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.

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.

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.

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.

Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide

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Cob building uses a simple mixture of clay subsoil, aggregate, straw, and water to create solid structural walls, built without shuttering or forms, on a stone plinth. This ancient practice has been used throughout Britain for centuries – in fact, the material is so strong and durable that it is currently in use for forty-five thousand houses in Cornwall, a county in southern England. Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide, by Adam Weismann and Katy Bryce, covers everything from design, planning, and siting to roofs, insulation, and floors. It is lavishly illustrated with more than three hundred inspirational color photographs. The authors have recently been commissioned to build a thirty-classroom school in England in 2006; it will be the largest new cob construction project in the Western hemisphere.

Earth Architecture in Portugal – Two New Publications

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With the participation of 54 authors, the book Earth Architecture in Portugal is an assembly of essays and work by professionals with expertise on the topics of architecture and construction with earth. Topics include technology, materials, history, anthropology, conservation and particular attention is given to the contemporary architecture constructed of earth in the two last decades in Portugal. Publication is in English and Portuguese, 23 x 32 cm Hard Layer – 300 pages.

Terra em Seminário contains 70 essays presented in IV SIACOT and III SEMIN¡RIO OF EARTH ARCHITECTURE IN PORTUGAL. The publication offers a perspective on the current state of earthen architecture in an international context.

For purchase information contact www.centrodaterra.org or by emailing info@centrodaterra.org