Olukoya Obafemi A P
Brandenburg Technical University, Germany
Title: Beyond reinventing adobe as a building material: A new paradigm in anthropocene
Biography
Biography: Olukoya Obafemi A P
Abstract
The intractable challenge presented by climate change today has now attained a cusp, such that it ravages on the anthroposphere can no longer be ignored or over emphasized. This has stimulated a lot of debate and attracted researchers to the various economic sectors which are primal contributors of greenhouse gases. In that vein, the building industry which is identified to be producing an alarming figure of 23-40percent of the greenhouse gas emission has been a centre for enormous researches in recent times. This is consequently followed by an avalanche of recommendations which in the real sense, are actually running ahead of even its empirical applications today. Moreover, there is no gain saying in the fact that the sector holds one of the most plausible potentials in the struggle against the terror of climate change, if the non-environmental friendly building envelops are addressed. The plethora of perspectives and recommendations therefore comes with little or no surprise. However, despite this plenitude of professional perspectives, the recommendations stereotypically revolve around the reinvention of traditional building materials as a contributing solution to the mitigation of greenhouse gases in Anthropocene. Sadly, in this era of Anthropocene, this mere position is no longer potent or sufficient enough to address the multi-dimensional vestiges of climate change. In light of this argument, this paper takes a step further beyond the existing blanket assertions by posing and adopting a proposition which addresses the following questions; what is the resisting ability of adobe under acidic rain in Anthropocene? What is the behavior of adobe under extreme soil chlorination as evident today? What is the resisting ability of adobe under seismic conditions rampant today? How does adobe resist the epileptic change in temperature? How much can adobe resist a storm driven rain which is a norm in Anthropocene? Therefore, to organize this paper and answer this question related to the reinvention of adobe in Anthropocene, this paper adopts an analytics approach. Existing argumentations are reviewed, interpreted and a new position is posited. Conclusively, the paper posits that before we continue to peddle cheap perspective of reinventing earthen material in era of climate change, the materials must be adapted to resist and withstand the apparent climate change vestiges which it is reinvented to address.
