Building with earth - Gernot MINKE (1)

Future prospects
In areas with colder climates, earthen architecture
may never play the dominant role it already plays
in warmer regions. Owing to climatic conditions
and high standards of thermal insulation in Central
and Northern Europe, for example, exterior
walls need additional external thermal insulation.
In hot and moderate climates of all continents, on
the other hand, solid external walls can be built
from loam without being covered. They provide
a better indoor climate and are more economical
than walls made of natural stone, fired bricks or
concrete.
Nevertheless we find an increasing tendency to
build with loam in the cooler climates of Europe
and America as well. This is due to a growing
environmental consciousness and an awareness
that not only do industrially produced materials
require unnecessarily high energy inputs; they
also consume scarce resources while producing
pollution. Another factor is the desire to live in a
balanced and healthy indoor environment.
In developing countries, where even today,
more than half of the population lives in earthen
houses, modern houses are usually not built from
earth but from industrialised building materials
such as fired bricks, cement concrete and prefabricated
panels of various compositions. Even
here, there is an increasing recognition that
the immense existing requirements for shelter
cannot be met with industrially produced building
materials and building techniques, since neither
the productive capacity nor the necessary financial
resources are available. The only seemingly
feasible solution is to use natural, locally available
materials and appropriate skills and tools while
integrating self-help techniques, all of which
make earth the ideal building material .
In such regions, especially those with hot and
moderate climates, an increasing number of
modern buildings already have walls made of
adobes or stabilised soil blocks. With low-cost
housing in these regions, where roof structures
can account for up to one third of total building
costs, the use of earthen blocks for building
vaults and domes is very promising, since these
structural types can be more economical than
industrial roofing while also creating better indoor
climate by virtue of their thermal characteristics,
potential for improved ventilation, and noiseinsulating
properties.
these techniques, guidelines should be developed
and training courses offered .
The practicability of these techniques will have
to be demonstrated not only with residential
projects, in particular with low-cost housing, but
also in public buildings such as hospitals, schools,
and office buildings. This would show that, if
used correctly, earth is a long-lasting and economical
material that is easily available and easy
to handle and is capable of creating even prestigious
buildings .
The building of masonry walls from adobes, from
sun-dried, unfired earth blocks, will continue to
be a dominant technique simply because such
techniques can be used by masons in all parts of
the world without special training. Adobe domes
and vaults are an economically and structurally
valuable alternative to the usual flat or slightly
inclined roofs of sheet metal, asbestos cement or
reinforced cement concrete. They will certainly be
used with greater frequency once an understanding
of their potential becomes more widespread.
The rammed earth technique is favourable for
moderate and warm climates, and is also economical,
especially if used with adequate equipment
and mechanised technology.
The knowledge of how to construct earthquakeresistant
buildings of adobes and rammed earth
should be disseminated throughout all earthquake-prone
zones. It has been proven that in
many cases, it was not the use of earthen materials
as such that led to the collapse of such buildings
during earthquakes, but rather incorrect
structural designs and bad craftsmanship.
In industrialised countries in moderate climatic
zones, prefabricated lightweight loam elements
and loam plasters for interior walls will be used
with increasing frequency. In Germany, Austria
and the Netherlands, several types have recently
become increasingly successful on the quickly
growing markets for such products.
Newly developed and successfully tested earth
construction techniques are waiting to be adapted
and implemented in countries where they
have not yet been tried. In order to disseminate
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