Architects Are Using Mud to Build Sustainable Homes

‘Earth built’ or 'breathable houses' are supposedly eco-friendly to produce, because they use readily available, natural materials and building methods. Homes made from mud have been used for thousands of years across many cultures, but they’ve been traditionally created by men.

In this episode of the ecological alarm clock that is Extinction Update, we travel to Mosorin, Serbia to meet Dragana Kojičić, an architect who for the past 10 years has been developing the Centre for Earth Architecture, a group reviving these ancient traditionally male-dominated techniques and teaching younger generations of women the earth built method.

Could this back to basics building method be a climate solution for the rest of the planet?


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[DubleSwipe]

Oh boy... Adobe isn’t gonna be too happy when they find out you can get their product for free...

[Chy-thsj]

Me: Looks for a mud house in California
California: The cheapest mud house here is $350, 000

[jameskniskern]

Straw bale home builder/owner here. The insulation value of straw bale buildings is amazing. I have very low cooling bill in summer, and no bill in winter for heating, as I use waste wood to heat my home. Often times cooking a meal in winter is plenty to keep the entire house warm. It is also passive solar design, so in summer is shaded, but in winter when the sun shines, we get plenty of free solar warming.
We have clay plasters on the straw bales, and made many interior walls using several natural building techniques.
Our home is a hybrid of natural materials (clay, sand, straw) and manufactured materials (metal roofing, glass windows, wall tiles in the bathroom, and poured concrete floors.) So much can be done, but isn't.
It does take a special drive to accomplish what the architect has done, and yes, these sorts of homes can be built to the building codes in any region.

[CoyHere]

Editer: "Siri, Read my intro"

"Nice"

[congressmashava]

Civilization and the westernization has doomed us all. I am an african and we built like that but it was viewed as barbaric and now look at the consequences. We should never have changed our ways!!

[rolandotokes]

I wish my grandpa had a vice segment about how he built his house with mud and other things

[johnloro]

In South Sudan we been doing this mud house for a while, I mean the whole of African thou

[ItchyKneeSon]

While working as a carpenter in Japan I put an addition on a house that was built around the year 1900. The wall that we opened up had a massive header beam from a 100-plus-year-old tree that held the sliding doors in place. Between the studs, the walls were supported by interlocked bamboo and the insulation was made of straw and mud.

[jacecaldwell]

They picked the right reporter for this.

[matts]

I love how sustainability is "inventing" techniques used for thousands of years by now.

[youtubemenace]

Fancy architects: Mud houses and bricks .
Indian Village peasants: lol!

[fergalfarrelly]

I'd never get a permit to build with any of those materials. All materials must be CSA aproved and built to national building codes. Natural materials don't have a manufacturers certification.

[alearner]

Seriously???
I am now more proud of ancient Indian civilization and culture, their wisdom about life and compassion for mother earth.

Now you understand why they worship everything like soil, rivers, plants, animals, hills, sun, moon, mountains anything. They actually know the importance of living in harmony with the nature.

[NMN]

It would be so nice, if VICE would write the names of their series in the Youtube titles

[kay]

Who's watching from parts of Africa and South Asia and going, Europeans rediscovering mud houses- We've been doing this.

[asianoy]

"Inside The Community Made Of Mud" severely confused me lol the new title is better

[harmanjediwarlord]

I'm from india, we had houses like these like 40 years ago and everyone lived in them and were happy and now we are MODERN AND CIVILISED and depressed and stuck in shitty jobs

[felixf]

First world countries: Maybe we should start living in mud houses so we don't destroy the planet.
Third world countries: *Facepalm, You think?

[MultiFreakface]

"Buildings are responsible for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions" is so vague that it ignores what ACTUALLY causes the emissions. Its not the make up of the buildings, its the internal operations. Houses have emissions due to the daily activities of the people within it. I'd argue an uninhabited brick house has no emissions, simply a longer lasting footprint, which ultimately could be very small. A mud house with electricity, gas, and water would also have emissions, while also being less maintainable, strong, and worse at overall heat retention. Its not a terrible idea in warm climate areas. Then it brings up a whole other issue of soil composition. It doesnt seem widely applicable enough to have any impact. Plus the lack or diminishing of a chain of labour would be disastrous for the economy. Good idea, but I dont think its got any legs.

[birrysund]

We couldn't build mudbrick house near River in the UK, that would be disastrous....