by TAFLINE LAYLIN
Earth bag construction is one of the most affordable and sustainable ways to build a home that is harmonious with the earth. Nader Khalili was a big proponent of this “super adobe” style structure.
If Hassan Fathy is the father of sustainable architecture, then Nader Khalili must be his close cousin. The Egyptian and Iranian architects respectively grew up with an interest in housing poor populations and refugees with earth architecture and both made enormous contributions to the modern application of ancient building techniques. But Khalili, who spent much of his career in the United States and received awards from the Aga Khan Foundation, NASA, and the United Nations, veered down a particularly unconventional path.
Inspired by the mystic poet Rumi, timeless principles, and timeless materials, Khalili was renowned for his fixation on creating earth-based architecture with lunar and space applications, according to Arch1Design.
In 1984, he described to scientists at a NASA symposium called ““Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century” how to build “magma structures” based on the Geltaftan earth-and-fire ceramic system he founded. He was subsequently invited to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a visiting scientist.
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