Building with earth - Gernot MINKE (1)

Australia, France, Scandinavia and other
European countries. Most historic walls of
this kind were load-bearing. Nowadays
mainly timber skeleton structures are used
which are filled or surrounded by straw
bales. The simplest method for covering
such walls is to use loam plaster. To
create a good bond and rigidity a chicken
wire or plastic net has to be fixed to the
bales before plastering. This can be done
manually or by spraying with guns.
Illustration 11.10 shows the plastering of a
straw surface with a spraying gun, 11.11
the gathered texture and 11.12 the interior
surface of a straw bale dome, with lamps
integrated into the wall. For additional information
on such structures, see Minke and
Mahlke, 2004.
Wet formed plaster
As loam plaster retains its plastic state for a
long time and is not corrosive to the hands
like lime or cement plasters, it is an ideal
material for moulding with the hands.
Illustration 11.9 shows an example of an
exterior loam wall stabilised by a limecasein
finish.
Protection of corners
As loam plaster is susceptible to mechanical
impact, corners should preferably be
covered by wooden profiles, baked bricks
or similar lippings (11.13).
11.9
96
Loam plasters