Non-structural adobe walls in housing buildings: environmental performance

Abstract

This paper shows a non structural adobe solution in the north of Portugal, using a steel reinforced concrete structure in order to permit adoble walls to be used in higher buildings and be accepted in contemporany demands. A thermal zoning strategy whit two distinct inertia areas is proposed. An direct heat gain heavyweight compartment - made with adobe walls and steel reinforced concrete structure and slabs - was posicioned on the south zone and conceived te lodge to the resting zones of a house: bedrooms, bathroom and living room. The north compartment, made with lightweight materials - plaster board and fibre-cement panel walls and timber structure - was destined for the working areas: studying, cooking and eating. This zoning strategy allowed a good compromise between construction energy costs and thermal comfort operative costs comparing to a conventional monozone layout solution using the portuguese conventional hollow brick and steel reinforced concrete constructive system. Both solutions were tested on real scale test cells. and the results are presented here. It was verified that it is possible to implent a solution whith adobe walls in order to achieve a thermal performance similar to the conventional hollow brick solution. in temperact climate, but with a significantly lower environmental cost related with the construction.