Assignment: Local Alternative Building Construction System
Rammed Earth Homes
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The Nebraska House or Aloha House is a developing ecological village to better cater to its social welfare
services participants. It operates a children’s home on an urban farm in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, Philippines
as well as a 7- hectare sustainable farm and community development called Aloha Ranch and Organic Farm.
The Nebraska House is a structurally self-supporting rammed earth house without any steel
reinforced cement columns. The monolithic rammed earth walls are the columns. A team of four builders on
Aloha Ranch completed this third house on the site during the fall months of 2015. The rammed earth house is now
listed on the map as “The Nebraska House” indicating the origin of the builder. It was designed with a native bamboo
nipa thatched roof.
Earth as a building material comes in many different compositions and can be processed into a highly
insulative lightweight material for tropical living. Rice husk (hull) is 50% of the wall material offering amazing
insulative qualities. Loam as a clayey soil has different names when used in various applications. Rammed earth,
soil blocks, mud bricks and adobe are all ancient earth building methods. Often sand and clay is balanced with straw
for cob construction. The building technique utilizes a moistened blend of 3 parts rice hull and 2 parts high
clay loam (40% clay) with 3% stabilization using Portland cement and rice hull ash with inert agricultural
limestone added to keep termites out. It is one of the few building techniques that can be done successfully with a
cement mixer.
Manual ramming or tamping is firm but the wall material is not compacted to the point of removing air
space in the rice hull. The mixture is loaded in the form and leveled to 10 cm and tamped down to 6-7 cm. The
lightweight loam is dumped into a movable slip form that is raised as the tamping is completed in the two-foot form. A
team of four men can ram a 240 cm. wide wall 20 cm. wide up to 3 meters in one day. Electrical conduit was rammed
into the wall as it was built. Wood was timbered on site and the owner/builder harvested the necessary boards that
were then finished by the carpenter on the team. A fixing agent (ethylene glycol) was used to penetrate the wood and
bamboo timbers by boiling the glycol in a kettle and then adding the two boron forms. All bamboo was glycol/boron
treated with a paintbrush.
They design it for earthquake and typhoon resistant structures. The structures are hexagonal to
withstand lateral forces during earthquakes or tidal wave
/ tsunami intrusion. The hexagon has strengths that
are unique in structural design. The design is based on Dr. Gernot Minke’s research conducted continuously at the
Forschungslabor fur Experimentelles Bauen (Building Research Institute) at the University of Kassel in Germany
since 1978. They utilized his book Building with Earth: Design and Technology of a Sustainable Architecture for our
design. The inner living space measures 19 sq. meters (203 sq. ft.) and the house has an outdoor kitchen and
patio area of 20 sq. meters including the shower and composting toilet. A rammed earth rocket stove utilizes
sticks from the forest to efficiently produce heat for cooking. Poured concrete pavers were chosen for their
durability and treated with an acid stain of iron sulphate (a fertilizer) and sealed with slate sealant.
Other sustainable design features include gutters for rainwater catchment with the overflow
maintaining a small fishpond. A rammed earthen herb spiral and vegetable garden is included as well as a
small greenhouse nursery. Bottle lights were installed to bring in natural light to the outdoor kitchen. An
evaporative cooler (Zeer cooler) was built to keep produce fresh and cheeses from over ripening. A Pompeii
dome rammed earth rocket oven was added 2 years later to supply fresh baked bread, pizza and other roasted
foods. Insect screening will be added for the next houseguests and solar power will be retrofitted. Electrical
conduit was rammed into the wall as it was built. The structure integrates with the Permaculture Master Plan and
will serve many students and guests in the coming years.
Image Source: slideshare
Reference:
Mikkelson, K. and Shafer, B., 2017, Nebraska House or Aloha House, Eco House Project - Rammed Earth
