10th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture
The 10th International Conference on the Study and Conservation of Earthen Architecture will be held in February 2008 in Bamako, Mali, West Africa. The conference is organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Ministry of Culture of Mali with the collaboration of Africa 2009, CRATerre-ENSAG , ICOMOS South Africa, and the World Heritage Centre, under the aegis of ICOMOS and its International Scientific Committee on the Earthen Architectural Heritage. Three hundred international specialists in the fields of earthen architecture, conservation, archaeology, scientific research and site management are expected to attend.
Earth Building Project
The Earth Building Project is a blog relating to a Scientific project held at Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia.
Vitruvius on Adobe
In the only architectural treatise surviving from Classical Antiquity, Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture refers in some detail to adobe, describing suitable earth and suggesting that adobes should be made in the spring and left for at least two years to dry. He mentions that building by-laws in Utica (near Carhage) specify that only adobes of five years old be used for building, to be so certified by the aedile (magistrate).
Kerry Hill
Singapore-based Australian Kerry Hill is regarded as one of the best regional architects utilising natural rammed earth, timber and stone that exude an almost monastic ambience. Built on the banks of WA’s Margaret River, Hill’s Ooi house (above) is a single-storey, three bedroom holiday residence with a guest chalet intended to be the first of several.
Cob Building in Europe
The Cotentin and Bessin Marshlands Regional Nature Park in France proposes to
create one moment of exchanges on cob building. A conference entitled “Cob
Building in Europe” is scheduled for the 12, 13 and 14th of October 2006, in
Isigny-sur-mer, Normandy, France. Download conference the program here
The World Adobe Forum
The World Adobe Forum is an exciting new medium for the sharing of information related to adobe research and application, focusing on understanding and reducing seismic vulnerability. The main objective of the forum is to provide a medium for the sharing of information related to improved-adobe research and application.
Rammed Earth For Sale
Rammed Earth Border
The New York Times challenged thirteen architects, landscape architects, and planners to consider the border zone between Mexico and the United States. The proposal by Albuquerque architect Antoine Predock suggests a rammed earth wall built by Mexican day laborers, rising from the ground.
Marcelo Cortes: Earth Architect
Chilean architect Marcelo Cortes employs an interesting hybrid between industrial and non-industrial technologies. Cortes has developed a “quincha metalica”, a form of traditional quincha construction (mud and straw packed between a bamboo or wood frame) that uses a steel frame work.