Using Indigenous Materials for Construction

A versatile building system will be developed for effective use of indigenous materials towards expedient and economical construction of safe, serviceable, weather-resistant, sustainable and energy-efficiency buildings and other infrastructure systems. The indigenous materials of interest include: (i) reactive minerals such as biomass ash, natural pozzolans and lime for production of inorganic binders; (ii) natural fibers, fabric and rope for reinforcement of the inorganic binders and development of insulation layers; and (iii) traditional building materials such as adobe, stone and brick masonry, rammed earth and wood. These locally available materials will be formed into sandwich composite walls and roofs comprising (indigenous) ferrocement skins, and interior cores of traditional building materials (rammed earth, masonry, etc.) and/or natural fiber insulation. Measures will be taken to ensure adequate shear transfer across the core for integrated composite action. The ferrocement reinforcement will be continued through joints to ensure integrated structural action. The Phase I project will develop a theoretical framework for design of building systems, conduct experiments on building subcomponents, components and joints to verify the theoretical predictions, assess the potential of the new building system to meet the targeted requirements at viable cost, and devise strategies for further development of the building system.