Imagine a sustainable building system that requires only the skills of a potter to complete. A basic earthen structure is formed and finished by traditional clay-firing processes. This remarkable building process culminates in baking every room from the inside, for up to an entire day at up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. The end product is vernacular yet avante garde, traditional but sustainable.
Essentially, the various bricks that compose a building created by using this Geltaftan system are fused into a solid whole after being assembled. The firing process is essentially the same as that which is used in a kiln to finish pottery. Interior furniture (tables, benches and so on) can be fired with the building. The Iranian architect who developed this process first created buildings in Iran but now teaches others who wish to learn his methods in the United States.
The result is inexpensive, durable and homey. Modifications to the process have been developed to improve the resistance to weather, seismic and other natural forces. This process is particularly applicable in desert landscapes where thick packed-Earth structures can reduce internal heat gain during the day and heat loss and night and where land is more abundant than stone, trees or other building materials.
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9 Comments
February 8th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Interesting
February 9th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Great work there. :)
February 9th, 2008 at 4:37 am
Another wonderful article. Somehow hidden culture inspires me so much more than the opulence of more state sponsored architecture. People overcoming problems, housing, urban developments, communist/functionalist architecture, and these wonderful examples above, all exemplify part of the human condition so much more than a grand cathedral or palace, which can be beautiful, but the elements of humanity contained within the above article are what truely amazes.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:05 am
Maybe this is it!!!!…..We are trying to find our place on this earth and since now the modern world has done nothing more than creating an “alien” enviroment for people to live in…..we have forgottten where we have started and what we knew…
May 12th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Breath-taking beautiful . Great ideas. Wish I could get more for the Indian desert/semi-desert conditions. How exactly to do it? How to contact you for more ideas. Thanks.
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