Tibn

Chopped straw, used throughout the Saharan-Maghreb earthen tradition as a fibre additive in adobe mixes, mud plasters, and the upper layers of pisé. Straw fibre reduces shrinkage cracking during drying, distributes tensile stress in the cured wall, and improves the cohesion of finishing renders. The proportion of straw in a given mix — like the proportion of stone in pisé — varied by maalem, by region, and by the position of the element within the wall, with finer-cut and higher-proportion straw used in the surface plasters and coarser content in the wall body.