Vernacular Architecture Materials

01/04/2020
Don’t we need to do more in our lives than just
leave a few buildings behind??

We can make a difference

We can all play a role
 WE CAN…

By being aware of our culturally rich

building techniques

and understanding the value they hold

in our lives today !!

Vernacular Architecture

Vernacular architecture, the simplest

form of addressing human needs, is
seemingly forgotten in modern
architecture.
????
 •  Vernacular architecture originated
when mankind was forced to
Vernacular Architecture make use of the natural
resources around him, and
provide himself shelter and
comfort which is responsive to
the climate, a shield from the
elements.
•  The sociologic facet of
architecture is present in a
material, a color scheme, an
architectural genre, a spatial
language or form.
•  It adheres to basic green
architectural principles of energy
efficiency and utilizing materials
and resources in close proximity
to the site.
•  It takes into account the
embodied energy lost in
the transportation of these
goods to the construction site.
•  The effectiveness of climate
responsive architecture is
evident over the course of its life,
in lessened costs of utilities.
Still Alive !!
Materials
•  EARTH
•  BAMBOO
•  TIMBER
•  STONE
Earth
“ C e r t a i n l y, t h e
peasant’s houses
might be cramped,
d a r k , d i r t y, a n d
inconvenient, but this
was no fault of the
mud brick. There was
nothing that could not
be put right by good
design and a broom.”
Hasan Fathy
Earth
Various construction methods
are:

— Stacked earth (COB)

— Pise or rammed earth
— Adobe
— Wattle & daub method
— Formed earth (Straw Clay)
— Earth filled in
— Compressed earth blocks
— Extruded earth
— Cut earth
Earth
STACKED EARTH (COB)
• A very stiff mud is prepared by mixing mud
and water in the proportion of 1:3 and it is
molded into huge elongated egg shape.
• The elongated egg shape mud is 12 to 18-
inches, (30 to 40-cm) long and about 6- inches
(15-cm) in diameter.
• For making a wall ,a row of cob is placed in
proper line and is pressed to avoid gaps and
crack
• In this way two to three layers of cobs are
placed one above the other and the sides are
smoothed to avoid cracks and gap.
Earth
RAMMED EARTH
•  This is a method in which the strength of
the wall can be increased by increasing the
thickness of the wall.
•  Two parallel planks are held firmly apart by
metal rods and clips or bolts, or by small
crosspieces of wood.
•  Stiff mud is thrown in between these two
planks and rammed down with either a
wooden or metal ramrod.
•  When one section is completed and hard,
the two planks are then raised up and a
second course of rammed earth is repeated
over the first.

TRADITIONAL RAMMED EARTH MODERN RAMMED EARTH

Soil stabilization gave a great input to rammed
earth as well as mechanization. The traditional
wooden rammer has been replaced by
pneumatic rammers.
Earth
ADOBE:
Adobe as a building material has been
used since ages all over the world and
especially in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
• Blocks are kept covered with air tight
polythene sheets for first 48 hours with
relative humidity up to 100.
• Polythene sheets shall be removed after
48 hrs and the blocks shall be kept in
shaded area like having enough air
circulation.
• Sprinkle water over blocks daily, as many
times needed, during 28 days.
• Write date of production on block corner.
• Cover stacks top with coconut leaves or
any other
cover to avoid direct sunlight.
• Principle is that blocks shall not dry for
4weeks
Earth
WATTLE and DAUB
Wattle and daub method is an old and
common method of building mud structures.

•Bamboo and cane frame structure that

supports the roof.
•Mud is plastered over this mesh of bamboo
cane and straws.
•Due to excessive rainfall the Wattle and
Daub structures gets washed off.
•However, the mesh of cane or split bamboo
remains intact and after the heavy rain is
over the mud is plastered on again.
Earth
EXTRUDED EARTH

•The earth extrusion technique has been

used since a long while in the fired brick
industry.
•Stabilized earth, at a plastic state, is as well
extruded through a machine which gives the
desired shape.
•The blocks are often hollow and are cut to
the desired length.
•This technique of stabilized extruded earth
was developed in the 20th century.

• Compared to the brick extrusion in the fired brick industry, stabilized extruded
earth bricks show a major inconvenient.
• The soil required for stabilized earth is much sandier than the one for fired earth.
•Thus the soil is more abrasive and the machines get damaged at a much faster
rate.
Earth
FORMED EARTH (Straw Clay) :
•Very clayey soil, in a liquid state, is poured
on straw, which has been chopped to the
desired length.
•The mix is generally tampered afterwards
into forms.
•These walls are not load-bearing.
•they are light, have a very high thermal
insulation value and must be built in a
wooden structure.
•It was traditionally used in Germany and
was re-used for reconstruction after the IInd
world war.
•It is mostly known with the name Straw clay.
•Straw clay can be used as a filler wall,
formed between a wooden structure or as
prefabricated blocks.
Earth
CUT EARTH:
• In areas where the soils was cohesive and
contained concretions of carbonates the soil
was cut in the shape of blocks and used like
bricks or stones.
• Such examples are found typically in tropical
areas where lateritic soils give a wonderful
building material.
• Lateritic soils can be found in two natural
states:
1. Soft soils- which will harden when exposed
to air due to chemical reaction of the soil
constituent with the air (carbonation reaction).
This natural reaction is called induration
2. Hard crust- which was long ago a soil and
has already hardened (indured) through the
ages.
•In areas where the soil is not cohesive
enough, people have used topsoil and grass
to create blocks.
Earth
Bamboo
Bamboo as a building material
has high compressive strength
and
low weight has been one of the most
used building material as support for
concrete, especially in those locations
where it is found in abundance.
Bamboo
Properties: Tensile Strength ; Compressive Strength;
Elastic Modulus; Anisotropic Property ; Shrinkage; Fire
Resistance
Various Structural Shapes of Bamboo as a Building
Material

Bamboos are treated in such a way that they assume

desired shapes and structures while they grow:

Squared cross-section can be obtained by compressing

the growing stalk of bamboo within a square section.

Arch shapes of bamboo can also be created by

compressing the bamboo’s growth into the desired shape.
This would cost lesser than it would to get the same form
with normal timber.

Curved and Flat shapes of bamboo are achieved through

traditional techniques like applying heat and pressure.
 Bamboo as a building material
FOUNDATIONS
• The use of bamboo for foundation is rather restricted.
• The types of bamboo foundations identified are:
•  For strength and stability, large diameter and thick walled sections of
bamboo with closely spaced nodes should be used.
•  Bamboo on rock or preformed concrete footings Where bamboo is
being used for bearings, it should be placed out of ground contact on
footings of either rock or preformed concrete.
•  Bamboo incorporated in to concrete footings : The poles are directly fit
into concrete footing. This post and strip footing can be single Composite
bamboo /concrete columns extension is given to a bamboo post using a
plastic tube of the same diameter. Bamboo on rock or concrete
•  Bamboo piles: It is used to stabilize soft soils and reduce building
settlement.

Bamboo into concrete footing Bamboo Piles

Bamboo as a building material
FLOORING
• The floors may be at ground level, and therefore consists only of compacted
earth, with or without a covering of bamboo matting.
Bamboo floors consists of two components
1)  Structural bamboo elements 2) Bamboo decking

STRUCTURAL BAMBOO ELEMENTS:

Bamboo as a building material
The various types of decking used are

• Small bamboo culms:

They are directly tied and nailed together

• Split bamboo:
Culms are split along their length into strips, several
centimeters wide.

• Flattened bamboo:
Formed by splitting green bamboo culms removing
the diaphragms, then rolling and flattening them.
Bamboo as a building material

•  Woven mats :
Mats should not be fixed by direct nailing, but are held in
place by bamboo strips or timber battens tied or nailed over
the top. This is one of the easiest types of traditional floor to
keep clean.

•  Bamboo panels:
Layers of woven mats or strips, laid at right angles, are
bonded together into boards using resins and pressure and
thermal processes .These are then nailed to the joists.

•  Parquettes
Thin slivers or mats of bamboo are formed into multi-layered
tiles and laid on treated bamboo or wooden strips fixed to
compacted earth or a concrete sub-floor.
Bamboo as a building material
WALLS
•  Bamboo is extensively used for construction of walls and partitions.
•  Posts and beams are the main elements normally constructed with
bamboo provide structural framework for walls.
•  They positioned in a way to be able to withstand forces of nature.
•  An infill is used between framing elements to add strength and stability to
the walls.
Bamboo as a building material
ROOFING
Bamboo as a building material
Bamboo as a building material
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Timber and Stone
Jack Arch Roof
•  Jack arch roof is an old form of roof construction in
which the roof consists of shallow (low rise) vaults made
with compression materials like burnt bricks or
compressed earth blocks, supported on intermediate
supports in the form of beams.

•  Unlike regular arches, jack arches are not semicircular

but have the profile of a segmental arch.

•  Normally, optimal spans of a jack arch are 1 – 1.5m, with

the rise at the center being 1/12th of the span.

•  The series of jack-arches which constitute the roof are

usually filled in the valley spaces between them with
cement concrete to provide a plane surface above, that
can serve as a floor to another level, a terrace or the
protective covering for the building.
Jack Arch Roof

I
II

III
Filler slab
Filler slab is alternate slab construction technology where part of concrete in
bottom of slab is replaced by filler material.
The basic principal is that the concrete in bottom half of RCC slab is structurally
not required as concrete acts as compression material which is required in top
half portion of slab.
So this portion concrete is replaced by low cost, light weight filler material like
mangalore tile, clay pots etc.
Filler slab
Filler slab
Laurie Baker Ideology
I II III

V IV
Laurie Baker Ideology
VI VII

VIII IX
Laurie Baker Ideology
X: BRICKS are often slightly irregular in length. So even if you
X XI can get a smooth “fair face” on one side of a wall, the other side
will be lumpy and irregular. Therefore, many builders say, you
must plaster the wall.
The middle sketch and the lower plan show how the mortar can
fill over the sunken ends of the brick to produce a special fair
face on the second side of the wall.

XI: LINTELS are usually made of reinforced concrete. Steel

and cement are used.
Very often a lintel is not necessary over door and window
openings up to four feet in width.
Ordinary brick-on-edge, as shown in the middle picture, is all
XII that is required.

XII: WINDOWS are costly. One square foot of-window

can cost up to ten times the cost of the simple brick or
stone wall it replaces.
A window has varied functions - to look out of, to let light
inside a room, to let in fresh air, or to let out stale air, and
so on.
In many of these situations a “JALI” or “honeycombed”
wall is just as effective. Far from being a lot more costly
than the basic wall, if made of brick it can be less costly
than the house wall!
 Guna Vaults

Ø  Guna ' roof -- ' Guna ' in Telugu means

a burnt clay tapering pipe. Splitting this
pipe into two results in semi-circular
pan-like tiles. These ' Guna s' can be
socketed into one another, forming an
arch over a suitably curved shuttering.

•  A series of such arches can make a barrel-shaped vault which is capable of

withstanding considerable loads. After the joints are filled and topped with
plaster, it becomes rigid and waterproof.
•  Air in the Guna pipes keeps heat out, thus insulating the interiors of the
constructions from the scorching heat of the tropics.
 Oxide Flooring
•  Oxide, as a raw material, has contributed significantly to the
manifested choices of finishes for the built surfaces in
architectural spaces.
•  The first of its kind was experimented in Pavaratty, a small village
in Thrissur district in Kerala. From that era of ingenious making,
the classic example of traditional red and black oxide flooring is
found in the 400-year-old Padmanabhapuram Palace in
Thakkala, Tamil Nadu.
•  The cool red oxide floors are ideal for homes located in warm or
tropical locations. The finished floors usually have a lustrous
finish that gets better with time.
Atthangudi Tiles
Towards the more articulated end of the oxide
floors, are the the Chettinad-Athangudi tiles in
the similar vocabulary of oxide flooring
Manufacturing process
Equipments
Moulds: patterned tile making
Mild steel
20 mm thk

Frames: bounding box for tile

Mild steel
20 mm thk

Wooden drawing tool: free hand pattern tile

Ladles : pouring the oxide
Glass plates: base plates for smooth surface
float glass, frosted & textured glass

miscellaneous: ladles, leveling equipment, mixing

equipment

AinA
 3. Preparing of oxide proportions

2. Preparing of wet cement sand 4. Setting up the workplace

1. Preparing of dry cement and sand mixture in water mixture in the ratio 1:3:5
the ratio 1:3 respectively. respectively
Raw materials
Sand: local kalve sand with higher
quartz content. It is formed of
weathered rocks and found locally.
Cement: used as base
Oxides: used as coloring
agents. Different proportion of sand,
cement and oxide used to give
different colors.

AinA
 Step 1

Workman 1:
20 - 30 Cleaning the frame
secs Setting the frame and
mould on the glass.

Workman 2:
Putting dry cement
sand mixture on the
earlier tile as a
jointing compound.
Leveling the layer of
dry mixture.

20 - 30 30-40
secs secs
 Step 2
Workman 1:
Pouring of oxide into the
5-15 secs mould.

Leveling of oxide and

removing the mould.
Putting of first layer of dry
cement mortar and
sending it to workman 2.

20 - 30 Workman 2:
Putting of wet cement
secs sand mixture.
Leveling the mixture.

Compressing the tile with

the metal plate.

Finishing tile edges and

20 secs
15 secs removing of the frame.
then sending it for
stacking
Tile layers

Oxide layer
3-4 mm thk

Cement sand layer

(dry) 3-4 mm thk

Cement mortar (base)

10 mm thk

Tile sizes
Floor border
10” x 10” 10”x 5”
8” x 8” 8” x 6”
8” x 5”
8” x 4”
 We are so obsessed with our new identity that we refuse to
retrieve to our own culture….
Do we realize that we are losing
something consciously….

If we can accept these materials and techniques as one of the

mainstream materials, then by design, we will find spaces that react
characteristically to these materials.