Superadobe Eco-Room - the only one in Africa!

The owners of Kilwa Beach Lodge have been involved through family ties with the environmental building world for many years. 



In 2012 in association with KIYODEA, a local charity, we began offering courses in environmental building using methods including superadobe and bottle walling. All buildings at the hotel have some aspects of eco building but not as many as this flagship room, being the first of its kind in Africa. 



Earthen architecture has traditionally been used throughout the world and right now approximately half of the world's population live in houses made of earth. Mankind has used it to create stable, warm, low-impact structures, due to the abundance of the material and unique properties it holds. In rural Africa today we can see plenty of examples of wooden lattice framed houses infilled with humid clay and stone.



These methods, long abandoned by most of the developed world, have been given a modern twist through the innovative ideas of a revolutionary architect, the late Nader Khalili. While working on a solution for building lunar bases using sandbag blocks attached with velcro, he invented a building technology called super-adobe and founded the CalEarth Institute in California to share his knowledge.

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This building method uses long synthetic tubes filled with a weak mix of earth and cement,  bound together with barbed wire, laid one on top of another to create a double curvature shell structure (dome) not unlike a bee hive in appearance. The structure is then plastered using the same mix of stabilised earth to seal it against the elements.
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These eco-domes can be inter-connected to create adapatable living space, similar to the way petals extend out from a flower. In fact, eco-domes share  many traits with those found in nature, not only do they seamlessly blend with the natural landscape, but they offer an alternative sustainable form of housing for the future.