If you ’ve spent any time in the southwesterly U.S. , you likely hump that adobe construction is one of the oldest and most various construction techniques used by humans . you may find it in the simplest of one - elbow room huts and the globe ’s most elaborate mosques . It ’s everywhere — but what exactly is it ? And where did it do from ?
Today , this metre - honored material is win unexampled popularity as a depressed - price , environmentally friendly way of building . There ’s a grow movement among do - it - yourselfers and community action groups to build with adobe brick . Adobe grammatical construction is not especially complicated . After all , adobe brick is really nothing more than simple bricks made of sun - dried mud . What ’s more plentiful or cheap than dirt and sunlight ? As a green - edifice bonus , adobe brick helps keep buildings naturally cool in summertime and lovesome in winter , reduce the need forair conditioningand heat .
Be measured before you start build , though : Adobe works better in some places than others . Since adobe brick bricks are dry out in the sun rather than bring around in a fire , they are n’t especially hard . In fact , they shrivel and swell with the weather condition . Here ’s where things get problematic : An extremely wet climate prostrate to implosion therapy might turn the bricks back into mud . Not only that , frequent freezing and thawing can make the brick crumble . This is why adobe is used primarily in dry , mostly warm climates such as the American Southwest , the Mediterranean region , parts of Latin America , the Middle East and arid parts of Africa and India . However , with careful land site selection and mental synthesis techniques , adobe brick can be used in wetter and cold area .
Before we get to build with adobe brick , though , let ’s take a look at its history .