sharing European and Colombian cultures.
It is of paramount importance that the workshops should include the locals in order to interact with them.
This will be the best way of sharing cultures and the artists themselves will start a closer relationship with the local culture that will in turn enrich their own work and will allow them to invent new educational methods around it.

 Barichara was declared a National Monument in 1978 because it is a beautiful example of the architecture at the time of conquest. This place is considered the most beautiful village in Colombia, thanks to the craftsmen who worked the stone to build houses and churches.

 

Rammed Earth Aircraft Dispersal Revetments, Edwards Air Force Base, Kern County, CA

Rammed earth has a long history of use in the United States military. From the Library of Congress:

"Eleven rammed earth revetments were constructed during World War II to provide shelter and cover for aircraft in case of an attack from the Pacific. The revetments are strongly associated with the war effort and are among only a few remaining World War II era buildings and structures at Edwards AFB. Two different designs were constructed, one for bombers and another for pursuit aircraft. The method of construction employed, utilizing layers of earth and aggregate tamped into a form, is unusual and may be unique. Although six of the revetments are extant, only two revetments were found to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places."

Dig the eerie beauty....

A Good Idea That Never Gets Old

Rammteck in Zululand

Check out these inspiring videos showing the David Rattray Foundation's efforts in using rammed earth construction to further their goals of eliminating poverty and illiteracy in Natal, South Africa.

Georg Maybaum - Building with rammed earth | Cohabitat Gathering 2012, Ł...

Dr Georg Maybaum, Head of the Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering and  professor at HAWK in Germany is seen here giving a presentation on rammed earth construction at the Cohabitat Gathering in Lodz, Poland last year.

Budowla Ziemi w Polsce

There is some exciting stuff happening for rammed earth in Poland...

The very innovative use of corrugated formwork found here, for instance:

I want to try this at home, vertically!

This structure exudes both rustic charm and modern sophistication:

Doskonały!