Adobe structures, CO + NM, 2018
Earthen buildings rise-up, for the most part from the ubiquitous, raw material–a variable mix of clay, sand, and silt–excavated onsite. For millennia, generations of earth builders around the world determined the “combinations of materials and constructive details most appropriate to the local reality”, including resistance to extreme weather and fire. (Barbacci, 2020).
When combined with the inherent breathability of the natural material, the low equilibrium moisture content of earthen buildings results in superior comfort and wellbeing for inhabitants by, for example, preventing the dank conditions which promote the growth of mould.
In regulating humidity, raw earth walls still outperform those built with industrially processed materials, including baked clay bricks, for example experiments conducted in 1978 by the University of Kassel’s Building Research Laboratory demonstrated unbaked mud bricks absorbed 30 times more moisture than baked bricks. (Minke, 2013, p. 14).
Earthen structures have also been proven to preserve a building’s other internal materials, including at points of articulation with timber elements such as lintels and roof joists (Minke, 2013, p. 15).
Moreover, earth’s ubiquity and utility made it the material of choice for inventive egalitarians. Considered the pioneer of rammed earth (pisé de terre), François Cointeraux believed his technology transcended class. In the late 18th century he “developed a typology of earth architecture that encompassed a complete range of housing for the poor and the wealthy, in both urban and rural settings”, (R. Rael, 2009, p. 157) some of which, now more than 300 years old, remain inhabited near Lyon (Minke, 2013, p. 13).
Adaptive Settlements
Interdependent Thinking
Gondwana Link rewilding_Australia
Sadhana Forest rewilding_India + Kenya
White Gum Valley development_Australia
Self-building Technologies
Adobe_USA