BASIC DESIGN:

52 foot diameter, round, earth-sheltered store with a
25 foot diameter second floor for living quarters.

Walls - 2 foot thick rammed earth around the outside
and another 2 foot thick rammed earth wall with 25
foot inside diameter. The inner wall continues up to
form the second floor. The stairs will follow the inside
of the inner wall along the north west part of the curve.

I am single and expect to remain so. The living
quarters have about 500 square feet which is enough
for me.

The A-frame bookshelves will be in concentric circles

The south wall of the store will be about 15 linear feet
of glass - pretty much floor to ceiling - with an
earth-bermed courtyard supported by rammed earth
walls

The living quarters will be similarly glassed on the
south side.

The land here is very rolling - this is the Wyoming
Moraine - this is where the last ice age stopped and
left its burden. The soil here is a clay loam. There are
sand and gravel pits within a few miles. The place
where I'd like to build - more or less beside the current
store - is about 10 feet higher than the creek which is
the border of the property. The site slopes off to the
south which is ideal.

My idea is to scrape off the topsoil first then excavate
maybe 3 feet down in a 60 foot diameter circle.

At the edge of this circle - or maybe even further out -
would be a drainage tile to the creek to keep the soil
dry below the building.
The reason for this is the use of 'air tubes' which,
back in the 70's were called 'cooling tubes'. These will
take air from the south-facing courtyard, Possibly with
their own simple home-made collectors, and pipe it
under and around the building to a 'solar chimney' on
the north side.
Over time, the earth under and around the house will
be brought up to about 80 degrees F. (25C) and will
heat the building.




















Note the bookshelves in the living area. This is my
'entertainment centre' although my main 'library', of course, is
downstairs.

The 2nd story of the inner rammed earth (RE) walls
will have about 4" of styrofoam sandwiched between
10" of rammed earth on the outside and 14 inches on
the inside.

The dirt on the outside of the RE walls is compacted
in its natural slope. This gives a space around the
outside of the walls where piping and some other
things can be put - accessible but completely out of
the way. It also means that there is no pressure
against the outer walls.

The roof extends across this open space and meets
the earth. The roof is heavily insulated all the way out
to the ground which is then insulated with styrofoam
down to the drains.

This huge mass of earth around and several feet
below the building, as well as the RE in the inner and
outer walls, all serve as a heat sink, soaking up the
heat of the air passing through the air tubes. It can
take a few years to fully 'charge' the earth mass, but
then the temperature should stabilize and provide
most of the heating and cooling needs.

Among the advantages of this building are:
1 reduced construction cost - lots of labour but it's
almost all unskilled & I have most of the skill & work for
nothing.
2 extremely low carbon use compared to any 'normal'
method of construction
3 little or no heating/cooling costs also reducing
carbon use on an ongoing basis
4 virtually no maintenance costs
5 for a small cost I can implant temperature and
moisture monitors in the walls and below the floor for
ongoing monitoring of how it's working, which will be of
value to others doing similar buildings.
6 It should be easy to get a bit of publicity for the
building which will be good for my used book business
7 When I was researching in-ground buildings I found
that although there are quite a few of them around,
the owners generally don't want a lot of visitors and
sight-seers (sight seeers? sight-see-ers?) Obviously, I
will be happy to have people drop in to see the
building.
8 very resistant to fire, termites, tornadoes, and even
earthquakes.


Disadvantages
There must be some, but I haven't thought of any yet.

MORE TO COME...
LINKS

RAMMED EARTH
http://www.ebaa.asn.au/gall
ery.html
Scroll down to the bottom of
the page for the rammed
earth pics.

http://www.greenhouse.gov.
au/yourhome/technical/fs34c
.htm



AGS - Annualized
Geo Solar
http://www.greenershelter.or
g/TokyoPaper.pdf
a paper given by Don
Stephens on AGS

http://www.greenershelter.or
g/index.php?pg=3
Don Stephen's home page
DEFINITIONS
AND
EXPLANATIONS

RAMMED EARTH (RE)
- a mixture of 30% clay and
70% sand/gravel rammed
into forms with a backfill
tamper - very low carbon
footprint, the land here is
clay. And sand & gravel
pits are nearby.

The Great Wall of China is
largely rammed earth and
is still standing. There is a
city in the Arabian
Peninsula which has
buildings up to 7 stories
high - all built of rammed
earth and still standing
after hundreds of years.

Many builders recommend
that Portland Cement or
other materials be added
but these ancient
structures show that it's
not necessary if the
material mix is correct.

There are surface
treatments that protect the
outside from rain and
prevent the slight 'dusting'
which otherwise occurs
inside.

RE breathes. It has no
known allergy problems,
doesn't burn, is very
resistant to termites and
vermin, virtually
soundproof, and looks like
sandstone when done.

EARTH SHELTERED
In this case it means the
roof has a foot or so of
earth on top, possibly up
to the waist high windows
on the second floor. The
only exterior walls on the
first floor that will be
exposed to the weather
are the windows along the
south side.

PASSIVE SOLAR
HEATING/COOLING
This means that the
heating & cooling are
provided by the sun
without any fans, pumps,
or other mechanical aids.

AGS
Annualized Geo Solar -
heat from the summer is
used to warm the earth
under and around the
building which in turn
heats the building through
the winter. In the summer
the massive walls absorb
excess heat.

COMPOSTING
TOILETS

GREYWATER
a rammed earth castle in
Spain showing that
although it will erode with
time and water... it obviously
isn't much of a problem.
living area
dotted lines represent A-frame shelves. Outer walls and inner 2
story walls are rammed earth. Steel posts can rise through
A-frames to provide extra support for earth covered roof.
This page is (primarily) about the bookstore I'd
like to build. Comments, questions and suggestions
are very welcome. You can write to me at sylvan_bob
at hotmail.com

Comments that seem to me to be relevant will be put
on this page unless you specifically ask me not to.
Personal details & email addresses won't be posted.
Floor plan of first floor. I'll replace this with a better one later on.
The bookshelves all run in concentric circles with breaks to get
from one ring to the next.
Rammed Earth home in
Australia
Rammed Earth home
interior
mosque built of earth in sub-saharan Africa
sub-Saharan Mosque
built of earth (not
rammed earth) nearly
600 years old.
WeSellUsedBooks

 HOME