Monday, August 11, 2008

Lexicon: bousillage, bouzillage, barreaux, briquette-entre-poteaux, wattle and daub

Enterprise Truck through Spanish Moss, City Park. 05.2008 by K. Rylance

Did you know that some 3 billion people live or work in buildings constructed of earth?

"Bousillage
, or bouzillage, a hybrid mud brick/cob/wattle and daub technique is a mixture of clay and Spanish moss or clay and grass that is used as a plaster to fill the spaces between structural framing and particularly found in French Vernacular architecture of Louisiana of the early 1700s. A series of wood bars (barreaux), set between the posts, helped to hold the plaster in place. Bousillage, molded into bricks, was also used as infilling between posts; then called briquette-entre-poteaux. The bousillage formed a solid mud wall that was plastered and then painted. The bousillage also formed a very effective insulation." [Earth Architecture. Viewed 08.12.2008]

Ronald Rael's Earth Architecture is forthcoming from Princeton Architectural Press (anticipated December 2008). His related website has been ranked one of the Top 30 Design Blogs & Resources for Architects.

FOR RENT: Briquette-entre-Poteaux at St. Anthony and N. Rampart.
03.2008 by K. Rylance


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