Do it Yourself
The Knox drafting office. Photo: Tony Knox
Design
Appendix 1, Planning for mud brick
Author: Alistair KnoxThe walls of more than half the domestic buildings in the entire world are reputed to be built out of one or another form of unbaked earth. The majority of course are in Asia, Africa and South America, but there are a great number of earth ... read more
Building With Mud Bricks
Author: Alistair KnoxNo book on concrete construction for the home builder would be complete without a chapter on building in mud. It is curious that mud - the oldest known building material should combine so explicitly with reinforced concrete, the universal ... read more
The Solution
Author: Alistair KnoxIt should be realized at the outset that we can be totally honest in our aims and quite misguided in our approach. In all mud brick buildings I have designed, or designed and built, I have aimed to maintain a few infallible principles ... read more
Post and Infill or Load Bearing Walls
Author: Alistair KnoxAt the beginning of the mud Brick Revival in the 1940's, post and infill structures were virtually unknown. Sonia and Matcham Skipper built a beautiful stable at Montsalvat, the Artist's Colony to Eltham, around 1946 in post and infill ... read more
Photo: Alistair Knox
Build
Appendix 1, Planning for mud brick
Author: Alistair KnoxThe walls of more than half the domestic buildings in the entire world are reputed to be built out of one or another form of unbaked earth. The majority of course are in Asia, Africa and South America, but there are a great number of earth ... read more
Building With Mud Bricks
Author: Alistair KnoxNo book on concrete construction for the home builder would be complete without a chapter on building in mud. It is curious that mud - the oldest known building material should combine so explicitly with reinforced concrete, the universal ... read more
Floors at Ground Level
Author: Alistair KnoxIt was only about a week later when I next saw the 'job' and it was exciting to behold. The whole building site had been levelled to a tolerance of 1" to an adequate distance outside the walls in all directions. The footings had been ... read more
Pioneer Pise
Author: George L. SuttonIn most districts slabs or weatherboards with bark or iron roof are the first materials that suggest themselves to the home builder. For our climatic conditions, however, a much more comfortable, and, in many sparsely timbered ... read more
Mud Bricks
Appendix 2, Soil types for mud bricks
Author: Alistair KnoxWe have used granitic top soils for making mud bricks at Murphys Creek, Victoria, and it proved very satisfactory. Generally most of the bricks have been made from heavy clay soils and while it was sticky and hard to use it made good bricks ... read more
Building With Mud Bricks
Author: Alistair KnoxNo book on concrete construction for the home builder would be complete without a chapter on building in mud. It is curious that mud - the oldest known building material should combine so explicitly with reinforced concrete, the universal ... read more
The Soil
Author: Alistair KnoxEvery publication on the making of mud brick building spends considerable time and space discussing the qualities of earth best suited to the purpose of making mud bricks. When the mud brick 'novitiate' starts studying these pros and cons ... read more
Brickmaking
Author: Alistair KnoxThe methods of moulding the building blocks varies from forming them in individual moulds employing a wide variety of pressing machines. such as Singa Rams, to the use of big mobile tumblers that can mix tons of soil and water into a ... read more
Rendering
Author: Alistair KnoxThere are many diversified opinions as to how mud brick rendering should best be finished. The traditional approach of the mud brick revival has to my mind been by far the best method. It first involves pointing up the raw brickwork. The ... read more
Pise
Pioneer Pise
Author: George L. SuttonIn most districts slabs or weatherboards with bark or iron roof are the first materials that suggest themselves to the home builder. For our climatic conditions, however, a much more comfortable, and, in many sparsely timbered ... read more
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