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Author Topic: The Nubian Vault and its impact on Sustaniable Architecture
-Just Call Me Jari-
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Like Explorers Thread "Before the Ruins" I want to give attention to an African Architectural trestise that once again blows the White Washed Red Neck Myths of African Architecture. This is very special becuase it focuses on Mud Brick and Adobe Architecture that people love to make fun of and underestimate.


The "Nubian Vault" and its inlfuence on Earth Architecture.
The Nubian Vault
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Fathy and the Nubian Vault...
An ancient architectural technique, traditionally used in Sudan and central Asia, but until now unknown in West Africa, can provide the answer to the current problems of house-building in the Sahel. This technique - “la Voute Nubienne” or VN - makes it possible to build houses with vaulted roofs (on top of which a traditional flat roof terrace can be constructed) using basic, readily available local materials and simple, easily learnt, procedures.

Fathy's solution was to turn to sun-dried bricks made of mud and reinforced with straw: adobe. He engaged the advice of structural engineers and soil-mechanics specialists to ascertain the maximum strength and durability of adobe under different conditions. After this research, in the early 1940's, he began to design dwellings that demonstrated an unprecedented degree of harmony with the natural environment, climate and local culture, and the spiritual tradition of Islam. With inspiration from the very soil of Egypt, he aimed to help the poor build for themselves.

Yet roofing remained a problem. In rural Egypt, the fellahin could afford neither wood nor corrugated galvanized metal for roofs, nor could they even buy the wood needed to make forms to shape vaulted adobe roofs. Fathy's early attempts at building adobe vaulting without wooden forms—the only economically sensible solution—resulted in a series of discouraging collapses. This was particularly maddening because it was clear from his visits to Upper Egypt that just such form-less vaulting had been used for millennia to build ordinary houses, tombs and even royal buildings, such as the granaries of the first-century-BC Ramesseum, one of the great monuments of Thebes.

Fathy feared that the secret had been lost, but in 1941, in the Nubian village of Abu al-Riche, he found village masons building catenary vaults of mud brick that could measure two stories high, up to three meters (10 ˝') wide and of any desired length, without forms. (See "How to Build A Nubian Vault," page 24.) The technique, he was exhilarated to learn, was simple enough to teach to any willing person.

Egyptian Influence on adobe Via Arabic

The English word adobe comes from the Spanish assimilation of al-tub, Arabic for sun-dried bricks of mud. This derives in turn from the ancient Egyptian word for mud. The size of the mold used today in most parts of the world to make adobe bricks dates to at least 1450 BC, when the young pharaoh-architect Queen Hatshepsut was depicted on frescoes molding with her own hands the bricks for each corner of her funerary temple at Deir el-Bahari, near old Gourna. The proportions used then are so perfectly adapted to the function of the bricks that they remain largely unchanged today in Egypt, the Indus Valley, Pakistan and China, and from Sudan south to Zimbabwe. In the eighth century, the adobe mold traveled to Andalusia with the Arabs. From there, the Spanish conquistadores carried it to Mexico, where the native people of the deserts quickly adopted it.

In 1980, Fathy noted that in the pueblos of New Mexico, bricks still measure 33 by 15 by 10 centimeters (13"x6"x4")—almost exactly the proportions of the bricks at the Temple of Hatshepsut. When he made this observation, Fathy was engaged in his only North American commission, the community of Dar al-Islam in the remote mountain site of Abiquiu, New Mexico, where his clients were US-born Muslims. (See Aramco World, May/June 1988.) The first structure to rise was a mosque, constructed by the community members themselves under the tutelage of Nubian master masons Mohamed Abdul Jalil Moussa and the 85-year-old Ala Eddin Mustafa, both of whom had worked on many of Fathy's buildings.

Fathy's lingering Influence

Today there are two centers in France inspired by Fathy. Both work with owner-builders in West Africa and the Middle East: CRATerre (Centre de Recherche en Architectures de Terre) of Grenoble and the Development Workshop of Lauzerte have helped introduce the Nubian technique of mud-brick dome and vault construction among villagers in Mali, Niger and Iran. In Egypt, Fathy's ideas can be found in the work of architects, planners and cultural developers in numerous institutions.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199904/elegant.solutions.htm

Fathy's Ideas transported to the U.S..

http://www.eartharchitecture.org/uploads/adobe-alliance-workshop.jpg

"The allure of elegant earthen architecture can be life-changing. At least that was the case for urbane New Yorker Simone Swan, who in the 1970s became fascinated with the ideas and designs of renowned Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. Then the 40-something executive head of the Houston-based Menil Foundation, Swan moved to Cairo to study with Fathy. She became his most passionate advocate, and transplanted his adobe building techniques to the Southwestern United States."

More Influence of the Nubian Vault

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The simple requirements were accommodated in an equally simple plan - a central dome surrounded by four vaults covering a 700 sq.ft area. There were only two main additions after firing - the entrance canopy as a fifth vault in fired brick and lime mortar, and a partial loft within the highest of the four vaults. Nubian vault construction was followed for all five vaults.


Nubian Vault Workshop.
http://www.kurtgardella.com/nubian-vault-workshop-presidio-tx

As an Arch. Major I can tell you Sustainable/Earth Archtecture is VERY Big in the feild right now. America is slow to catch on. I am certain it will be the next direction of Architecture as a profession and people are looking at places like Africa to get a feel of Sustainable Architecture. The Nubian vault seems to be making splashes!!

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-Just Call Me Jari-
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Website feature the beauty of the Nubian Vault
http://www.bvucoapune.org/GetCriteria.php?Link=SiteVisit&FileName=SiteVisitARRawat

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Pidgeon Houses in Egypt

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Pigeon is a part of the daily diet in many parts of Egypt and Pigeon houses, or dovecotes, are constructed from mud brick create an artificial mountainous topography. The droppings are also a valuable source of fertilizer and the houses are so ubiquitous that they are also part of the Egyptian national identity. The dovecote typology can be found throughout the world and Earth Architecture has previously featured the palomares of Spain.

Interestingly, the Egyptian pigeon houses remind one of the recent work of architect Vicente Guallart, who in his project The Re-Naturalization of Territory, attempts to create what could be considered as dovecotes for biotechnology and cinema in Tarragona, Spain.

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More Pidgeon Houses in Egypt

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Pigeon houses such as this exist all over Egypt - pigeon is eaten on a regular basis (and yes, it is delicious). This one is inside the heritage site of Al Qasr, a well maintained but abandoned medieval town out in the Western Desert.

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Brada-Anansi
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Very nice thread Jeri..but as a budding architect did the "Nubian Vault" influenced the much vaunted so-called Roman arch? or am I reading too much into appearances?
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-Just Call Me Jari-
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quote:
Originally posted by Brada-Anansi:
Very nice thread Jeri..but as a budding architect did the "Nubian Vault" influenced the much vaunted so-called Roman arch? or am I reading too much into appearances?
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From my observation it could be likely as the Nubian Vault is easier to construct than a Roman vault as it does not require any Armature like a Roman Vault. The Nubian Vault is ingenious and thanks to the Egyptian Architect Hassan Fathy who revived it in Egyptian Villages and then to places around the world, even taking Nubian Masons with him to construct them in his projects. Also the fact that the word Adobe comes from an Egyptian Word and that Adobe was brought from its origins in Egypt to Europe Via the Moors is even more Amazing. I will have to do more research.
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Explorador
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quote:
Originally posted by Jari-Ankhamun:

This is very special becuase it focuses on Mud Brick and Adobe Architecture that people love to make fun of and underestimate.

Ditto. Those who do so, simply don't understand the concept of digging deep -- examining the structure, its foundations, material availability and associated economic viability, what aspects of it are not merely "cosmetic" but functional, etc. Only architects, not unlike Fathy, can really look past outward superficial elements that some take for granted as being 'simple', and appreciate the underlying ingenuity in erecting what appears to be simple structures at first glance.

Good finds. Another gem that will come in handy in future discourse.

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Brada-Anansi
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Hey guys you know what I noticed??..the branch-like-structures sticking out of the sides as seen in Savannah type architectures  -  -
What is the function of those branches?? anyway.

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Explorador
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Looks to be supports that at least have a secondary role in helping facilitate climbing the structures, be it for repair work or something else.
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Doug M
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Posted a similar thread a little while back:

http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005228

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The Gaul
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Very good info to bring to the fore Jari and Doug M on this and the whitewashed dwellings.

It's odd that what is deemed simply "mud" structures in Africa such as the Djenne Mosque:

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Or this red ochre structure:

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Become "adobe" in other places such as in California:

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I wonder if those like osirion would call the above a "mud" house like the Sahelian structures in Mali.

Not to mention these "mud" structures are excellent in areas of extreme heat because as anyone will tell who has been inside one, it stays comfortably cool and renders energy inefficient and wasteful modern technologies like air conditioning units unnecessary.

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Brada-Anansi
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Explorer
quote:
Looks to be supports that at least have a secondary role in helping facilitate climbing the structures, be it for repair work or something else.
That would make sense given that those areas don't have a lot of trees in the first place to constantly make scaffold for repairs plus it gives the buildings a unique look.
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The Gaul
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quote:
Originally posted by Brada-Anansi:
Explorer
quote:
Looks to be supports that at least have a secondary role in helping facilitate climbing the structures, be it for repair work or something else.
That would make sense given that those areas don't have a lot of trees in the first place to constantly make scaffold for repairs plus it gives the buildings a unique look.
For graineries its a way to reach the top to store millet and I even believe the Dogon bury the dead up high. Not sure how they transport the bodies up but I'm sure I've seen that.
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Brada-Anansi
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The Gaul
quote:
For graineries its a way to reach the top to store millet and I even believe the Dogon bury the dead up high. Not sure how they transport the bodies up but I'm sure I've seen that.
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This is how..if you notice the guys on top with the pully and the body attached also in the first pic is more of those scaffold you mentioned.

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The Gaul
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Thanks! I was sure I saw that on some program. They sure have made a way to continue life in those escarpments from their previous lands.
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-Just Call Me Jari-
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I have some more on the way, been busy studying for a Math Test!
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Brada-Anansi
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bump so as not to let it get buried.
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Firewall
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quote-
The age-old Nubian vault technique was notably revived by the Egyptian architect [[Hassan Fathy]] in the 1940s with the building of a new village at [[Gourna]], near [[Luxor]]. Architecturally, this village is a singular success; however, the families who were moved there soon abandoned it to return to their original village.

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How could he revive something that is still in used.
The above is not true.

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Myra Wysinger
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quote:
Originally posted by The Explorer:
Looks to be supports that at least have a secondary role in helping facilitate climbing the structures, be it for repair work or something else.

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Tukuler
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^

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I'm just another point of view. What's yours? Unpublished work © 2004 - 2023 YYT al~Takruri
Authentic Africana over race-serving ethnocentricisms, Afro, Euro, or whatever.

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Ish Geber
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Just Call Me Jari, had awesome threads on architecture. This just one of them.
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