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Cob: Cold TempsDarel Henman henman at it.to-be.co.jpTue Aug 13 01:10:06 CDT 2002
BB, here are some references that should satisfy your requests for more engineering and structural integrity information. 1.) Title: "Earth Construction Handbook: The Building Material Earth in Modern Architecture" Author: Gernot Minke Date: July 15, 2000 Price about $63.00 2.) some day when they get their English pages working. The organization far ahead of anything in the U.S. in regards to building with soil. http://www.craterre.archi.fr/craterre/anglais/homepage.html If you can read French go to: http://www.craterre.archi.fr/homepage.html They have an extensive list of research publications. 3.) "Buildings of Earth and Straw: Structural Design for Rammed Earth and Straw Bale Architecture" by Bruce King, Ann Edminster (Editor) 4.) "Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings: Design and Construction" by Paul Graham McHenry Darel ----------------- "baco at pacinfo" wrote: > > I like the folksy flavor of all the thumbnail engineering and anecdotal > evidence, but does anyone know of good source for science based analysis of > the physical properties of cob? I would sure like to see a structural > engineer/architect join some of these discussions. We do have some expert researches of earth and soil materials in construction as participants to this list. They quickly point out mistakes. > My sense is that many of us value off-grid approaches and organic > approaches, but the simple fact is that sharing "I did it and nothing bad > has happened so far" stories can lead to some dangerous situations. I looked > at a cob structure and even my inexperienced and untrained eye quickly found > a structural problem that could result in a death or injury, and that was a > structure that acknowledged leaders in the field had a hand in creating. > > BB No offense BB, but this happens with any and all building materials. I saw a guy trying to add a build-on, using no foundation, but just 4x4's in the dirt. I've seen bad cement pours. This is not a problem of the material, but of the design and usage. For novel shapes and forms it would be good to get an engineering check and use common sense. This is true for all materials. Darel
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