**2. Background**

#### **2.1 The LAD-MA construction system**

The LAD-MA system consists of a set of 4 wall panels (**Figure 1**), which can be arranged in order to solve different architectural solutions. They are made up of a structural framework of upright feet and upper sills of untreated 2x4 "pine wood, braced with 1x4" pine diagonals, which act jointly with a body of prefabricated plates made with 'fiscal brick'.

The brick plates are fixed to the wooden structure and to each other, using cement mortar of 400 [kg/cm3] and with a horizontal reinforcement for the shear stress, with smooth round iron of 6 [mm], fixed at end of the wall panel with a fold and staples, fixed and tensioned at the other end with nuts and washers.

An 8 [mm] slotted steel bar is used to join the wooden structure with the foundation beam, one at each end of the wall panel, with an upper tie-down with clamps and two bars in the central columns as seen in (**Figure 2**).

On-site, the foundations are made directly on excavation and without molds. The foundation beams are precast on-site using molds containing guides to locate the center columns' 8 [mm] *Feith* anchors. The foundation beams are mounted on the foundation dice, perfectly level on their upper face. A wooden floor structure is *Evaluation of Well-Being and Thermal Comfort of the LAD-MA Construction System for Low… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98699*

**Figure 1.** *LAD-MA set of wall panels.*

**Figure 2.**

*Schematic detail of the parts and components of the LAD-MA construction system.*

arranged on the LAD-MA structure, to enable a second floor, which is entirely resolved with a traditional wooden structure that in many cases comes from the recycling of precarious homes (**Figure 3**).

This construction system was designed with a purely social and non-profit objective, it is low cost, enables and facilitates self-construction work, is based on the prefabrication of components, uses low-cost local materials and recycled

**Figure 3.** *LAD-MA Architectural Module.*

materials, and is intensive in unskilled labor, with technical support that guarantees its proper implementation.

In addition, the LAD-MA construction system was conceived considering that it provides a positive perception in the beneficiaries of a "solid" home, using brick as a material commonly used in permanent homes, giving the feeling of durability, thermal comfort, and structural stability. In contrast to the "mediaguas" units in which the beneficiaries of the construction system previously lived.

It is worth mentioning that for this research, it was analyzed the evolution over time of 4 homes built in the LAD-MA system, which are located in the Peñalolén Commune, in Santiago de Chile. In some of the observed cases, the owners made modifications, making extensions and plastering the interior and exterior of the walls with cement mortar, and painted the outside and the inside.
