The use of adobe in construction
Adobe is a material used for building that is made of organic materials such as earth, clay, straw, and so on. In Spanish, ‘adobe’ translates as ‘mudbrick’, and buildings that are constructed from adobe have a similar appearance to cob or rammed earth buildings.
Adobe bricks are traditionally made in open cast moulds and left to sun-dry rather than being kiln-fired. They are laid using an earth mortar and smoothed down when the wall is finished before a clay render is usually applied as a surface coating. This production process, as well as the nature of clay, means that adobe bricks have advantageous water resistance. However, buildings that are exposed to a lot of wet conditions should be provided with eaves to protect the walls.
Adobe bricks have similar properties to other forms of earth construction – fire-resistant, flexible, durable, provide sufficient thermal mass to ensure good energy efficiency, and good sound insulation.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- Arup and Better Shelter at the Working Together For Disaster Relief conference.
- Brick.
- Brick wall.
- Clay.
- Cob building.
- Construction materials.
- Daub.
- Earth building.
- Earthen construction.
- Green building.
- Hempcrete.
- Mud brick in Iran.
- Practical Building Conservation: Earth, Brick and Terracotta.
- Rammed earth.
- Recyclable construction materials.
- Shelter.
- Straw bale construction.
- Unfired clay masonry: An introduction to low-impact building materials.
- Vernacular earthen architecture.
Featured articles and news
The restoration of the novelist’s birthplace in Eastwood.
PAC report on the Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Recommendations on workforce, transparency, support, insurance, funding, fraud and mismanagement.
New towns, expanded settlements and housing delivery
Modular inquiry asks if new towns and expanded settlements are an effective means of delivering housing.
Building Engineering Business Survey Q1 2025
Survey shows growth remains flat as skill shortages and volatile pricing persist.
Construction contract awards remain buoyant
Infrastructure up but residential struggles.
Home builders call for suspension of Building Safety Levy
HBF with over 100 home builders write to the Chancellor.
CIOB Apprentice of the Year 2024/2025
CIOB names James Monk a quantity surveyor from Cambridge as the winner.
Warm Homes Plan and existing energy bill support policies
Breaking down what existing policies are and what they do.
Treasury responds to sector submission on Warm Homes
Trade associations call on Government to make good on manifesto pledge for the upgrading of 5 million homes.
A tour through Robotic Installation Systems for Elevators, Innovation Labs, MetaCore and PORT tech.
A dynamic brand built for impact stitched into BSRIA’s building fabric.
BS 9991:2024 and the recently published CLC advisory note
Fire safety in the design, management and use of residential buildings. Code of practice.
Comments
Just FYI, adobe is not a Spanish word. It comes from Arabic and was incorporated into the Spanish language.