Historic building materials and structure system - Mud architecture - Research areas for mud architecture - masters of architecture semester 1 under Chandigarh College of Architecture

1. Assignment - 2
Historic building materials and structure system
Submitted by – ar. Prerna Chouhan
Date – 20.11.2020
Mud architecture
Research areas for mud architecture i would like to prefer are listed below :-
1. Laboratory test – i will collect sample of mud used in structure and send to the laboratory
to identify the composition of mud. Later than i would research on each composition, how
each component reacts with the atmosphere of that region where it the mud is being used.
I would also study the strength property of that mud with the help of its composition
results.
2. Hand wash test – to get instant idea of the type of soil used in mud architecture, i would
perform a basic hand wash test. It will help me analyse the typology and hence i would be
able to research more focusing on that typology of soil and its properties.
3. Feasibility content research – i would prefer a talk with local people residing in mud
structures that how they built those structures from mud, what extra materials they added
to construct durable shelters also how many times and in what frequency they maintain
these structures. If given opportunity and time i would reside in one such shelter for a week
to understand the comfort level and wear about of such structures.
Scientific research
Nature – this research is based on technical aspects of material.
Purpose – when we need to document something about any structure we need to know its material
and structural strength of that material. Also we require to check its durability. To get all these
information accurately we require composition of materials and these are only obtained by scientific
lab tests.
Scope – results for scientific tests of material helps us know more about the current strength of
material, if the material is detorieting every year or season, we can find ways to re- strengthen it.
And prevent any further damage to building. Also if we find out that the material is having
properties which does not effect its durability after reaction with atmosphere than we can use or re
use that material for new constructions.
Basic research
It is the type of research we do to get an overview of subject of study. We can do this research
without any tools and special skills.
This type of research methods are used for writing small articles for the subject. Or sometimes just
to fulfil the quest for information.
Applied research

2. It is the more detailed version of research for a subject of study. We can only perform this research if
we have subject specific skills and instruments of lab.
This type of research is used to create large documentaries and apply the results of research in a
certain way. For example- scientist are researching for floating construction materials to construct
floating structures.
Technical research topics
My b.arch thesis was based on aquatecture which means architecture over and under water. To get
such structure designed i required a lot of technical research. I single headedly could not perform
such research so used some technical research papers, where scientist have already performed
detailed technical lab research on materials. I found out concrete pantoon is a material which can
float in ocean and can also be anchored. It is also applied to create floating water bays.
Other technical research for me was on statues, as my project was chhatrapati shivaji maharaj
memorial, to be erected in Arabian sea. I had to research a lot of materials that can stay up cladded
on statues and not change their colour or loos their strength when left on for years. I also
researched on the various structure systems to help erect the statue without deforming the body
structure of noble person who’s statue is to be constructed. For all these i visited statue of unity and
met their engineer, who showed me some reports which were obtained after technical research. I
also visited Arabian sea coast and Mumbai office of L&T to get to know more about technical
researches done on sea water and its properties.
Behavioural research topics
It is very important to understand the behavioural aspects and culture of area of research. Every
construction new or historic is based on the local people and their life activities.
Behaviour of material is also very important to understand, we need to know how a particular
material would react in certain climate, moisture in air and if kept under water how will it react.