Gabion

Gabions were laid on the Deûle River as bank reinforcement

Gabions used to fortify the embankment of a dam in the Meuse near Linne

Section through a gabion wall

Noise protection wall made of gabions in front of a housing estate

A gabion (of Italian Gabbione , large cage '), also stone basket , bulk selection , wall stone basket or wire ballast box called, is a container filled with stones wire basket.

Gabions are used in landscape architecture , in hydraulic engineering, as well as in road and path construction to build ramparts, to build privacy or noise protection systems , to fortify embankments and as retaining walls (e.g. as an alternative to conventional dry stone walls in vineyards ). Gabions serve as interception elements on slopes to absorb the horizontal earth pressure . You can as an alternative to concrete ready to share or concrete and stone walls can be used.

Use and manufacture

In the military field, gabions are also known as bulwarks and were woven from willow in the Middle Ages . The filling of the gabions consists of stones or sand or earth. Gabions are usually produced in sizes between 0.25 and 4 m³ .

As with every building, care must be taken to ensure that the foundation is appropriate and, if necessary, frost-proof . Since gabions are generally permeable, when used as a retaining wall, in contrast to water-impermeable masonry, separate drainage or drainage can often be dispensed with. Gabions made of wicker or ordinary steel will weather over time. By then, the contents should be well rooted with vegetation so as not to disintegrate. Today the cages are mostly made of galvanized or stainless steel , so that they remain stable for several decades.

As a noise barrier , gabions are piled up in front of housing developments along busy streets. Covered with topsoil, green walls are created that offer small creatures a habitat . Flat gabions for cladding reinforced concrete walls are a more recent development.

In hydraulic engineering, gabions can often be deposited directly in the water without the need to drain the river bed.

For gabions without special requirements, the filling material is poured. In the case of higher quality gabions, at least the visible surface is layered by hand.

• Bulk baskets are filled with frost-proof and sufficiently pressure-resistant stones ( gravel ). The most common types of stone are granite , basalt , quartzite , dolomite and limestone . Not every sandstone is pressure and frost resistant enough. However, sandstone is used where it is a traditional material.
• Natural stones or slabs are stacked on the visible sides of brick baskets. The rest of these gabions are also filled with gravel.

Building regulations

In Germany, gabions are subject to special building regulations from the federal states. If the gabions do not exceed a height of 2 meters, no separate building permit is usually required. So that the view of public traffic areas is still unrestricted after the construction of gabions, they may only have a maximum height of one meter in front gardens and directly on streets.

Other uses

Gabion raised beds for urban horticulture in Frankfurt am Main

Gabions can also be used to create raised beds , for example in urban horticulture projects . The wire mesh baskets are filled with suitable soil instead of stones. The meshes of the wire mesh are previously covered on the inside of the baskets with suitable materials, such as coconut mats, to prevent the earth from falling out. The mesh of the gabions in combination with mats made of organic materials can serve as a growth aid for climbing and hanging plants. An example of gabion beds since 2017 is the Kirchplatzgärtchen, a publicly funded neighborhood project in Ginnheim , a district of Frankfurt am Main .

literature

• Forschungsgesellschaft Landschaftsentwicklung Landschaftsbau eV (FLL) (publisher): Recommendations for planning, building and maintaining gabions , Bonn 2012, ISBN 978-3-940122-35-3

Web links

Commons : Gabions  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Gabion  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ^ Corriere della Sera : Dizionario di Tedesco , visited on November 12, 2008
2. ↑ cf. DIN 19657
3. ↑ Claudia Fromme: Why do people build stone cages around the garden? . Southgerman newspaper. August 22, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
4. ↑ Building regulations for gabions and privacy fences. Retrieved July 5, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Ginnheimer Kirchplatzgärtchen at par.frankfurt.de , the former website of the city of Frankfurt am Main (accessed on April 28, 2018)
6. ↑ Kirchplatzgärtchen Ginnheim on anstiftung.de (accessed on April 28, 2018)