Final Report of Building Material Research in Batticaloa|Qi Guo|B.Arch2017|

Updates from my last post. I finally finished the fabrication of the new compressed earth block machine mould, which can produce interlocking blocks.

loaded the soil and started testing.

Becuase the block was still fragile at this stage, I made a pair of wooden aid for taking the fresh blocks out of the machine without damaging them.

Getting ready for constructing a demonstration wall.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of the interlocking block is to construct a clean and neat wall, which does not expose any mortar gaps or need any extra plaster or paint on the outside. Furthermore, it saves the mason’s time for leveling and aligning the bricks during the constructing process.

The blocks are very easy to handle, and all the mortar is concealed inside the blocks.

As you can tell, the wall that is constructed by the new interlocking blocks looks much neater and tidier compared to the wall that is made by local fire-brick or the normal compressed earth block.

After finishing the interlocking block experiment, I just realized how little time I had left. Therefore, I started to set up an exhibition space for storing and demonstrating all the samples and materials I used for my experiments. All the samples are carefully labeled with detailed information so that if any student or teacher wants to repeat some of my experiments or make improvements, this space would be very helpful and convenient for them to start from where I left.

In the meantime, I also made a booklet that documents all my analyses, detailed drawings, experiments, instructions, and design process. I’m sure that with this document and the samples in the exhibition space, anyone can understand what I have done and what is the goal and value of this research.

I do understand that two months is too short for a research like this. I could not say that I finish this project. Instead, I would say that I completed the phase #1 of this project by setting up a resourceful foundation on such topic in Batticaloa. This foundation would definitely help me or anyone who has a similar interest in the future to develop this project.

You can view the digital booklet online:

Read more about my project here:

Learning from the local villages|Batticaloa St.John Vocational Training Center|Qi Guo, B.Arch 2017

Material Experiments-Qi Guo, BArch 2017

Updates From Batticaloa|Material Experiments|Qi Guo|B.Arch2017|