Architecture, Art, Design, and Culture using of mud, clay, soil, dirt & dust.
Built By Hand by Eiko Komatsu, Athena Steen and Bill Steen is, according to Michael Webb, the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine,” A photographic anthology of the astounding variety of architecture produced without architects-a colorful successor to Bernard Rudofsky’s pioneering study of vernacular building, Architecture Without Architects. The book contains an entire section dedicated to earth architecture.
The Earth Building section of the The Building Bookshop Architecture Bookstore has several interesting titles.
The January issue of Architectural Review features sub-Saharan architecture in an essay with photographs by James Morris from his new book Butabu.
The trilogy of books by New Mexico author, teacher, and builder, Paul Graham McHenry, are a staple to the library of anyone interested in building or designing with earth.
Adobe and Rammed Earth Buildings: Design and Construction
Iranian born Nader Khalili, California architect/author is the world renowned Earth Architecture teacher and innovator, and author. He has been a licensed architect in the State of California since 1970, and has practiced both in the U.S. and abroad. Click here to visit Khalili’s website: Cal-Earth, The California Institute for Earth Art and Architecture.
His books, Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own and Racing Alone document his life of searching for a method to fire mud houses and turn them to stone by firing and glazing an entire building after it is constructed from clay-earth on site.
The book, Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency documents several rammed earth structures designed and built by Auburn School of Architecture students in Hale County, Alabama.
Butabu: Adobe Architecture of West Africa by architectural photographer James Morris and Professor of African Art and Architecture at Harvard University, Suzanne Preston Blier, shows the sublime sculptural beauty, variety, ingenuity, and originality of Sahalian Architecture in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso where people have been constructing earthen buildings for centuries.
The Handbook for Building Homes of Earth, published by the Peace Corps Information and Collection Exchange, is available on-line with chapters discussing adobe, rammed earth, compressed earth and other relevant technologies and methods.
The Rammed Earth House written by David Easton, describes the beauty and grace of rammed earth construction. The photographs of different structures, both modern and ancient, by Cynthia Wright, create a breathtaking glimpse into a building technique that is as old as human history, but exactly suitable for today’s resource-conscious and environmentally friendly building needs. Rammed Earth Works, established in 1978, has distinguished itself as one of the world’s leading company in the research and development of modern earth construction technologies. Founder David Easton is the internationally recognized developer of PISE, Terratile, the Easton forming system for rammed earth and cast elements, and construction systems for engineered earth walls which are code compliant and compatible with current building trades.
Ralph Patty, Chairman of the Agricultural Engineering Department, supervised the rammed earth research at South Dakota State College in the 1920s and 1930s. Patty’s research was published internationally as well as by SDSC and the USDA Rammed Earth Walls for Buildings- 1926 :Farmers’ Bulletin #1500.
