Modern Earth Buildings

Materials, Engineering, Constructions and Applications

Matthew R Hall, R Lindsay, M Krayenhoff

• Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780857096166
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Construction & Architectural Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The construction of earth buildings has been taking place worldwide for centuries. With the improved energy efficiency, high level of structural integrity and aesthetically pleasing finishes achieved in modern earth construction, it is now one of the leading choices for sustainable, low-energy building. Modern earth buildings provides an essential exploration of the materials and techniques key to the design, development and construction of such buildings.Beginning with an overview of modern earth building, part one provides an introduction to design and construction issues including insulation, occupant comfort and building codes. Part two goes on to investigate materials for earth buildings, before building technologies are explored in part three including construction techniques for earth buildings. Modern earth structural engineering is the focus of part four, including the creation of earth masonry structures, use of structural steel elements and design of natural disaster-resistant earth buildings. Finally, part five of Modern earth buildings explores the application of modern earth construction through international case studies.With its distinguished editors and international team of expert contributors, Modern earth buildings is a key reference work for all low-impact building engineers, architects and designers, along with academics in this field.

• Provides an essential exploration of the materials and techniques key to the design, development and construction of modern earth buildings
• Comprehensively discusses design and construction issues, materials for earth buildings, construction techniques and modern earth structural engineering, among other topics
• Examines the application of modern earth construction through international case studies

Part I

Introduction to modern earth buildings

1

Overview of modern earth building

M.R. Hall, University of Nottingham, UK

R. Lindsay, Earth Structures Group, Australia

M. Krayenhoff, SIREWALL Inc, Canada

Abstract:

This chapter explains the current position of modern earth building within the construction sector, its appeal and the role it might play in the future. The definition of modern earth building is discussed along with the ways in which this has evolved along with technological advancement and industrialisation. The significance of modern earth building, both for our current and future construction industries, is tackled from developed and developing country perspectives. The chapter then discusses the changing aesthetic of modern earth building including the role this can play in terms of material functionality, before moving on to its position with regard to the changing social morality towards climate change and the construction industry’s response. The chapter ends with a discussion of how earth building approaches have been developed to meet and complement the efficiency requirements of the modern construction industry.

Key words

modern construction sector

definitions

present and future industry

aesthetic

functionality

climate change

efficiency

1.1 Introduction

Earth building is simple by its very nature, but ‘simple is hard to do’ as the late Steve Jobs noted on his retirement as CEO of Apple. In modern earth building we are blessed with something simple and worthwhile. Imagine a world where everyone is living and working in insulated or uninsulated rammed earth buildings. That is the norm all over the planet. Everyone has grown up in rammed earth buildings and, because they work so well, no other alternative building materials are ever considered. Then one day an adventurous builder decides that he is going to try building with wood. People think he is crazy. He endures the ridicule, but is determined to give the idea of building with wood a try. His first challenge is to try to figure out how to cut the tree down and then determine which part of the tree is best for building with. He has to invent tools to cut the tree down. He thinks fire might be useful somehow. He is not sure whether to cut the tree into rounds or into lengths. He is not sure how to do this either. He is not sure if there is a difference between the wood of the oak and the wood of the willow. He is a very long way from planed 2

4 s and plywood. In the same way, the rammed earth industry is in relatively early stages of development compared to its ultimate potential as a mass-market technique. There is so much innovation beckoning.

The size of the insulated and uninsulated rammed earth market is vast and the technology is ahead of its time. There are still trees to cut down and land with enough topsoil left to grow new trees. We have not yet accomplished on a planetary scale what Lebanon did to their great cedar forests or Easter Island did by cutting down its last tree, but we are working on it. At some point in the future we may not have the option of building with wood and will need to build with inorganic building materials. Of course it is preferable that we make that move while there are still forests and topsoil. As a building culture, we will need to move from veneers to substance, from disposable building and thinking to sustainable communities and healthy environments, and move to the broad use of local materials and labour. The emerging rammed earth industry will need to move from a small capacity cottage industry and levels of building to a much larger economic capability to allow an expanded range and complexity of projects.

Earth building has an honest appeal. Formwork and compaction lines are all there to see – nothing is hidden. Few construction consumables are so simple and honest. Yet it takes courage for many people today to build an earth house. Modern humanity appears to have great faith in highly manufactured and sophisticated elements. Gadgetry that can accompany a simple bushwalk, for example, is sometimes more empowering for a modern-day person than the walk itself. For the modern occupier of an earth house, the walls serve to relax our obsession with neatness, uniformity and linear perfection. While a symmetry of form is retained, the ‘cleanliness’ anxiety created by smooth painted surfaces is excused and somehow deleted. Some primal happiness is restored. It takes courage for many modern building contractors to embrace what can appear to be a step backwards in technology. Earth walling is assumed by many builders to be something that used to happen before the Industrial Age.

There is a real challenge, however, for people to take modern earth building seriously. Modern earth building has the capacity to reduce substantially some of the damaging effects that humanity has on the planet. Earth buildings, in conjunction with good design and clever marketing, could take us towards an acceptable status of smaller and more sensible buildings and will produce a positive and lasting environmental legacy for future generations. The human condition is capable of huge technical ability to overcome some of our most drastic environmental problems. The same condition is also capable of rationalising or justifying extravagant lifestyle choices that have created the problems in the first place. This anomaly in our intelligence is nowhere more evident than in the construction industry. We seek to create environmental solutions with clever low-emission materials and ideas. With these ‘solutions’ under our belt we then build even more extravagant houses for ourselves. This is particularly the case in Australia and the USA where the building space per occupant has increased fourfold over the past 50 years. Earth building has a role to play in creating an awareness of what humanity is capable of in simplifying our housing needs. It serves as a reminder that simple is possible and acceptable. Modern earth building lends status to simplicity, and good earthen architecture gives simple buildings huge credibility.

1.2 Definition of modern earth building

An earth building is one where a significant part of the structure and/or building fabric comprises graded soil (i.e. earth) that has been prepared using one or more techniques, e.g. rammed earth or compressed earth block. However, what characteristics can make an earth building ‘modern’? One of the requirements must surely be that the techniques applied should build on what has been learnt from the past whilst benefiting from the advancements and improvement that state-of-the-art innovation has brought. Since our learning is ongoing it also follows that what constitutes ‘state-of-the-art’ is relative to the era in which the new building is set. A faithful reproduction of a historic form of earth building from the 19th century, for example, that does not benefit from any of t...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Contributor contact details
• Woodhead Publishing Series in Energy
• Preface
• Part I: Introduction to modern earth buildings
• Part II: Earth materials engineering and earth construction
• Part III: Earth building technologies and earth construction techniques
• Part IV: Modern earth structural engineering
• Part V: Application of modern earth construction: international case studies
• Appendices
• Index