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Mud bricks best for cool, green houses

Simple mud concrete bricks provide the most affordable and sustainable houses in the tropics, a Sri-Lankan study suggests. Comparisons of four different types of walling materials revealed that mud concrete bricks have the lowest environmental impact and keep houses cool. They are also the cheapest, and easiest to dispose of once a house is knocked down.

Researchers compared mud concrete bricks with red bricks (modern fired clay bricks), hollow cement blocks and Cabook, the Sri Lankan name for bricks made from laterite soil, which are common in the tropics. The goal of the study was to find out which types of walling material are the most suitable for constructing affordable houses in the tropics, where population density and poverty are generally high.

“The sustainability of buildings and housing construction is essential to save lives and prevent inadequate living conditions.”Christophe Lalande

“Why spend more money and destroy the environment more?” asks Rangika Halwatura, a civil engineer at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, and one of the authors of the paper.

Mud concrete bricks are made from soil in the same way as traditional mud bricks, but contain gravel and sand to improve their strength. The researchers looked at the carbon footprint of all four walling materials, and found that mud concrete bricks were the most environmentally friendly to produce and dispose of.

To check on thermal conductivity the researchers built one-square-metre model houses of the different walling types. Here, they found that red brick kept a house coolest, but mud concrete bricks performed almost as well.

Mud concrete bricks were also found to be the cheapest, at less than US$1,000 in Sri Lanka for an average-sized house, whereas red bricks cost nearly US$3,500.

Mud concrete bricks are widely used in other tropical countries but novel in Sri Lanka. They are popular because they are easy to make and therefore cheap, says Hurryson Moshi, a civil engineer in Tanzania. However, Moshi points out that as people grow wealthier they prefer the red bricks and cement blocks, as these are associated with higher socio-economic status.

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Developing Interlocking Masonry Bricks

Conventional bricks are the most elementary building materials for houses construction. However, the rapid growth in today's construction industry has obliged the civil engineers in searching for a new building technique that may result in even greater economy, more efficient and durable as an alternative for the conventional brick. Moreover, the high demands for having a speedy and less labour and cost building systems is one of the factor that cause the changes of the masonry conventional systems. These changes have led to improved constructability, performance, and cost as well. Several interlocking bricks has been developed and implemented in building constructions and a number of researches had studied the manufacturing of interlocking brick and its structural behaviour as load bearing and non-load bearing element. This technical paper aims to review the development of interlocking brick and its structural behaviour. In conclusion, the concept of interlocking system has been widely used as a replacement of the conventional system where it has been utilized either as load bearing or non-load bearing masonry system.

References

[1]Shakir A A and Mohammed A A 2013 Manufacturing of Bricks in the Past, in the Present and in the Future: A state of the Art Review Int. J. Adv. Appl. Sci. 2 145-56

[2]Allen E and Thallon R 2011 Fundamentals of residential construction (John Wiley & Sons)

[3]Irwan J, Zamer M and Othman N 2016 A Review on Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks (ICEB) with Addition of Bacteria MATEC Web of Conf.: EDP Sciences 0-5

[4]Korany Y and Humphrey S 2010 Proc. of the 2nd Masonry Mini Symp

Crossref

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Bricks: the essential building blocks

Architects are once again using the traditional material — not only for stable structures, but for innovative design. This week the Brick Development Association’s Brick Awards celebrated the best new projects, with the overall winner, the South Gardens housing development — part of a huge regeneration project in Elephant and Castle, south London — using eight different brick types. “The white glazed brick helps to reflect light through the windows, breaking up the blocks from the outside and making them lighter inside,” says Tom Farmer, the Brick Development Association’s marketing and communications manager. “It’s a great example of how brick is being used to make buildings look lovely and to make them more habitable and pleasant for the community.”

“The white glazed brick helps to reflect light through the windows, breaking up the blocks from the outside and making them lighter inside,” says Tom Farmer, the Brick Development Association’s marketing and communications manager. “It’s a great example of how brick is being used to make buildings look lovely and to make them more habitable and pleasant for the community.”