Program

Reinforced concrete ring beams

Reinforced concrete foundations

STRUCTURAL GRID Reinforced concrete constructional columns were set in the rammed earth walls to improve the anti-shearing performance.

RESEARCH CENTER KUNMING, CHINA Architects: One University One Village Team Area : 1328 m² Year : 2019 Lead Architect : Edward Ng

The project design is highly based on the local climate condition of Kunming . Compared with conventional building materials, rammed earth has outstanding

thermal performance. Passive design with natural daylighting, natural ventilation, thermal mass, and shading guaranteed high indoor environmental

quality and low operating energy consumption. No active cooling and heating equipment has been used in this project. To To minimize the impact to the local environment, 89% of the building materials (by weight) are local natural materials, including local raw earth, gravel, and sand. No industrial stabilizer was added to the wall, i.e., the wall of this building is 100% recyclable and pollution-free. No decoration material was used on the building façade and interior walls. No decoration material was used on the building façade and interior walls. Industrial materials, such as cement and steel, are limited and efficiently used in key structural parts such as foundation, constructional column, ring beam, and floor slab to ensure building safety and building environmental quality.

About the used construction method

Rammed earth construction is the process of compressing a sand mixture into a hard material. It is often confused with the more widespread method of adobe construction. Although they are both methods of construction based on the mix of types of soil with waterproofing additions, there are also some differences. One difference is that adobe requires dry weather to cure the bricks for wall construction, whereas rammed earth is able to be produced also in wet weather which is the case in Manchester. This makes rammed earth a climate-adaptive method, and the development of rammed earth in rainy climates led to a construction method similar to constructing a sandcastle using formwork. A mixture of soil and cement is compacted into forms, and later, when the forms are removed, the solid earth walls remain.