The building is part of a house which is made of four separate rooms: the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom and the latrines. This building is the kitchen of the house and is linked to the bedroom by a covered patio space.

The primary building structure consists of walls made of packed tires. The walls follow the shape of a circle with a 14’ internal diameter creating a geometrically stable shape where no buttressing is needed. In addition, it allows to avoid the presence of sharp corners where stresses would accumulate in the event of an earthquake, thus creating weak spots in the structure.

The house is built along a rammed earth tire retaining wall following the West-East axis. Thus, the tires located on the North side of the buildings are also part of the retaining wall.

Tires are filled with the earth taken out during the excavation stage, and non-biodegradable waste. The tires are stacked in a running-bond pattern to maximize interlocking between courses. Additionally, horizontal rebars are laid between two courses about halfway up the wall in order to stiffen it against lateral forces during the construction stage.

A concrete bond beam is poured on top of the last course of tires in order to tie the whole primary structure together and facilitate the connection with the concrete roof. Walls are founded on trenches filled with tamped down gravel and the first two courses of tires are filled with gravel. This foundation provides a solid footing for the walls while preventing any water infiltration via capillary action. Similarly, the concrete slab is poured on top of a 4” thick layer of gravel in order to avoid any contact between the concrete and ground water.

The building roof consists of a 4” thick reinforced concrete dome tied into the bond beam. Additionally, glass-bricks (2 bottoms of glass bottles taped together) are tied into the dome reinforcement acting as skylights while a central ferrocement cupola provides both light and ventilation.

Wall finishes (interior and exterior) are made of cob (earth + sand +straw) applied against the tire walls where nails have been added to enhance the cob adherence. The cob fills the voids between the tires and creates a flat surface. It is covered by two layers of plaster: a form coat (cement + lime + coarse sand) and a final coat (cement + lime + fine sharp sand). The interior ceiling plasters are the same as the ones used on the walls. Exterior ceiling plaster consists of cement-based render and sealant paint.

The patio space presents a brick slab laid down on a 4” thick layer of draining sand and a roof divided in two parts. Half of the roof is made with concrete while the other half is made with paper-cement fiber corrugated panels supported by timber joists. The whole roof is carried by concrete columns, the kitchen bond beam, and the retaining wall located at the North side of the house.

The corrugated panels on half of the patio roof are inclined towards the retaining wall on the North side of the house. From there, a concrete gutter sitting on top of the wall leads rainwater to the pila sink located at the Northeast corner of the patio space. Similarly, rainwater is collected on the kitchen and concrete patio roofs through awnings and sculpted gutters that guide the water towards that same sink.