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Upscaling Earth: Material, Process, Catalyst


As environmental pressures continue to increase and concerns about resource scarcity continue to grow, a number of prominent architectural thinkers are returning to one of the world’s oldest construction methods: earth building. Upscaling Earth: Material, Process, Catalyst, by Anna Heringer, Lindsay Blair Howe, and Martin Rauch, showcases innovative thinking about materials and the potential for earth building to replace more environmentally damaging, resource-intensive materials like concrete. What economic, environmental, and social conditions, the book asks, would be necessary for an upscaling of earth to occur?

Presenting a wide range of built and unbuilt projects and outlining strategies that can be implemented to adapt the use of earth to each unique culture and context, Upscaling Earth demonstrates groundbreaking technological innovations that highlight the advantages of this material. From worldwide availability to the possibility of comprehensive recycling, from climate-neutral production to socially just implementation, the book reveals the incredible potential of earthen architecture.

Buy Upscaling Earth: Material, Process, Catalyst at Amazon.com

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The Art of Earth Architecture: Past, Present, Future


For almost ten thousand years, unbaked earth has been used to build remarkable structures, from simple dwellings to palaces, temples, and fortresses both grand and durable. Jean Dethier spent fifty years researching this landmark global survey, which spans five continents and 250 sites. The Art of Earth Architecture: Past, Present, Future demonstrates the wide-ranging applications and sustainability of this building material, while presenting a manifesto for its ecological significance. Featuring raw-earth masterpieces, monumental structures, and little known works, the book includes the temples and palaces of Mesopotamia, the Great Wall of China, large-scale urban developments in Tenochtitlan in Mexico, the medinas of Morocco, and housing in Marrakech and Bogota.

This definitive reference features many UNESCO World Heritage sites and contains essays on the historical, technical, and cultural aspects of raw-earth construction from twenty experts in the field, as well as hundreds of photographs, illustrations, and architectural drawings.

Buy The Art of Earth Architecture: Past, Present, Future at Amazon

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Mud Frontiers

Emerging Objects explores the frontiers of technology and material using traditional materials (clay, water, and wheat straw), to push the boundaries of sustainable and ecological construction in a two phase project that explores traditional clay craft at the scale of architecture and pottery. The end goal of this endeavor is to demonstrate that low-cost and low-labor construction that is accessible, economical and safe is possible. The project began in the contemporary borderlands along the Rio Grande watershed beginning in El Paso and Juarez and ended near the headwaters of the Rio Grande in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, which was the edge of the historic border between the U.S. and Mexico prior to 1848. The entire region has employed traditional pottery and earthen construction traditions for centuries. More at Mud Frontiers