EARTH ARCHITECTURE

Following the success of his design for a Primary School in Burkina Faso, which prompted growing numbers of students attending the school, architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has completed an extension to the school using many of the same techniques and materials, but with an innovative new compressed earth vault protected by an airy vaulted metal canopy. In addition to classrooms, the extension also houses a kitchen and library.

The Toxicwall, designed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute architecture student Henry Louis Miller, is a response to the bullying, isolationist tone (as he sees it) creeping into the national debate on immigration. It’s a simple idea. Collect earth from polluted brownsites. Use it to make toxic bricks. Form these bricks into a wall along the nation’s southern border. Prevent illegal immigrants from crossing by forcing them to risk contamination.

To maintain the toxicity of the brick, it seems that the bricks are likely mud-brick as vitrification of fired brick might reduce the effect. The toxic mud brick wall seems equally as harmful as architect Antoine Predock’s rammed earth border wall.

The Earthen Architecture Initiative (EAI) seeks to further the conservation of earthen architecture through international activities and institutional partnerships. Advancing the discipline of earthen conservation is the organizing principle for all of the EAI’s activities—which include model projects that improve the way conservation interventions are carried out in different parts of the world, pursuing research that addresses unanswered questions in the field of earthen conservation, and disseminating information regarding appropriate conservation interventions on historic buildings, settlements, and archaeological sites composed of earthen materials.

The Rehabilitation of the City of Shibam is part of a project that focuses on the preservation of this unique place as a living community, with architectural restoration integrated into the creation of new economic and social structures. The Award recipients are the Yemeni government and its cultural agencies, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the community of Shibam.

A review of Earth Architecture from Australian The Age newspaper.

Rammed Earth By Design is a rammed earth building company located in Western Australia that provides a complete experience in fully finished residential home design, administration and construction. They offer over 50 predesigned home packages that they can constructed throughout Australia and globally.

You are invited to the first full meeting of Earth Building UK, a new national organisation established to represent, support and promote earth building in the UK. This is an opportunity to influence EBUK’s organisation and operation from its beginning. EBUK’s first meeting will take place at the University of Bath on Friday 16th January 2009. Further details, including the process for registering, can be found here: http://www.bath.ac.uk/ace/ebuk-meeting/. Aseries of high quality presentations are lined up as part of the day. For more information contact:

Enrico Fodde
Lecturer
BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials
Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering
University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1225 383185
Fax: +44 (0) 1225 384495
Email: E.Fodde@bath.ac.uk
http://www.bath.ac.uk/ace/

Pete Walker,
Director BRE Centre for Innovative Construction Materials,
Dept. Architecture & Civil Engineering,
University of Bath,
Bath BA2 7AY,
UK.
Tel: 01225 386646
Fax: 01225 386691
http://www.bath.ac.uk/bre

A few months before the release of this blog’s book, Earth Architecture, came a book with an equally notable title: Earth Architecture: From Ancient to Modern by author William Morgan. Unlike Earth Architecture, Morgan’s book discusses primarily earth works—built forms more closely associated with landscape architecture. From ancient forts in New Zealand to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Earth Architecture ranges across the globe, covering more than 6,000 years of human history. Mounds, shaped hills, and terraces are only a few of the categories of structures Morgan systematically examines as he surveys everything from semi-subterranean dwellings to large-scale engineering projects.