Building with Gabions

Introduction

Gabion baskets can be used to great effect for architectural and building applications. Dirt removed to prepare building sites; pools and driveways can be put to greater use filling gabion baskets, which can subsequently be used as wall supports for a house.

Ian Ritchie (2003), a prominent and innovative architect based in London, believes that gabions are caged rocks, which capture the feel of non-linearity. It is the non repetitive forms of the stone - a collection of individual fragments from the same geological time tied together by wire, even the wire has a pattern that the rocks interfere with, leaving it structured yet random - no two cages remain visually the same.

Gabion walls are well-ventilated structures, and are ideal for innovative eco-friendly buildings. Overall, gabions have a rustically uniform aesthetic appeal.

Gabions have been used for structural building walls in South Africa and extensively overseas.