The main house of the Chilam Balam ecovillage in the mountains near Caracas, Venezuela. Many followers of the Thirteen Moon Calendar have embraced less impactful building techniques in their homes, and let their imaginations play. This example of bioarchitecture is made of superadobe bricks, ferrocement, and local timber. July 2007. [It appears as if the term “superadobe bricks is the same as earthbags.] Source
Source: SodaHead
Source: Sustainable Designs Hawaii
Source: Comun Tierra Blog
EcoCentro IPEC
The Chilam Balam was built with adobe bricks – nothing like earthbag or superadobe. It’s pretty though, and plenty more sustainable than the cement block usually used around here.
Thanks Zafra. The bricks look larger than usual adobes. I wonder why they used the term superadobe bricks?
I think that was just a lack of knowledge on the part of whoever wrote that description on the Flickr site. Or maybe super refers to the large size of the bricks? Just kidding – probably not :)
I really like the fireplace in the super adobe house. Is that easy to implement inti any if your designs?
Very much so. You can use a kiva fireplace everywhere I show a wood stove. Research kiva fireplaces, kiva fireplace inserts, kiva fireplace kits. You can buy a metal insert (similar to a wood stove that’s inside of a kiva fireplace) or a masonry kit. This gives you a lot of freedom to build your own design, but the difficult firebox portion is taken care of.
Thanks, Owen. I’ll research it. Thanks for answering my next question about the inserts. :-)