by QPT Qala Phelang Tala | Oct 26, 2014 | Amanda de Gouveia, Anita Venter, Clay, Cob, Community, Earth testing, Local materials, Natural building, Qala Phelang Tala, Start Living Green, Sustainable human settlements
I came to learn how to build a cob wall; instead I learned the story of my life before I even stepped onto the building site. It was day 18 at the Freedom Square shack replacement building site in Bloemfontein, but my first day on the premises. The walls of Lientjie’s...
by QPT Qala Phelang Tala | Sep 30, 2014 | Adobe, Amanda de Gouveia, Anita Venter, Clay, Cob, Community, Earth testing, Events, Insulation, Local materials, Mud brick, Natural building, Peter McIntosh, Qala Phelang Tala, Sand, Start Living Green, Sustainable human settlements
Imagine being outside on a chilly Free State winter morning with the sun just coming out and starting to gently warm your body. Now imagine being told to take off your shoes in order to trudge in icy cold mud. I glanced at my fellow volunteers and I saw a collective...
by hermiedelport | Aug 12, 2014 | Architectural educational practice, Community, Events, Hermie Delport, Natural building, Sustainable building
As a senior lecturer in the Architectural Technology department at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology I get the opportunity to write and present papers at conferences, congresses and symposiums, with the benefit to see what is happening in the field and to...
by hermiedelport | Jun 29, 2014 | Adobe, Clay, Earthen Schools, Heritage, Hermie Delport, Indigenous Architectural Knowledge, Indigenous Building Systems, Insulation, Lesley Freedman, Local materials, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Sustainable building, Thermal performance, Wattle and Daub
I had the pleasure of recently visiting a really magical place, Mdumbi in the former Transkei. Mdumbi is about 30km north of Coffee Bay in the typical rolling green landscape. Travelling with fellow architects Carl Morkel and Wim Els at a slowish pace, either walking...
by Peter McIntosh | Jun 3, 2014 | Adobe, Clay, Cob, Compressed Earth Brick (CEB), Earth testing, Earth theory, Mud brick, Natural building, Natural building methods, Peter McIntosh, Rammed Earth, Sand, Sandbag, Strawbale, Sustainable building
By Peter McIntosh (Please note that in order to understand what is written here you will need to have read my previous post on understanding earth) Earth requires two properties to make it strong enough for building, compressive and tensile strength. In much the...
