– Books on Earth Architecture – Page 5

June 9, 2007

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.

June 9, 2007

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.

June 7, 2007

Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa

Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa: Photographs by James Morris presents 50 large-scale images of structures from monumental mosques to family homes. An exhibit of the photos runs through July 15 at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles. For more information call (310) 825-4361 or visit www.fowler.ucla.edu or buy the book.

October 24, 2006

Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide

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.

October 15, 2006

Back to Earth: Adobe Building in Saudi Arabia

“The lavishly illustrated and well-written book records in great detail an inspirational project that is a major departure from those normally undertaken in Saudi Arabia, or for that matter the Arab world,” writes a review of William Facey’s seemingly rare Back to Earth: Adobe Building in Saudi Arabia

September 8, 2006

Building With Earth: Design & Technology

The new book, Building With Earth: Design & Technology, by Prof. Dr. Gernot Minke offers a comprehensive overview of the many uses of and techniques for processing clay. Drawings and photographs of twenty structures offer specific and inspiring examples of clay architecture from around the world.

July 22, 2006March 17, 2026

Design Like You Give a Damn

Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises, is a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives. The first book to bring the best of humanitarian architecture and design to the printed page, Design Like You Give a Damn offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design and showcases more than 80 contemporary solutions to such urgent needs as basic shelter, health care, education, and access to clean water, energy, and sanitation. Among these projects you will find several built of some of the many earth construction techniques.

May 27, 2006March 17, 2026

Adobe Architecture of California

Spanish Colonial : or Adobe Architecture of California, 1800-1850 concentrates on the historical buildings of the period and includes numerous black and white photos of old buildings.

May 7, 2006March 17, 2026

Simone Swan: Adobe Building

Simone Swan: Adobe Building is the first book to discuss and illustrate Swan’s architecture while also chronicling one of her annual workshops in author Dollens’ first-hand account. Swan studied with the great Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in his Cairo studio and after his death in 1989 adopted his mission of helping house the world’s poor through the creation of environmental projects that re-examine and promote traditional adobe building while introducing compatible forms, such as the Nubian vault and dome through her organization, The Adobe Alliance.

March 27, 2006

Earth Architecture in Portugal – Two New Publications

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