Category: RESOURCES

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Eartha

EARTHA, The East Anglian Regional Telluric Houses Association, is an organization whose aims and objectives are to encourage the development of expertise and understanding in all aspects of earth building in the east of England by:

Establishing a network of people from various professions and trades all of whom have an interest in the study, maintenance and promotion of earth buildings in the east of England: through links with ICOMOS it will join with other networks in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

Providing a forum for discussion of issues relating to earth building in the east of England.

Providing advice on the repair and maintenance of earth buildings through an information service, the publication of technical guidance and the organisation of practical demonstrations, exhibitions and seminars.

Establishing mutually beneficial links with groups and individuals working with earth buildings in the other parts of the Britain and abroad.

Collaborating with other networks to prepare and publish information manual covering all aspects of the construction, repair and maintenance of earth buildings including composite structures, daubs, renders and plasters.

Encouraging and supporting training in the field of earth building and associated skills.

Encouraging the revival of appropriate earth building techniques for new building construction and investigating the potential of the material for low energy buildings.

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L’Association Nationale des Professionnels de la TERRE Crue

L’Association Nationale des Professionnels de la TERRE Crue fédère les acteurs et actrices de la construction en terre crue en France. Elle regroupe des artisans et des chefs d’entreprise, des producteurs de matériaux, des architectes, des ingénieurs, et des organismes de formation professionnelle. Elle accueille aussi des représentants d’organismes régionaux (parcs…) ou d’autres associations développant des activités dans le domaine de l’architecture de terre (valorisation des patrimoines nationaux, architecture contemporaine, recherche sur les matériaux et les techniques…).

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Earth Architecture – The Book

Earth Architecture began February 22, 2003 as a way to organize online research on earthen architecture and now, after almost 5 years of blogging on earth architecture, a book on the subject that will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in the Fall of 2008. The book will offer a history of earthen architecture, particularly a modern history of earthen architecture which touches on the efforts of Cointeraux, Gaudí, Schindler, Wright, Le Corbusier, Loos, Fathy, and many more of your favorite architects of the modern era. The book also discusses Rammed Earth, Mud Brick, Compressed Earth Block and many of the several earth building technologies and how they have evolved to meet the demands of contemporary society.

The book will also feature 40 cutting edge projects designed by architects and constructed of earth from the past 35 years, including work by many well known architects such as Rick Joy, Mauricio Rocha, Rural Studio, Glenn Murcutt, Arup Associates, Mathias Klotz, Predock_Frane Architects, Cutler Anderson Architects, Reitermann and Sassenroth, Heikkinen – Komonen Architects and Yung Ho Chang, to name a few, as well as important works by lesser well known architects who have produced critical works of contemporary architecture.

This is a very exciting moment in the history of this blog. It coincides with International Listings ranking Earth Architecture among the top 100 Architecture Blogs. It is an honor to be on the list with some really great blogs. In fact, I have to give props to Geoff for the idea for announcing the impending publication. If you’d like to know more about the book or would like to be reminded when the it is released, please email me, and thanks for reading about the most widely used building material on the planet.

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United Bottle

The Zürich based architecture office INSTANT (Dirk Hebel & Jörg Stollmann with Tobias Klauser) has designed a water bottle that can be recycled and filled with local soil and stacked to form temporary shelter. The concept, called UNITED_BOTTLE can be used by Governments and NGOs to distribute water locally and regionally and be able to upcycle the bottle as a building material in combination with found materials such as sand, earth and natural insulation materials such as animal hair. The simple water bottle would operate as a container for the awareness of the next crisis.

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Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County

The book, Historic Adobes of Los Angeles County, documents the numerous eighteenth and nineteenth century adobe houses that are still standing in the metropolitan Los Angeles County area. An accompanying website offers insight to the books content, with an annotated table of contents that summarizes each section of the book and includes maps that allow for your own tour the 76 extant historic adobe structures in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

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Earth Building

Earth Building by Lawrence Keefe exlains, in fairly simple terms, the engineering properties of earth as a construction material. It describes, evaluates and compares the various methods earth construction and explains the failure mechanisms of mass earth walls and how to identify building defects. It also discusses, in some detail, how mass earth construction can achieve compliance with current building regulations and illustrates appropriate repair methods based upon case studies of actual building failures and major structural repairs. Professionals such as architects, builders, surveyors and conservation officers should find this a good reference. It is also a methodically presented text for students and an authoritative guide for self-builders.

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Building With Earth

Building with Earth by John Norton provides practical help in choosing whether and how to build with earth, from soil selection through to construction and maintenance. The techniques described in the second edition – revised and updated – of this book have a focus on achieving good quality results with accessible methods, that can go on being used by rich and poor, and for simple buildings as well as the more sophisticated.

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Building With Clay Workshop in Poland

A Natural House – Building with Clay Skill Building Workshop in Poland with Architect Wojciech Brzeski will take place on 3rd June and 9th June 2007. During the five-day workshop, one will learn the techniques of sustainable clay building. Mr Brzeski has been building houses with clay for over 25 years and as the need for sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of building becomes more and more important this is an invaluable opportunity to work with an experienced architect to learn the techniques of this traditional craft. The anticipated costs including flight, accommodation and workshops are £570. For more information email: thenaturalhouse@gmail.com