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IN EARTH WE TRUST: REINTRODUCTION OF RAMMED EARTH
Abstract
With concrete being the most widely used material on earth, with over two tonnes per person being used annually, and most forms of thermal insulation sourced or prepared by fossil fuels, the building construction market provides significant potential for reducing consumption with cost-effective and sustainable measures. Naturally all building criteria regarding structural integrity, thermal technical requirements and hygiene should be met for the solution to be attractive. Considering the changes in many construction laws and EU norms towards sustainability and the reduction of construction materials environmental burdens, the objective of this paper is to increase the understanding of rammed earth as a “natural” construction material so that structures built from rammed earth can be better analysed and implemented in green building design in Europe. This work was produced due to the lack of engineering knowledge currently available and the lack of understanding of the fundamental processes of ecological sustainable rammed earth design. Using local data from several rammed earth experiments focused on material properties including climate chamber measurements this article points out the environmental friendliness and sustainability of rammed earth construction and also provides guidelines for basic cost benefit analysis, formwork, construction sequence, quality control, moisture content, finishes, strength and thermal properties.
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