Earth is the oldest and most widely used building material in the world today. It's abundant, inexpensive, and energy-efficient. But if you're building with earth, simplicity of material needn't be an excuse for poor planning. Paul Graham McHenry, author of the best-selling Adobe - Build It Yourself, here provides the most complete, accurate, and factual source of technical information on building with earth. Lavishly illustrated with scores of photographs and drawings, Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings spells out details of: - soil selection - adobe brick manufacturing - adobe brick wall construction - rammed earth wall construction - window and door detailing - earth wall finishes - foundations - floor and roof structures - insulation - mechanical considerations. Whether you're designing a new building or renovating an existing structure, Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings can show you how to achieve better results.

Earth is the oldest and most widely used building material in the world today. It's abundant, inexpensive, and energy-efficient. But if you're building with earth, simplicity of material needn't be an excuse for poor planning. Paul Graham McHenry, author of the best-selling Adobe - Build It Yourself, here provides the most complete, accurate, and factual source of technical information on building with earth. Lavishly illustrated with scores of photographs and drawings, Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings spells out details of: ¥ soil selection ¥ adobe brick manufacturing ¥ adobe brick wall construction ¥ rammed earth wall construction ¥ window and door detailing ¥ earth wall finishes ¥ foundations ¥ floor and roof structures ¥ insulation ¥ mechanical considerations. Whether you're designing a new building or renovating an existing structure, Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings can show you how to achieve better results.

The lay-up of adobe bricks is an easy, forgiving way to achieve a solid masonry-wall system. Contrary to stereotypes, adobe is perfectly adaptable for use in cold, wet climates as well as hot and dry ones, and for areas prone to earthquakes. With its efficient use of energy, natural resources for construction, and minimal effort for long-term maintenance, it’s clear that the humble adobe brick is an ideal option for constructing eco-friendly structures throughout the world. The book is ideal both for first-time do-it-yourselfers and for experienced adobe builders seeking to improve their craft. Drawing on the experience of more than fifty major adobe projects since 1993, Adobe Homes for All Climates describes Adobe Building Systems’ patented reinforcement and scaffolding systems, showing readers how to construct adobe homes more easily and safely, and with superior strength, durability, structural integrity, and aesthetic appeal, as compared to earthen homes of the past. All aspects of adobe construction are covered, including making and laying adobe bricks, installing lintels and arches, conduits and pipes, doors and windows, top plates and bondbeams, ideal wall dimensions, adobe finishes, and other adobe construction components, such as the inexpensive use of scaffolding. These methods will produce a premium product that will meet and often exceed inspection standards. Equipped with this manual, you will be able to obtain a building permit, make adobe bricks swiftly, and confidently lay them up. You will be able to beautifully finish your adobe walls with earth plasters creating stunning colors and outstanding light effects and create a beautiful, energy-efficient home that will last for generations to come.

"The ground we walk on and grow crops in also just happens to be the most widely used building material on the planet. Civilizations throughout time have used it to create stable warm low-impact structures. The world's first skyscrapers were built of mud brick. Paul Revere Chairman Mao and Ronald Reagan all lived in earth houses at various points in their lives and several of the buildings housing Donald Judd's priceless collection at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa Texas are made of mud brick." "While the vast legacy of traditional and vernacular earthen construction has been widely discussed, little attention has been paid to the contemporary tradition of earth architecture. Author Ronald Rael founder of Eartharchitecture.org provides a history of building with earth in the modern era focusing particularly on projects constructed in the last few decades that use rammed earth mud brick compressed earth cob and several other interesting techniques. Earth Architecture presents a selection of more than 40 projects that exemplify new creative uses of the oldest building material on the planet."--BOOK JACKET.

Dreaming of building an adobe home? This classic guide, with floor plans ranging from a small casita to larger ones gives 18 comprehensive period designs for the traditional adobe (the earthern "bricks" used all over the world) house adapted to building materials, plumbing, heating and small lot sizes of today. Thousands of readers have found this a valuable handbook. The authors also venture into actual adobe brick-making, construction techniques, furnishing, even how to make a horno, a traditional Indian oven. Illustrated, detailed diagrams, house plans. The first seeds for the concept for this book on adobe architecture were sown as early as 1916, when Wilfred Stedman was a student at the Art Students League in New York City. It was there that he saw Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips' paintings of adobe homes in villages in and around Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. When in the early 1920s and 1930s Wilfred and Myrtle came to see and experience this area for themselves, they met Mary Austin, Alice Corbin Henderson, Will Shuster, Frank Applegate, Josef Bakos and Mabel Dodge Luhan-all famous artists and writers of that time. These people made themselves and their friends from all over the world feel at home in this vernacular architecture. While nowhere in the United States is the Earth Building spirit as revered as in Santa Fe and Taos, new interest is spreading all over the world. New research and new technology is being combined with the traditional in keeping with an overall awakening to the natural resources and beauty of our planet and with a new personal sense of responsibility on the part of individuals in regard to better planning in the use of these. There is a new sense of joy in finding out how much one can do oneself with natural materials. * * * * * Myrtle Stedman was known as an "Artist in Adobe," designing, building, and remodeling adobe homes under a contractor's license. She was also a well-known artist whose academic training started in 1927 when she was a student in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts school. Her English born husband, Wilfred Stedman, whose background was in architecture as well as in painting and illustrating was recognized as one of the most outstanding artists of the American Southwest. Adobe architecture in New Mexico was one of Wilfred's favorite topics of conversation and Myrtle was instilled with the love of adobes from the moment they were married. After his death in 1950, Myrtle went on to become one of the foremost authorities on adobe construction. Myrtle Stedman was a member of PEN New Mexico, a branch of PEN Center USA West of International PEN and believed that there is no end to what the mind can do with the eye and hand, in time and in spirit. She is also the author of "Artists in Adobe," "A House Not Made With Hands," "Adobe Remodeling and Fireplaces," "Of One Mind," "Of Things to Come," "Ongoing Life," "Rural Architecture," "The Ups and Downs of Living Alone in Later Life," and "The Way Things Are or Could Be," all from Sunstone Press.

This book is an example of how dramatic innovations frequently have their origins in the distant past. By rediscovering the most ancient of all building materials -- earth -- homebuilders can now create structures that set new standards for beauty, durability, and extraordinarily efficient use of natural resources. Rammed earth marks a step into a sustainable future, when houses combine aesthetics and practicality with a powerful sense of place. The solid masonry walls permit design flexibility while providing year-round comfort and minimal need for added heating or cooling. From the equatorial tropics to the coldest northern latitudes, the builder and resident of a rammed earth house will experience the satisfaction of creating permanence in a world dominated by the disposable.