This is how they build houses with mud in Africa

The preparation

• It mixes clayey soil, water and often straw or vegetable fibers.
• The dough is put in molds to make bricks.
• The bricks come left to dry in the sun for days (not cooked like the industrial ones).
• Then the walls are built with these bricks, using the same mud like “cement”.

This technique, for example, was used to build the Great Mosque of Djenné, one of the largest earthen buildings in the world. On this Facebook page find updated news on house construction with the mud In Africa.

The construction technique

• Il mud is compressed inside wooden formwork.
• It is pressed layer by layer until a solid wall is formed.
• Once dry, the wall is very resistant.

One of the most popular styles in Africa for building houses with the mud Is that Nubian, a type of traditional architecture native to the region of nubian, along the Nile between present-day southern Egypt and Sudan. It is most famous for its use of raw earth and for its elegant and functional shapes.

Adding the straw

In the dough for the construction I add the straw or the fibers:

• prevent cracks during drying
• increase resistance
• make the material more “elastic”

It's a bit like iron in reinforced concrete, but natural.

Advantages of houses built with the mud

The houses in mud (raw earth) are considered a good answer to the climate crisis because they reduce both emissions and resource consumption, while still maintaining excellent housing performance. And all this at very low prices, making them accessible even to African populations.

The most important advantages of houses built with the mud these are:

• The houses are cool during the day and warm at night, with excellent thermal insulation.
• Local materials they are all local, zero kilometer, with very low production and handling costs.
• These houses are really eco-friendly as they have zero emissions.
• These are homes that do not have particular maintenance costs (aside from the plaster that needs to be fixed every year) and are easy to repair.

Where they are most widespread

• Mali
• Niger
• Burkina Faso
• Senegal
• Ghana
• Morocco
• Algeria
• Tunisia
• Sudan
• Egypt
• Cameroon