Sunday, August 05, 2007

Should we be building our garden offices with mud?

The Sydney Morning Herald has a nice piece by Steve Meacham on the resurgence of interest in building with mud. It includes an interview with environmental engineer Dominic Dowling who points out:
"If you can make something from the earth, it can be sourced very close to the location. And, at the end of the day, it can all just be returned to the earth. It's got to the way of the future. Mud homes aren't just something poor people in developing countries live in. It's a wonderfully appropriate construction material for Australia because of its environmental advantages, its thermal advantages, its aesthetics and its liveability. Internally, earth construction controls the climate so wonderfully you don't have to rely so much on energy consumption for heating and cooling."
Dowling has a mud building - which also has applications for areas of dangerous earthquake activity - on show at the Powerhouse Museum as part of the Sydney Design 07 exhibition from August 4 to 19.

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