Use of Adobe in Cyprus

What is adobe brick?Production, Application & A Featuresadobe brick is a composite edifice englut do with unranked and husks. compulsory sum of water is added to discolourationy and chaffs which is tradition each(prenominal)y crushed and squezed by pes, to mix the push ups making system. In round parts, droppings is used alternatively of stubbles. Straws atomic number 18 used to adhere the bricks together. It besides eitherow the bricks to dry every bit. ab come on experiments show that utilizing straws in adobe bricks make them more immune for clefts. ooze is drumheadly used to avoid insects.The mixture is so casted into wooden frames ( commonly 30cm ten 45cmx 6cm ) .It is compressed within the wooden frames to forestall the spreads, doing it heavy and strong. supernumerary clay is glanced off the frames to do a level surface for the bricks. wooden frames argon removed and adobe bricks argon left to dry in a level surface, under the Sun for a few yearss.It is a low-priced and open to do stuff which was widely used all around the universe extensively in Egypt, Sudan, Middle East and Asia Minor. As it is an human beings stuff, it is suitable for turnout-arid climes where spends argon hot and dry and winters cold and wet. It has a high thermal mass which is defined as the ability of the stuff to absorb heat. It helps to stabilise the at heart temperature of the edifices.M ain natural stuffs of adobe provoke easy be found locally. body politic casefulcasts and colorss depends on the vicinity and that is the chief ground to see unlike coloured adobe edifices in different countries.Load bearing walls made from adobe bricks argon normally 45-50cm broad. minimum breadth should non be less than 30 centimeter. Adobe walls carry their ain weight into foundations so thither is no demand for opposite sturctures to convey the burden of the walls. Normally, 80-100 centimeter high rock walls atomic number 18 built as a base for the adobe w alls to forestall the affect of land humidness on adobe bricks.As there are non any other conceptionions to transport the adobe walls, land is dug for the termss. The bassness of the excavated country depends on the local features of the land and the frost degree of the dirt. The misguided apparatus of the foundations faculty do clefts on the walls.Courses of adobe bricks are lined horizantally and binded together with clay howitzer to organize the adobe walls. Mud plaster which is a breathable stuff that can let the wet of the adobe walls to vaporize is used to crush on the first bed of the adobe walls. Fine grained straws are added where straw fibres increase adhering and to obtain a smooth surface. Mud plaster is a lasting stuff but the concluding coating of the wall is made by stick oning calcium hydroxide based paste which is a water-repellent stuff to protect the structural feature of the adobe.As it is an earth stuff, single-year fix is recommended. Worn surfaces are r e situated by clay howitzer and plastered once more. This procedure is normally carried out during fall.In adobe houses, the breadth of the edifices do no transcend 4m ( 13ft ) by and large. The infinites are largely rectangular and in any(prenominal) instances they superpower be square shaped. It is recommended to construct maximal two floors with adobe.Ceiling beams which were normally wood, are pose correspond to the short side of the rectangle with 30-40cm intervals. For these beams, cypress tree was normally used in Cyprus. Bushes or reeds were placed higher up the beams or in some instances reeds in the signifier of mats might be used if available. On top of this bed, 20-25 centimeter midst clay is casted and compressed by a rock roller. This type of roofs need one-year fix, which normally carried out in fall. If the roof is skeletal system with a incline, tiles are used to cover the clay bed. This entrust press down the scratch of the clay and reduces the demand for care.Use of Adobe in CyprusAdobe is a common edifice stuff in Cyprus from archean successions. Building stuffs might change in different parts, such as Kyrenia and Paphos ( which are coastal parts of the island ) rock was used to construct shelters. In the fields and foothills, adobe was widely used. The customs of the stuffs depended on the regional accessibility and climatic brokers.As adobe is an insulating stuff, bulk of the houses were build utilizing adobe. Mesaoria vale which is placed between Kyrenia Mountains in the North and Trodos Mountains in the sou-west of the island, is an aluvial field where intimately of the adobe edifices can be seen. Reports on dirt studies in Cyprus shows that there are chiefly two types of dirt in the island. One is deep soils which can be found in fields and 2nd one is shallow soils which can be found in mountain and semi mountain countries.Deep soil consequences show that % 60 of the dirt in fields is clay. Large sum of the field lands is calcareus with Ca carbonate contentedness up to % 40-60. Limestone is a sedimentary stone which includes high degrees of Ca carbonate. Limestone is touch on in different phases to bring forth calcium hydroxide.Including insularity characteristics of adobe, suited ingredients can be found locally around the island which are dirt with high clay content, and limestone to bring forth calcium hydroxide. Adobe bricks are dried under Sun where limestone and roof tiles are baked in local furnaces by utilizing wood or fuel. This makes adobe a sustainable and natural stuff. Limestone was besides used to construct patio walls.Nicosia is hardened in the Mesaoria vale where adobe edifices can widely be seen. later on the declaration of independency of the island in 1960, concrete edifices started to lift over the island. Nowadays, wee sums of Earth edifices are built around Cyprus.Cyprus is hot and dry during summer where the demand for airing is extremely demanded inside the edifices. Privacy was an of import factor on determining the traditional house design of Cyprus where Windowss were built above oculus degree to maintain the privateness. Windows on adobe walls were made by puting wooden headers on top of the gaps to back up the bricks above.Terra rossa dirt is posit in some countries of Mesaoria field which is a ruddy brown dirt. distort of adobe bricks might change in different parts of the island. breakdown walls inside the edifices were normally built with light timber-framing filled with rubble or plaster. As adobe is a heavy stuff, it was used to construct the external walls merely.Testing adobe samples from the Davies HouseI scratched a really clarified sum of adobe from the external wall of the Davies House. It was easy crumbled into dinky pieces chiefly because of the low strenght of the wall. My chief purpose to prove these samples is to adventure out and discipline the ingredients of the adobe used in this peculiar edifice. My purpose was be sides to happen out the age of the stuff if possible.First phase in the question lab was to look at the samples under a microscope. A little sum from the sample was taken and placed on a assumed pas. Soil and straw atoms were clearly seen but it was difficult to place the stuffs clearly. As they were assorted and largely binded with each other, I need to divide the ingredients.The demeanor of dividing the composite stuff is to blend the coveted sum of sample with weewee and leave it for one twenty-four hours. By this manner, dense and heavy stuffs which are dirt atoms in this instance will drop where the light stuffs will drift on the liquid which are the straws that has lower denseness than pee which makes them burn out.One-half of the adobe sample is grained by utilizing a cock. A all right grained pulverization was obtained. 5gr of the pulverization was weighted by a raw(a) weighting graduated table. It was put inside a glass beaker and 200ml of distilled pee added to th e sample. The mixture was bawl outred manually for a few proceedingss and so placed on the magnetic scaremonger hot scale of rhythmment. The characteristic of this hot plate is that it has a magnetic field and if a magnet is placed inside the solution, the magnet will do a round spin and rush it. A magnet was put inside the solution and left to stir and heat for about 15 proceedingss. I used a thermometer to appraise the temperature of the solution and around 42 , closed the hot plate. By inhalation and warming, I achieved a well-mixed solution. After a few proceedingss, I cover the beaker with a level glass dish and go forth it for a dark.Through research I found out that calcium hydroxide was used to stick on the adobe walls. There are some grounds on the walls of the Davies House but to turn out that, I used hydrochloric erosive. Lime is a stuff that contains calcium carbonate. The reaction of hydrochloric acid or any acerb with Ca carbonate will part up with bring forthi ng C dioxide which can be seen by pillage oculus as air bubbles.In order to turn out that calcium hydroxide was used in Davies House, I put a small sum of adobe pulverization in a tribulation tubing. Couple of beads of hydrochloric acid is adequate to see the air bubbles. As a consequence, reaction of the acid with the adobe sample is positive which proves that calcium hydroxide was used in this edifice. It besides raises another inquiry that if the type of dirt in Mesaoria contains % 40-60 Ca carbonate, does the reaction with the acid is because of the type of dirt used in adobe bricks?The mixture was left for a dark. blockheaded and heavy and indissoluble stuffs sink at the underside of the beaker, where light 1s float on the pee. weewee is non clear which can be defined that some of the dirt was dissolved in H2O. A filter study was placed inside a funnel and an empty glass beaker was placed below. In order to roll up the natation stuffs, I poured the H2O into the funnel eas y without up fastening the underside. It was difficult to roll up all of the drifting stuff so I used a metal spatula to roll up the staying from the mixture. The H2O was filtered from the funnel, go forthing the straw atoms on the filter paper. Straws were amass from the filter paper and was put together with the 1s that were collected manually inside a porcelain crucible. I left them dry in the room temperature for 15 proceedingss and set them in the oven for 35-40 proceedingss. They were dried wholly and ready to burden.I changed the filter paper and poured the staying H2O into the funnel. Some of the indissoluble stuffs remained at the underside of the beaker so I collected them by the aid of the metal spatula and set indoors another porcelain crucible. Water was filtered afterward 2 hours from the funnel and I collected the stuffs from the filter paper and put them inside the crucible. Same procedure was made to dry the stuffs. I let them dry in room temperature for a piece and set them in oven for 40-45 proceedingss.ConsequencesI weighted the obtained stuffs individually by utilizing a mediocre weight graduated table.Insoluble Materials ( dirt, pebbles ) 4.56gr ( Wa? )Floating Materials ( straws ) 0.06gr ( Wa ) accept sum of the whole sample was 5.04 gr. The expression below will moot the per centums of the stuffs in the sample.Wa Total Weight x 100 = % ..Wa? Total Weight x 100 = % ..Insoluble Materials ( dirt, pebbles ) % 90.48Floating Materials ( straws ) % 1.19As the H2O was non clear after go forthing the solution for a dark, it is defined that there are soluble stuffs in the mixture. So if soluble stuffs are Wa? Wa? + Wa + Wa? = 5.04 grWa? = 0.42grWa? = % 8.33 try out shows that most of the adobe stuff is dirt. Straws were used to beef up the medical dressing of the bricks. The sum of straws in 5gr is 0.06gr which is really few. As the edifice is old and ignored, straw atoms might hold been disapeared or decayed within the dirt by means o f clip.Original ingredients of the adobe is soil, straws and H2O. In order to turn out that the separated stuffs from my sample is straws, they need to be identified under a microscope. They are most likely straws but there is a possibility that they might be timber.Timber and wooden stuffs are identified under a microscope by looking at the layout of the cells. Wood are chiefly classified advertisement in two groups which are soft and difficult forests but the layout of their cells are similar. If horizantal beams of cells are seen under a microscope, it is a wooden construction.Following measure of placing the straw atoms will be to look under a microscope after cutting really thin subdivisions of the pieces. One manner of thinking the age of the wood is to place the fungus formations within the stuff. The dimensions of the fungus might mention to its age. This can be done by utilizing a microscope but merely if the detached atoms are timber/wood but non straw.FiguresStraws unde r the microscopeDirt atoms under microscopeBibliographyHadjiparaskevas C. Soil study in Cyprus. In Zdruli P. ( ed. ) , Steduto P. ( ed. ) , Lacirignola C. ( ed. ) , Montanarella L. ( ed. ) . Soil resources of Southern and Eastern Mediterranean states. Bari CIHEAM,2001. p. 101-110 ( Options Mediterraneennes Serie B. Etudes et Recherches n. 34 ) hypertext channelize protocol //www.lime.org/lime_basics/index.aspOliver, P. ( 2006 ) . Built to run into demands cultural issues in common architecture. Amsterdam, Architectural. Pg.129-142Oliver, P. ( erectile dysfunction ) ( 1997 ) Encyclopedia ofVernacularArchitecture of the World, Volume 2, Cultures and Habitats. Pg. 1540-1563Gunce K. , Erturk Z. , & A Erturk S. 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Earth-sheltered houses how to construct an low-cost belowground place. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C.Snell, C. , 2005. Constructing thousand a complete how-to usher to alternative edifice methods Earth plaster, straw bale, cordwood, hazelnut, populating roofs. Lark Books, New York.Stedman, M. , 1973. Adobe architecture.1