GET 35% OFF YOUR FIRST YEAR!

Limited time - use promo code: SPRING35 at checkout

Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Future of Mud

Architecture & Design • 58m

Directed by Susan Vogel • Documentary • 2007 • 58 minutes

Through the story of a mason in Djenne, Komusa Tenapo, and his family, this documentary examines an African tradition of mud architecture in Mali. The environmental genius of these ancient construction techniques thick walls with tiny windows that keep the interiors cool despite the stifling heat is expressed in strikingly beautiful designs that have won the town of Djenne designation as a World Heritage site.

FUTURE OF MUD reveals Komusa's hand building methods, utilizing sun-dried bricks made of mud from the flood plain which contains decayed fish, and cattle manure that are mixed with organic materials such as straw and rice chaff. The film shows him at work on two building sites, and at the annual repair of the Great Mosque, employing thousand-year-old construction techniques, plus the secret knowledge he inherited from his family of masons, including religious rituals to protect homes and workers from evil spirits.

"A very believable, instructive and compelling narrative… One gets a true sense of craft combined with a love for the creative and integrative possibilities of earth."—TreeHugger.com

Tags
africa, african, african history, african studies, anthropology and archaeology, architecture, area studies, art and architecture, construction, craftsman, craftsmen, cultural anthropology, documentary, dvd, engineering, environment, environmental design, expository, film, future of mud, history, house, houses, housing, icarus films, mali, malian, mason, ovid, ovid_ca, s_0004, s_0018, s_0065, s_0092, s_0266, s_0368, s_0514, s_0636, science and technology, sub-saharan africa, susan vogel, sustainable architecture, technique, techniques, title_defgh, title_f, traditional, video, world history, world regions

Up Next in Architecture & Design

  • Electric Signs
    57:04
    Electric Signs

    Electric Signs

    Directed by Alice Arnold • Documentary • 2012 • 58 minutes

    New screen-based sign systems are putting TV-style advertising into the public domain in cities around the globe. These electronic signs are re-shaping urban environments and re-defining areas of public space by intensifying the commerci...

  • Touristic Intents
    1:15:34
    Touristic Intents

    Touristic Intents

    Directed by Mat Rappaport • Documentary • With Hasso Spode, Sussanna Misgajski, Gabi Dolff-Bonekämper • 2022 • 72 minutes

    Architecture, mass tourism and political ideology come together in Touristic Intents, a new documentary that investigates the never-completed Nazi resort of Prora on Germany'...

  • The Absent House
    54:49
    The Absent House

    The Absent House

    Directed by Ruben Abruna • Documentary • 2013 • 55 minutes

    A designer from Puerto Rico pioneered green architecture thirty years ago, and today he confronts climate change with sustainable constructions including a house without a roof that is completely independent of the power and water utilit...

×