A Traveller's Home in the Atlas Mountains

Major design project presentation sheets

Prototyping Week

Exploring the material and structural qualities of rammed earth walls and bricks

Fabrication of five earth bricks with varying quantities of hay, clay, soil, sand and limestone in order to test and compare their texture, maliability, and colour as weel as their structural strength.

Construction of the earth wall and hoarding

Moulding openings and textures into and onto the earth wall

Testing the compressive strength of our bricks

Brick A: 10% hay, 30% clay, 60% soil
Result: Void

Brick B:  20% clay, 20% soil, 20% sand,
40% limestone. Result: Void

Brick C: 10% hay, 30% clay, 30% soil, 30% cement. Result: Compressive strength= 0.39 N/mm2

Brick D: 25% clay, 25% cement, 25% sand, 25% limestone.
Result:  Compressive strength =  1.90 N/mm2

Brick E:  25% cement, 25% sand, 50% cement
Result:  Compressive strength =  16.38 N/mm2

Tested against a standard construction breezeblock: 
Result: Compressive strength=  2.68N/mm2

Ourika Valley Site Model

Major design project group site model - Ourika  Valley, Atlas Mountains