How to design gabion walls

Ideal for structural applications, gabion walls are a versatile option when it comes to constructing retaining walls, but they're equally viable for more decorative configurations. Architect Allan Corfield breaks down the detail

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Over the past five years, our practice has seen an explosion in the use of gabions within residential projects. I think this is mostly down to their versatility, relatively low cost, and the fact that they are fairly easy to install. So how are they used in domestic construction?

WHAT IS A GABION WALL?

At its simplest, a gabion wall (from the Italian term gabbione meaning 'big cage') is a modular containment system - typically referred to as a cage or basket made from a wire mesh and filled with rock. The cage element is constructed most commonly as a square, rectangular or trapezoidal.

TYPES OF GABIONS

There are two main types of gabion wall construction-those built as retaining walls for structural purposes and those built for shallower retaining walls that only need to hold backa very small amount of soil. Gabions can also be used for decorative landscaping, too.

There's a difference in how the various types are built:

Structural retaining walls

The original use for gabions is in large civil construction projects as gravity retaining walls, such as at the side of a motorway, retaining the sloping banking above.

They can be used domestically when building a house into a sloping site, for example.

In this application numerous cages are laid side by side and stacked up (in an overlapping layout), these are internally braced and laced together. They are filled with angular stones with known structural properties, compacted and then back filled with suitable infill material, such as a wellgraded granular material.