Ground-clay

Raw ground-clay construction

The first “houses into hard” of humanity were natural caves dug by water and the wind in cliffs of rock, sandy composite or ground-clay. When a cave was not deep enough, our ancestors proceeding by imitation Mimésis tried to on the spot build “projections of cave” by using material available, for example ground-clay. The simplest technique consists in carrying out humidified ground-clay balls which one piles up by packing them. Often the natural form of a cave is that of the Nubian vault and the men started to imitate this form. In parallel the huts containing branches developed and, there too, one comes also easily to the Nubian form. For a few decades, one has assisted with the redécouverte clay like construction material: pure or armed (one will avoid metal netting creating a Faraday screen room), clay allows an economic habitat (raw clay bricks on the spot manufactured with a rudimentary press), ecological (local material, drying with the sun), and of excellent quality (thermal inertia, health). Many architects are interested in it in all the countries, in particular in the Mediterranean countries (the Maghreb) and African, they does nothing but redécouvrir one thousand-year-old reality: raw clay is undoubtedly today still the construction material more used in the world!

In illustration above: a box-shell of the Musgum ethnos group, remarkable for the smoothness of its walls (5 with 10cm) compared with the height of construction, sometimes of more than 5 meters.

Therapeutic uses of raw ground-clay

Many animals take to clay, mud baths, one thinks of course of wild boars and their domestic cousins, but also with the elephants, hippopotamuses etc which protect their skin from the parasites by regular mud baths. Certain wounded animals were observed plunging itself in beneficial clay baths, others decay as they are private. As for the man, he for a long time discovered the bactericidal virtues, disinfectants and regenerating from clay or more exactly from clays because the therapeutic use varies according to texture, the color, source etc Exemple-type of meeting again between contemporary science and the empiricism of old, this thousand-year-old product, after being studied with the modern methods of analysis, and tested clinically in an indisputable way, saw confirming its properties . One finds clay in the trade - specialized pharmacy, parapharmacie and stores all kinds of products ready with employment: cataplasms, toothpastes, face packs, bandages gastric or cutaneous…

the green clay is thus advised for the normal or fatty skins like regulator (excess of sebum) and reminéralisant.
the white clay (kaolin rich in silica), the most used with the preceding one, would support the elimination of toxins and is appropriate for the dry and fragile skins.
the red clay rich in trace element and iron oxides is recommended for the normal or dry and sensitive skins like rebalancing and stimulating blood circulation.
the pink clay rich in trace elements is advised for the skins prone to rednesses

In all the cases, it is highly advised to resort to therapeutists experienced (E) S for the " uses; pointues" (wounds, cysts…) even if the counter-indications are rare.

clay absorbing remarkably impurities and other toxic substances, it is also employed to eliminate unpleasant tastes or odors, this property seems to increase proportionally at the exposure time to the sun, the rain, and the air.

In conclusion, construction material or auxiliary of health, clay is in any remarkable point and slowly finds a place which was formerly considerable.

Translation

In the English language enough one finds a use balanced of the clay-clay terms and earth-ground. In German the word lehmbau - clay construction - dominates.

History of the emergence of the term

On the Internet

At the beginning of 2005, more than 600 documents accessible via the index from Google comprised the terms “ground” and “Argile” side by side. The comment was then: “that is a sign that neither one nor the other of the terms are enough to express the idea of the Locuteur”.

At the end of 2006, there are approximately ten thousand documents, which confirms the need for the term. One finds the term made up “ground-clay” - sometimes without feature-of union - employee by suppliers of French and Belgian coatings, on sites of gifts, African objects, of brickyard, local government agency, do-it-yourself, paper mill, etc

On the ground

The need for the term appeared following tens of conversations and conferences on raw ground-clay construction. Indeed, when a speaker speaks about clay house, construction out of ground or any other combination of terms, a very important proportion listeners leave on “false tracks”. With the term “clay” the evoked matter is that of the sculptors or the potters, matter which resembles only in a remote way made up the gravel - Sable - silt - clay used by the builders. When the term “ground” is employed, the representation first is that of the ground Arable even - and the thing is astonishing - at people which live or lived in a house in… raw Ground, the term more employed.

Association of the " terms; terre" and " argile"

In French the word ground is employed largely more than the word clay when it is associated under the terms “Architecture”, “construction” or “house”.

It is noticed that traditionally the sculptors and potters had to make with the same type of problem and employ the made up word “loam”. Voltaire, in his philosophical dictionary, distinguishes the loam well from the sculptor or the potter by describing it like “tough and viscous” whereas the ground-clay of the mason must comprise sand under penalty of various problems to build.

An intermediate idea was to use acronym CANEC for Argillaceous Composite Natural Believed Employee. The term would be appropriate for technical writings.

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