Architecture, Art, Design, and Culture using of mud, clay, soil, dirt & dust.
Despite the damp climate, there are thousands of earth buildings in the United Kingdom. The map above shows the concentration of earth buildings in the UK, some of which are over four hundred years old. Each region tends to have its own form of construction dependent on the nature of the materials available locally.
The richly diverse vernacular architectural traditions of China are unrivaled in the world. No nation has as long an unbroken tradition and, with the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, none is as ethnically diverse. China, a nation of 56 nationalities living in disparate natural landscapes with widely varying climatic conditions, is certainly more varied in its housing patterns than is the case in single nations such as the United States or even in comparison with multi-national Europe. View a photo essay of Chinese Rural Architecture by Oliver Laude from ATLAS Magazine.
American Adobes by Beverly Spears documents the rich and distictly Northern New Mexican vernacular house.
Al-Abbas Mosque is a testimony to the living traditions and architectural achievements of one of the world’s earliest civilizations. Built over 800 years ago, the mosque is situated on the remains of a pre-Islamic shrine or temple on a site considered sacred since ancient times. Its cubic form also has ancient precedents, including the Kaaba in Mecca. The local population continues to revere the mosque and the site today still holds special significance for them. The Al-Abbas Mosque restoration project is a recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Ninth Award Cycle, 2002 – 2004.
Diébédo Francis Kéré, an architecture student in Berlin, took upon himself the cause of ensuring that his village would not be deprived of a school, and with a group of friends in Germany, Kéré set up a fund-raising association, Schulbausteine fur Gando (Bricks for the Gando School). The idea met with a positive response and, having secured finance through the association, Kéré also obtained the support of LOCOMAT (a government agency in Burkina Faso) to train brickmakers in the technique of working with compressed stabilized earth. The project is a recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Ninth Award Cycle, 2002 – 2004.
An on-line survey of earthen architecture by Hugo Houben and Hubert Guillaud of CRATerre
Arquitectura de Tierra Cruda en Venezuela contains 257 color and 24 black and white illustrations discusses the use of earthen architecture in Venezuela from the pre-columbian period to today. Spanish language edition only.
These images of Ghanaian Earth Architecture are by Keith Zawistowski and Marie Richard. The image in the upper left is a shrine house in the Ashanti Region, near Kumasi. It is made from earth on a bamboo frame, detailed with cut reeds and plastered with cow dung. The others are of various typologies from the northern region. View larger image
YBE2004 Houses of the Future is the showcase event for the Year of the Built Environment which challenged Australians to consider the future of our built environment and the most tangible element of that environment – the house. The Clay House uses the twin concepts of a courtyard plan and the inherent mass of clay brick products to create an intimate and private house. The driving concept behind this design is that it can fit into a small block, and has high level of thermal comfort that doesn’t rely on artificial cooling and heating.
The Valley of Mud-Brick Architecture by Salma Samar Damluji is a scholarly book concentrating on the architecture and town planning of two towns in the Hadhramawt, Shibam and Tarim, Yemen. It looks at the very ancient origins of the south Arabian mud built architecture, its suitability for the climate, its adaptability, and its relative virtues compared with imported Western practices and how it can continue to develop as an indigenous Arabian art or science. It is clearly an exciting study to any such as Dr. Damluji, who had worked with and is clearly an admirer of Hassan Fathy, the great exponent of traditional mud brick architecture in Cairo. Read a review.
