A rammed-earth technique has been echoed worldwide due to being conceived not only as an environment-friendly method of construction but also standing as an alternative method to arguably replacing cement. The technique however shows several pitfalls. One concerns the lengthy process of curing upon erecting the rammed-earth walls due to the low process of a chemical reaction occurred throughout the curing stage. A second bias followed from the slow curing and concerns the degradation accentuated at the outer wall’s texture, particularly at the edges, due to effects of the weather cycle. These drawbacks have been observed while accomplishing a funded research project. This article has at its stake remedying the above pitfalls. A natural sandy limestone shows a low percentage of calcium carbonate needed for a cohesive mixture. The method suggested here is based on an experiment that uses minerals of the fruits’ and vegetables’ waste as a binding substance. Curing time in this method has been reduced to the half. It is also suggested here that each stage has its importance, including mixing the soil particles dry and wet, compacting the moistened soil mixture, a well-made formwork and curing, towards remedying the above pitfalls.
This article investigates how architecture design of the present adopts the values of the past and echoes Kenneth Frampton’s critical regionalism to address this question. For Frampton, architecture design is regionally influenced because it essentially deals with “specificity and locality”, however, remains sceptic to “universal technology”. Masdar City’s design represents a valuable case for this article due to this case casting light on the complexity embedded in intertwining the modernist technologies and the regional architecture. The case study’s analyses suggest that the design of the present evolves from this complexity witnessing a deviation from a “universal technology” and a local architecture. Interpretation for this deviation in Masdar City’s design points to the vernacular architecture that stitches the “globe” and the “local”. A universal technology has been witnessed in Masdar City’s design to yield support for the vernacular approaches while a local architecture holds on the vernacular’s concepts of the traditional architecture. What Frampton’s critical regionalism appears to overlook are the vernacular approaches that in analysis of this article embrace a model of the design principles for the “tectonics” to be realised. The key argument brought forward in this article concerns Frampton’s critical regionalism that yet lacks a realistic approach to produce a sense within a local context, thereby needing to neatly twist the vernacular approaches with its critical regionalism’s synthesis.
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