This mostly-handmade type of building is earthquake-resistant, tornado-proof, hurricane-proof, sustainable, and they’re located in around 49 countries around the globe. These are SuperAdobe dome buildings.
In this Innovation Nation episode, Alie Ward visits with Sheefteh Khalili at CalEarth in Hesperia, California to discuss her father’s innovative life’s work.
SuperAdobe is a form of earth bag architecture developed by architect and CalEarth founder Nader Khalili. Using long sandbags (“SuperAdobe Bags”), barbed wire, on-site earth and a few tools, Khalili devised a revolutionary building system that integrates traditional earth architecture with contemporary global safety requirements, and passes severe earthquake code tests in California.
This technology has been published by NASA, endorsed by the United Nations, featured in countless world media outlets, and awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. It comes from years of meditation, hands-on research and development. Inspired by traditional earth architecture in the deserts of Iran and adapted for modern usage. Simplified so that anyone can build.
Related reading: Corbelling.
Follow the CalEarth Institute on Instagram and see more international SuperAdobe projects.
Watch these shelter and architecture videos next:
• An animated history of Housing Through the Centuries
• Mud Frontiers, an exploration of 3D-printed mud shelters and objects
• Shelter in 24hrs – Emergency Concrete-laced Canvas Tent
• Plastic Bottle Village
• Nomadic Nenet people build a chum (yurt) in the Siberian Arctic Winter
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