The Beauty of Building With Mud and Trash | Vinu Daniel | TED

The construction industry is responsible for 30-40% of global energy and resource consumption, as well as carbon emissions. Mahatma Gandhi proposed a simple solution: building houses using materials found within a five-mile radius. The ideal material suggested is mud, which lies right beneath our feet. Building homes with mud could be the most sustainable and eco-friendly approach.

The Strength and Durability of Mud Bricks Mud bricks, especially those with 5% cement added like the ones from Auroville Earth Institute, are remarkably strong. These compressed blocks have a dry compressive strength of 6.5 megapascals, which is twice that of traditional fired bricks (3-3.5 MPa). Despite concerns about water damage, mud bricks can withstand prolonged exposure to water without losing their structural integrity; an example brick has been submerged since 1995 and remains load-bearing.

Rethinking Construction Materials This evidence challenges conventional perceptions in construction by demonstrating that mud can be both durable and beautiful as a building material. The speaker's personal journey reflects this shift in thinking—from architecture graduate to mason—highlighting the potential for innovative approaches using earth-based materials.

Revolutionizing Construction with Mud Techniques I joined hands with local workers to teach them mud construction techniques, transforming every aspect of our building process. Foundations became poured or rammed earth, walls turned into mud blocks or compressed earth bricks, and roofs were made from domes and vaults of mud bricks. We built the Pirouette House in a crowded community using natural ventilation achieved through zigzag patterns without computational technology—just coconut twigs, thread, and manual labor.

A Life-Altering Challenge: Building Eco-Friendly on Waste In 2012 I was asked to build an eco-friendly residence for a primary school teacher named Biju Mathew on a plot filled with waste dumped by neighbors after their construction projects. Faced with this challenge amidst no other empty plots available nearby forced me to rethink traditional building philosophies rather than allowing the debris problem persist elsewhere.

Faced with the growing waste problem, we decided to incorporate this trash into our construction methods. By hand-pulverizing the material and mixing it with soil and a small percentage of cement, we created a mixture that was poured between two meshes. The resulting product not only served as formidable partitions but also bore structural loads like roofs. Despite being nicknamed 'scrap engineer,' I discovered valuable materials in junkyards such as discarded electric meter boxes and washing machine wheels, which became integral to our sustainable building philosophy.

Inspired by previous successes, the goal was to construct multi-storied buildings using mud and waste. Shikhara, a three-story building, exemplifies this achievement. By modifying techniques from earlier projects—using wooden shutters instead of two meshes—the resulting structure proved strong with a dry compressive strength of 4.5 megapascals while being cost-effective at $90,000 compared to typical budgets exceeding $200,000.

Eco-Friendly Construction Using Plastic Bottles Many practices in India have adopted the technique of building with plastic bottles due to its eco-friendly and cost-effective nature. The Chuzhi housing project utilized 4,300 plastic bottles for construction, creating circular beams reinforced with concrete and mud. This innovative approach not only camouflaged the buildings within rocky terrain but also used trees as natural cooling systems.

Transforming Discarded Tires into Sustainable Building Materials India discards half a million tires daily, compounded by another half-million from other countries. These discarded tires often end up being burned or illegally used in road tarring processes, posing significant health risks. Inspired by architects like Michael Reynolds, integrating mud and tire into construction offers a solution to this toxic threat while addressing housing crises in underdeveloped nations.