I have met and discussed Khalili's ideas with him several years
ago in Santa Monica, CA. I could never figure out how the system could work
in an urban area. The burning would set the neighborhood on fire it seemed
to me. I would be interested in hearing if any houses or buildings were ever
built in Iran or anywhere else beyond the few demonstration things that were
built about 30 years ago.
Stan Scholl, P.E.
Dear All (esp: Fariborz
Tehrani):
I have followed those
discussions on adobe vis-a-vis Iran Quake with lot of interests. In the
meanwhile I have been also visting the links provided by the Iranian
Engineer Fariborz M. Tehrani to update myself on the Bam EQ issue. I
browsed thru several pics posted on these Sites also and was able to have
some insight of extent of damages done there.
However, I was more
interested in some kind of report though (could be preliminary and/or in a
short summary type) to know how have various types of structures performed
during this particular earth quake.
I was, in fact, mostly
interested to know how have Gel Taftan or the Ceramic Houses type
of structures performed this time around. Can any body (esp. Fariborz
Tehrani) address these questions, please?
For those of you who
don't know about Gel Taftan (Ceramic Houses), let me run-down a basic
introduction about the same.
The Iranian-born
American architect Nader Khalili is the innovator of the Gel Taftan or Earth-and-Fire System of
construction, known also as "Ceramic Houses". Gel in Persian means
"clay" while Taftan means "burning".
The innovation per se
entails construction of thick walls (about 300 mm) and vault & dome
roofing (without the use of any wood & without any supporting
formwork) with hand moulded unstabilised earth blocks only, called adobe.
Since no wood is used, this type of construction is alo called
woodless
construction. This entire built-structure is then fired, by means of setting
oil-fuelled burners in the building and allowed to bake for two to three
days., until the clay-brick walls & roof turns red hot, making the
structure into a Ceramic House termed by Nader Khalili as Gel
Taftan.
Nader Khalili has
illustrated the process in his famous book entitled, "Ceramic Houses and Earth
Architecture: How to build your own". I am fortunate to have met some
of his associates in Council for Works & Housing Research, Karachi
(Pakistan) way back in the early 90s and also have a personal copy of the
same book.
He has also invented
another innovative system called Super Adobe. These are essentially rows of bags filled with sand
dug from the house site and piled up to form walls. Barbed wire is laid
between the rows to reinforce and help hold the bags together.The
structure is tied together with rope or metal. Walls can be sealed with a
mixture of mud & straw or with stucco. Sandbag arches are used to form
windows and doors.
Both Gel Taftan
(Ceramic House) and Supper Adobe structures have been built & tested
in the Mojave desert (by Nader Khalili) and have been found to be
Earth-Quake resistant and also resistant to rain & flash floods.
Interestingly enough
both Gel Taftan (Ceramic House) and Super Adobe are approved by NASA to be
the future building materials for would be structures on Moon and Mars.
Obviously, Man will not transport cement & reinforcing steel or
brick/block all the way to the Moon and Mars. These two innovative
technologies can make use of indigenous materials like, earth/soil and
water supposedly available on Moon and Mars; all you need to transport is
a little bit of fuel for burning, thats all.
Nader Khalili is
located in Hesperia (south of LA) in the Mojave desert (working as
Director for CAL-EARTH) where NASA is also planning to build some
prototype houses that will eventually be built on Moon and Mars.
Any thought on the
above and report of performance of Ceramic Houses (Gel Taftan) in the Bam
EQ, by any one on this List especially by Fariborz Tehrani, shall be
appreciated.
Best regards to
all,
Syed Faiz Ahmad; MEngg,
M.ASCE
Senior
Structural Engineer
Saudi Oger Ltd
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
