Education related to Adobe Building
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Q: I'm building an adobe art gallery, 20'x18'. The bricks are stabilized 7adobe dirt/1sand/1/2cement, and they are very durable bricks. My location is a beautiful tract of land near Big Bend Nat'l Park, with a great view of the park. I've put up one course of adobes, and was thinking about putting on a workshop for putting up walls. How do I go about promoting this project?

A: Simone Swan hosts a workshop at her home in Presidio to demonstrate mud plastering. She has a talent for gathering people from great distances. I lack that talent. I do lots of classes on adobe construction but we usually just tackle a short wall and corner or intersection. We mostly spend our time demonstrating the several ways of putting up masonry walls and the fastest methods we know. Then I turn students loose to pursue their own projects. If they are nearby we go visit them as they progress and offer suggestions when appropriate. To get a building built that you own, you begin with students who have a slight if unspoken reserve that they are contributing to someone else's ultimate new worth. If you are 80 years old, widowed, blind or in a wheelchair they are less inclined to think like that. It also helps if there is some expertise to be shared with participants. That expertise usually comes somewhere around the third structure. There are some folks at Blue Rock Station in Ohio who seem unintimidated by their short term experience and have opened their first project to hundreds of children and thousands of adults to demonstrate alternative building systems, www.bluerockstation.com . Their website might offer insight into how they attract the multitudes.

R: Thank you for your suggestion. I do know Simone's buildings. I've had some experience in adobe building, as you may see my work in the picture. A group is good, because its easier with multiple people, and they don't have to work so hard, and can learn so much. The fact that my building is an art gallery, they also will be able to revisit it, and show their friends something they worked on. I followed your web site recommendation to use cement as a mortar between the stabilized blocks. Here you see that I am attempting to get an old adobe look. And I do not plan to plaster over them.

A: After reviewing my response with my class, it was suggested that a good old-fashioned barn raising like the Amish, Presbyterians, Spanish, Farmers, Mennonites, Homesteaders, Baptists, Sinners, Seventh Day Adventists, Neighborhood Associations used to do. Actually, the Seventh Day Adventists still do it and people gather from all around to put up a new church. Perhaps Terlinguans would gather around a project for the sake of seeing a neighbor get a structure up.

Q: I'm a student at university in Turkey and searching a PhD thesis subject. Could you advise me about an original study area?

A: My wife and I were lucky to attend Kerpic05 at the Istanbul Technical University in July 2005. We were honored to tour in Cappadocia, Konya and some of the mountain villages that have earthen villages in the several
styles found in Turkey. We also got to see Catal Huyuk which is the remains of the oldest earthen settlement that I have heard of. You live in a fabulous country.

Several topics come to mind: Given that earthen buildings last as long as people maintain them, why do they seem to have lost favor in most modern cultures? Are earthen structures more prone to earthquake damage than other
materials or do poor building techniques contribute to the poor image? Recent findings in Cappadocia indicate that structures made of tuff (lightweight stone or pumice) contribute to the high incidence of lung disease found in the area. Would earthen structures be more healthy? American movie stars and wealthy people in New Mexico build trophy homes of adobe. Could this be a message for other cultures? A study of the feasibility of mechanized adobe production and distribution in Anatolya. A study of the feasibility of small-scale mostly human powered adobe
production and local distribution in Anatolya. Economic modeling and comparison of mechanized versus small-scale production of adobe. A qualitative comparison of rammed earth and sun-cured adobe brick and
mortar construction systems in the cooler, upland regions of Turkey. A proposed building code for earthen materials that would provide greater resistance to earthquakes utilizing good foundations, ring beams at the top of walls, good connections of roof systems to walls, and simply good masonry practices honoring aspect ratios, column sizing, door and window opening sizing developed millennia ago in the region. Development of regional guidelines for solar heating and passive cooling of earthen structures in the climatic zones of Turkey. Cataloging of past and present techniques for underground and partial underground dwellings and structures in Anatolya

Q: Here's the odd question of the year...I plan on building a 1/2 to 1/3 scale model of the Alamo. Where in Gods name do I start? It's going to be used for recreational purposes. It will not be lived in but will see some moderately severe use. Can you point me in a direction for training, advice, help (psychiatric and otherwise), support?

A: We do have an adobe information and support group at adobe-subscribeATyahoogroups.com. That gets you in touch with a lot of people with opinions, few of whom are actually building anything at the moment. You could become the poster child for Ambitious Projects. And then we have a full-time foundation to roof construction program here in El Rito, NM at Northern New Mexico College. The program is two semesters but we fit in the odd person with the odd project for a week or two and adopt them and help them however we can with dreams and projects.

Q: How much does the college course you teach cost and how many semesters to finish?

A: Two semesters. Tuition is around $350 for New Mexico residents and around $800 for non-residents. We have dorms and some married student housing at reasonable rates. Our classes are on the block system so some people come just during the two- to five-weeks duration of a class that particularly interests them if they don't have the time or interest to pursue a certificate.
We can be seen at www.nnmc.edu under the link to El Rito Programs.

Q: I am very interested in natural building methods, especially adobe. I was wondering if you could recommend any internship programs were I might be able to get some hands on experience with supervision. The few I found searching google were a little above my price range at the moment.

A: We have suffered a slow period in new home construction around the Northern New Mexico College circle of students. The last student project under construction was completed in March by Tracy McB. We are discussing a major project around Santa Fe but that is still in the planning stages by a group of people who hope that with an owner group they can build homes more economically that what is now seen in the Santa Fe area.

Meantime, we have ongoing adobe construction classes here and we do as much hands-on as possible. From time to time, there are contractors in the area who will take on an apprentice. I will keep my ear open.

Q: Allow me to introduce myself: I'm a biologist from Nicaragua, a small poor country from Central America. I'm very interested in green home building techniques, because there's a huge housing deficit in Nicaragua, and nobody in my government really cares about this problem. I'm planning to create an NGO to provide cheap, decent home for the poorest, but I need help. Would you please help me to find out about organizations/experts that could grant me with some sort of training or expertise in order to achieve my purpose? I think that adobe or rammed earth would be good options...any help or information will be very useful.

A: Adobe is as green as it gets and it is at your feet wherever you are. It is the planet's most autochthonous material. I can talk you through any questions you might have via the Internet. If you want to come to our college in Northern New Mexico, a small, poor state in North America, we will cover your tuition and find someone to pay for your food and living costs in the dormitory. With even more work we can find someone to pay your travel costs. Our full program, foundation to roof is two semesters but for the energetic student one semester will suffice. Semesters start in mid January and mid August.

R: I'll be glad to learn from your team the ecological housing techniques, I'm sure something positive can come out of this experience (besides practicing my rusty English), -just kidding-.  I really appreciate your kind help and yes, I certainly would like to go to your college, there's no better way to learn something than get your hands on practice. In Nicaragua adobe is almost an extinct art. The few persons that mastered this technique are pretty old to teach or most of them are gone, it is ironic because there's a lot of houses built with it, as an historic architectural heritage from Spanish colonization. Please let me thank you in the name of my people and of course, from me.

Q: I've just learnt about your mud project and I'm amazed. I recently visited my folk's town in West Africa. The ancient palace, built with straw and mud, (as were the pyramids), have been crumbling for decades now. The local's response is to tear down and rebuild using hideous cement bricks and replace the beautiful handcrafted pillars, most of them having been looted anyway, with ugly cement pillars or plain wood. I'm in a position to stop this process, and I've voiced my criticism. But in actuality, I have no resource or know-how. Can you help me in any way? I can give you more details and show you some photos if you're interested. I would appreciate any advice or help that you can render.

A: It is too bad that people do not value earthen construction. Here in the United States there are a number of large format books that people display on their coffee tables that record the earthen architecture in all parts of Africa. Spectacular Vernacular and African Canvas are just two that I can think of. Probably many of the people in the photographs that give us so much inspiration have never seen themselves in these books. Furthermore, they probably are not aware that in New Mexico, Arizona and other parts of the Southwest United States, adobe is considered the premium building material. Movie stars and rich people want adobe homes and we can see them on the websites of the expensive real estate companies: Sotheby's and Century 21 and Coldwell Bankers.

I am at Northern New Mexico College. We teach earthen construction here and have some of our courses available on the Internet. Soon we will have most of our courses on the Internet. We have a discussion group dedicated to building with sun-cured adobe bricks. We can give you lots of free advice and encouragement. We only want to see everyone, worldwide, living in earthen homes.