MS environmental design

1. Ecology of building materials
muhammad tariq
roll no: bn728653
Topic-03

2. a comparative study of local
building materials in swabi
region

3. “I always hate
to become rich because it tends
to fade my vernacularism”

5. location

6. Mud
• Mud construction system is less energy
intensive and very effective in different
climatic conditions.
• Earth is one of man's oldest building materials
and most ancient civilizations used it in some
form. It was easily available, cheap, and
required only simple technology.
• Approx 80% of the buildings are of mud till
1990s in Swabi region.

7. • In Egypt the grain stores of Ramasseum built
in adobe in 1300BC still exist.
• the Great Wall of China has sections built in
rammed earth over 2000 years ago.

8. WHY MUD CAN BE USED AS A
BUILDING MATERIAL?
• Energy Consumption
• Recycling
• Abundance

9. Adobe
• Cob
• Rammed earth
• adobe

10. • Adobe is a natural building material made from
sand, clay, water and some kind of organic
material (sticks, straw ),which the builders shapes
into bricks using frames and dry in sun.
• In hot climates, compared with wooden buildings
offer significant advantage due to their greater
thermal mass, but they are known to be
particularly susceptible to earthquake damage.

13. Field tests

14. COLOUR TEST
• Deep yellow, orange and red, ranging to deep
browns indicate iron content which is good as
building mud.
• Greyish or dull brown, ranging to dirty white
indicates more clay.
• Dull brown with slightly greenish colour
indicates organic soil.

15. BISCUIT TEST
• Make a smooth paste from the soil removing
all gravels.
• Mould it into a biscuit of 3cm diameter and
1cm height.
• Leave it to dry and observer for shrinkages or
cracks.
• Break the biscuit to noting how hard it is.

16. Interpretation
• If biscuit cracks or leaves gap from the mould
then it contains more clay.
• If it breaks easily and can be crumpled
between finger then it has good sand-clay
proportion.

17. HAND WASH TEST
• Play with wet soil till your hands get
thoroughly dirty.
• Wash your hands to see how difficult it is to
clean.

18. Interpretation
• If hands get cleaned quickly, then soil contains
more sand.
• If it takes little time to clean and feels like
flour then soil contains more silt.

19. Disadvantages
• Humidity is the crucial factor, mud-house will
easily catch fungus.
• Erodes easily by water.
• Low tensile and shear strength , hence , roofs
difficult.
• Requires regular maintenance.

20. Concrete Blocks

21. Concrete blocks
• Concrete blocks are manufactured to various
work face dimensions in an extensive range of
widths, offering a wide choice of load-bearing
capacity and level of insulation.
• Manufacturers work size dimensions should
be indicated as length, width and height, in
that order.

23. The basic cycle phases of this product
are shown in Fig.

24. Negative impacts
• Transportation costs
• Poor machinery which produce a lot co2 emit
to air.
• Cannot be re use

25. Usage
• In Swabi, the concrete block usage is more as
compared to bricks due to low cost, quick
construction & easy availability , low cost of
maintenance.
• For large complex and costly buildings people
purchased the machine & made blocks on
their own choice which is good.

26. Fire resistance
• Concrete block construction offers good fire
resistance. Solid unplastered 90 mm blocks
can give up to 60 minutes’ fire protection
when used as load-bearing walls;

27. Bricks

28. 300 (2006)

29. The trip takes approximately 32 hours
and 10 minutes to cover a published
distance of 1,721 kilometres

30. • According to the data, the primary source of
SOx — the major pollutants in the air — is
traffic vehicles (55.8%), followed by brick
manufacturing industry (28.8%).
• Source:
https://businessimpactenvironment.wordpress

31. • According to an estimate, there are 12,000
brick kilns in Pakistan, consuming almost 40
per cent of locally produced coal. Besides coal,
the sector uses agro waste, rubber tyres,
plastics, etc, which produces highly toxic
gases.
• Source:
Brick and bondage
Zeenat Hisam November 01, 2016

33. Bricks soil source in my village

35. Condition of ours land

36. Thermal conductivity
• The thermal conductivity of brickwork is
dependent on its density and moisture
content, but generally clay bricks are poor
thermal insulators.

37. impacts
• The excavation of earth in agriculture land is a
death for the community
• The kiln pollution production
• Transportation costs associated with brick
usage from manufacturing to delivery.
• No reuse value
• High recycle value but costly

38. Stone

39. Indus river near Hund

40. River side villages

41. Sources of stones
• Indus river
• Mountains

42. Positive impacts
• The most clean and sustainable building
material
• Easily available
• Cheap
• Visually pleasant

43. recyclable
• Due to its nature we can recycle it although
very low cost is require
• Reusable even after centuries
• Having zero carbon foot print
• Minimum embodied energy

44. Embodied energy
• The energy costs corresponding to the
extraction phase is approximately 0.175
MJ/kg.
• The total energy costs related to processing is
low compared to the rest of the building
materials, between 0.2 and 0.3 MJ/Kg.

46. (Source:Course“Bio-constructionandsustainablematerials,eco-union.org

48. Plastic bottles

49. Client brief
• The client is my village Union council who
require a Hujra “a communal space for the old
people & a few seats for the youngsters where
they can interact each other, discuss village
issues & revive the past Hujra essence”

52. Jalsai village in Swabi district

53. Site view

54. Building programs
• A hall to accommodate around 20 people at a
time
• A toilet
• Small kitchen to serve guests

55. Architect brief
• After doing Site & SWOT analysis I brief them
as ‘the site is very attractive in terms of good
views, & “Shamilath” so that we cannot built
permanent structures due to flood hazards as
well nor we can built it costly.
• For that reason we have to think about low
cost thermally insulated solution for the Hujra

56. Results of architect brief!!!

57. Why Plastic Bottles?
• Reuse is better than recycling, and bottles are
easy to reuse in building projects.
• Packaging and plastic bottles are common
today, making up a large portion of waste and
greenhouse gases around the world.
• Cheap & easily available
• Community engagements

58. Benefits of building with bottles
• Reduces waste
• Locally sourced
• Preserves natural resources
• Lowers carbon footprint
• Inexpensive Low tech,
• easy to use

59. Construction process
• 1. Build structural frame
• 2. Collect and fill bottles
• 3. Align bottles in wall cavity
• 4. Overlay frame with steel wires or mesh to
hold bottles together for better structural
integrity
• 5. Plaster wall for clean finish

60. Typical section

64. Bottle wall