Nubian vault
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One of the key advantages of the Nubian vault is that it can be built without any support or shuttering. The earth bricks are laid leaning at a slight slope against the gable walls in a length-wise vault, as in this photo of a building from the ruins of Ayn Asil in Egypt.
The same principle can be used to build domes, as in the example below from the Cameroon.
The age-old Nubian vault technique was notably revived by the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in the 1940s with the building of a new village at Gourna, near Luxor. Architecturally, this village is a singular success; however, the families who were moved there soon abandoned it to return to their original village.
More recently, since the year 2000, a French Association La Voute Nubienne, by simplifying and codifying the VN (Voute Nubienne) technique, has promoted the construction of over 200 vaulted buildings in Burkina Faso (mainly village homes, but also a Catholic church and a mosque). These environmentally sound, comfortable, and aesthetic buildings require neither imported sheet metal for the roofing, nor expensive and increasingly rare timber beams. Over 40 Burkinabe builders, as well as some from Mali and Togo, have been trained in the technique, and there are as many apprentices currently undergoing on-the-job training on building sites. The programme organised by the Association (Mud roofs for the Sahel)is developing rapidly year on year in response to demand from rural families, with many requests for help and technical advice coming from the countries of the Sahel.
This article is based on a translation of the corresponding article from the French Wikipedia, retrieved on Junly 31, 2006.