by Manuel A. Lopez M., Julian Bommer, Gilda Benavidez
This housing type can be found in rural and urban areas. Rural: Adobe houses are generally small structures, 5 x 6 m in the plan, having load-resistant walls made of adobe bricks between 0.3 and 0.5 m thick. Usually, they are single-family (5-person) houses. Wood planks that support metal sheets covered by tiles sometimes constitute the roof. In some cases, the roof can be a thatched roof supported on wood purlins. Urban: Adobe houses are much bigger in urban areas than in rural areas. They are one-floor structures and their plans are 15 x 30 m or larger. The wall thickness can easily reach 1 m and wall height can reach 3 m or more. In both the cases mentioned above, the adobe housing type has performed badly in earthquakes. Its heavy roof sometimes can be its biggest weakness and its unreinforced walls make this house vulnerable to earthquake effects.
World Housing Encyclopedia
an EERI and IAEE project