Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own

By Nader Khalili

Khalili's classic, authoritative manual describes how to build arches, domes, and vaults with earth, as well as techniques to fire and glaze earth buildings to transform them into ceramic houses. This... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1889625019
• ISBN13: 9781889625010
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Cal Earth Press
• Length: 233 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Pure Inspiration

It's important to understand that what is truly new and fresh can't be responsibly reduced to a cookbook. Building a house is a major undertaking, and different parts of the earth have different climates, different needs, and different earth underfoot to build from. Khalili inspires his readers to think more openly, he urges experimentation while sharing what is known. His buildings are gorgeous, with an openness and simplicity that inspires us to question the standard boxes most of us live in. Also inspirational is his obvious deep humanity; his love for both building AND people has enabled him to leave the usual paths and use the best qualities of the old, while infusing it with modern understanding to create wonderful new, achievable designs. I am awed. I've read this book twice, I'm building the models he recommends so I can more fully understand the structures of arch and domes, and hope to take his workshop next summer. This is life affirming as well as life-changing.

Great book by a great architect

This is a great book. I haven't read it page for page yet, but in it goes with my favourites. It concentrates on Khalili's monolithic fired ceramic houses and has a lot of detail. It leaves no stones unturned if you want a building of this type. Sadly, the book was published before Khalili invented Superadobe or Earth Bag building. For a good book on Earthbag, I recommend "Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques" by Kaki Hunter. Another book - which is more general is "Alternative Construction; Contemporary Natural Building Methods" by Lynne Elisabeth and Cassandra Adams.

Excellent Book!

awesome resource and "how-to" book for those interested in this earth friendly type of architecture

Rebuilding safely in Iran and elsewhere, after earthquakes

If ever a book was inspired by compassion for earthquake victims, this is it. Aware of the bitter experience of Middle East peoples with seismic disasters, architect Nader Khalili pulls together what works in those same cultures to show how we can build affordable housing that will survive major earthquakes.Key principles: Use the earth (clay) underfoot as your building material. Spare the forests and watersheds.Use simple human-scale building elements, like bricks or sandbags that ordinary people can stack by hand. Use the arch, dome, and vault. These architectural forms work where post and beam timbers are not available. They are seismically stable. They are not subject to the gravitational loads that make flat roofs cave in over time. They make climatically comfortable spaces with sun and shade surfaces that circulate hot and cool air appropriately. Fire the clay structure to make it a strong unitary enclosure, like an inverted teacup. It will slide safely over seismically moving earth. Ceramic Houses - and Khalili's work generally - offers a timely recipe for new development and rebuilding in seismically active areas like the Middle East, and, take note, California. It's no accident that Khalili's prototype structures have been built and approved by local authorities in Hesperia, CA. Nader Khalili brings together the clay and earth underfoot, the architectural vocabulary of arch, dome, and vault, and simple building technques that ordinary people can use to build seismically safe, comfortable, inexpensive, and beautiful houses.

Revolutionary Alternative From Building a House with 2X4's

Are you searching for an environmentally safe alternative to building a house with hundreds of 2x4's? If so you will love this book. It is a fast read discussing one man's quest for designing houses that are safe and easy to build for everyone in the world. There are several examples of houses and schools built with this method. At the end there is a section on how to build a model house out of clay using this method. It is a fun project to do with kids. This book has been updated to discuss the SuperAdobe building method. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in alternative building methods.