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Hahn Lee
Dr. Ramsey
WRIT340
Illumin Paper
Bio: Hahn Lee is Architecture major interested in disaster relief.
Want to help people using architecture.
Keyword: Earth architecture, Disaster relief
Earth Architecture: Going Back to the Past to bring the Future
1. Introduction
More than 30 million people fled their homes in 2012 because of disasters such as floods,
storms and earthquakes, a new report indicates according to the study by the Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre and the Norwegian Refugee Council[1].
Each year by year, the percentage of displacement is growing (Dia.1) due to the increasing
strength and frequency of natural disaster by global warming. The biggest need for \displaced
people probably is the shelter where they can sustain and repair their broken lives. However,
providing shelter to these people is extremely hard to fulfill because of it is financially and
productively difficulties making and giving shelters to 30 million people every year. Fortunate
places where people are able to get a shelter are mostly contemporary tents. It is built for
temporary use so that it is lack of durability, privacy, and functionality. People living in these
temporary tents suffer from its lack of service as a house, and fail to recover their bodies and
mind from disaster. Problem also occurs where the temporary tents mostly used as permanent.
People living in these tents have lack of help getting new houses because they fail to recover, and
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Dia1. Average Number of People Displaced Every Day (Source: Original)
it creates secondary damage when the next disaster comes. Disaster usually comes again to the
place where it occurred, so the places where disaster happens never become recovered. What can
be a solution for these areas? What is the way to help these people recovering from disaster? We
already have the key actually. It is the earth architecture where humans sheltered us even before
the human history.
2. Types of Earth Architecture
Adobe-block building the most basic form earth architecture which has been used from
beginning of civilization. As a material, adobe is a natural building material from water, clay, and
sand. Sometimes it uses fibrous organic material such as wooden branches and straw[2]. Adobeblock construction today follows many of the same principles used in the past that is to make
mud bricks and leave them out to dry. By using wooden cube frames, water mixed adobe is
casted into rectangular building blocks. Then, it is dried in the sun for several days to harden
gaining strong resistant to humidity and radiation. Nowadays artificial heat is used instead of the
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sun to dry bricks. Adobe building is extremely durable that many of adobe-block buildings from
the past still exist in the present. With finished adobe brick, the construction starts. With locally
available materials such as stones, create a foundation. Lay the brick with mortar, and mud work
as the best mortar since it shrinks and swells the bricks. Then keep stack bricks together to make
thick walls for strength. Adobe-block buildings usually have flat roofs since it need skilled labors
to make blocks into domes or vaults. Roof can be made with lighter materials such as timbers or
wood. Finally, the exterior is coated with plaster, stucco or whitewash[3].
Fig1. Adobe Block Architecture with Components
Rammed earth construction is a traditional building techniques as well as adobe-block
construction since they both use the same material of clay and mud using wooden frameworks as
a mold. However, rammed earth construction uses a compressed form of walls rather than
individual block which make the overall construction faster and efficient. It is simple to construct,
strong, and durable. To make the rammed earth wall, sand, gravel, clay and concrete is mixed
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thoroughly with water to get a homogenous humid mix. The earth mixture then poured into
wooden mold. However, instead of filling entire mold, create a small layer of moist water in
separate steps. In each steps, the density, compressive strength and the water resistance increases.
After entire wall is all filled, the wooden frame is removed. Since the rammed earth is already
built as a wall, no other wall finishing is needed after putting them together [4].
Fig2. Rammed Earth Construction: The Process of creating Rammed Earth Wall
Cob architecture is the most pre-historical form of using earth as structural components;
nevertheless, the technique itself has developed quite recently [5]. Cob is a mixture of clay, water,
earth, sand, and straw. As the mixture of various materials is well mixed, this special mud is
applied to the foundation in continuing layers, somewhat similar the rammed earth wall but
without wooden framing. Each later need to dry before a new layer is applied so that the previous
layer can support the next layer. Thus, the wall naturally tappers as it get to the top. The roof is
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built separate directly on to the cob walls. The biggest advantage of cob architecture compare to
other type of earth architecture is that its pre-historical form enables to build more artistic and
sculptural forms. With that it has the same benefits from other earth materials such as fireproof
and seismic resistance [6].
Fig3. Cob Architecture: The Component of Cob wall
Wattle and daub construction is pretty unique structure among earth architecture
buildings. It has been used at least 6000 years which is one of the oldest forms of earth
architecture [7]. Unlike other earth architectures which aggregates or stacks the earth itself,
wattle and daub creates a layer where earth can be applied to. Wattle and daub construction
simply pastes daub onto wattle. Daub is a mixture of water, clay, sand and straw and animal dung,
and wattle is a woven lattice of wooden strips. The construction begins with creating wattles
using branches and straws of surround are. The branches are interwoven and tightened into a
lattice creating a wattle. Then, it is laid down to the ground to form interior and exterior wall.
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After the wattle is maid, daub covers the entire wattle. After drying the wet daub in the sun for
few days it became durable and water resistant and strong enough become a wall [7].
Fig4. Wattle and Daub Construction: The Component of Wattle and Daub Wall
Earthbag is one of the easiest and strongest construction methods using earth as an
architectural material. Earthbag construction came from technics used to build a temporary
military bunker or flood control. It is used for a place where a strong wall is need within short
amount of time. Earth bag architecture fallows this characteristic of low cost, highly efficient
construction time, and strong durability. It is highly resistible against to the natural disasters such
as flood and earthquake, and it can resist to all kinds of severe weather all over the world. The
simplest material is needed to build an Earthbag house: it only needs sturdy sacks and inorganic
materials to fill up the sack [8]. The inorganic materials can be found in local, natural
surroundings such gravels or muds. The construction starts with digging a trench on the ground
and creates stable foundation. After foundation, the Earthbag is stacked up, and each successive
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have one or more strands of barbed wire place on top. This is to improve the friction between
each row of bags and finished wall tensile strength. The bags work like a brick in masonry
system creating similar patterns as well. Earthbag construction can create a variety of structures
such as domes, walls and vaults depending on the needs. Finally, the surface of Earthbag is
finished with plaster, stucco or adobe to shed water and prevent degradation by solar radiation
[8].
Fig5. Earthbag construction: The Components of Earthbag Construction
3. Benefits and Challenges
There are lots of benefits in the earth architecture compare to other types of construction.
There are ease and simplicity of construction in the earth architecture. It is labor intensive
construction without machinery which made earth architecture not to fit in today’s paradigm and
faded out from modern city; however, disaster places are perfect condition for earth houses since
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these places are hard to bring in machines whereas there are lots of left over labors forces. The
procedure is simple that anyone who got familiar with basic technique can easily participate in
the construction or even train others to build earth house. Earth architecture is suitable for any
area where there is earth and water. Also it uses local materials which reduces the energy use in
transportation, and also sustainable and renewable. Earth architecture naturally creates theramal
mass which collect heat from the sun during the day and release it slowly at night that helps
heating in winter and cooling in summer [3]. It is durable for disaster area such that earth
architecture can resist fire, wind, water, and earthquake. The price to build is affordable and
cheap which perfectly fits to reduce financial problems of providing shelter, and the best part of
earth architecture as disaster relief is that it is a permanent building where people can recover
their broken lives.
Nevertheless, there are challenges in earth architecture. There are limits to the size of the
building and the living space compare to its whole structure is quite small since the wall of earth
architecture is quite thick. There are lots of financial and administrative problems as well. There
is no mention in building codes with these construction types which make it hard for the
administrators can look at and approve earth architecture construction. Also, people who want to
get a loan from bank to build earth architecture need to do their own research and provide it to
the bank to deal and pursue the loaners.
4. Conclusion
Earth architecture has many challenges to be built since it had been disappeared from
human civilization quite long creating lack of understandings and lack of official researches.
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However, the potential for earth architecture is infinite especially in the disaster relief area due to
its natural born characteristic of strong, cheap and efficient. Further official researches are need
by public and private. Earth architecture is not a life form of the past, but the future.
5. Reference
[1] Kavitha A. Davison (2013, May 16) Natural Disasters Displaced 32.4 Million People in
2012, IDMC Study Shows [online]. Available : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ Accessed Nov.
15, 2013.
[2] Linda C. Brinson (2012, June 7) How Adobe Construction Works [online]. Available :
http://home.howstuffworks.com/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[3] Collyns, Dan (2009, Aug 15) Peru Rebuilds two years on from Quake [online]. Available:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013..
[4] No name (2003, Jan 11) Rammed Earth [online]. Available:
http://www.builditinternational.org/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[5] Lourdes Sanchez Bayas (2008, Nov 15) Cob Houses Made of Dirt and Straw [online].
Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[6] No name (2003, Nov 30) Peru Earthed Information: Building Using Cob [online]. Available:
http://earthedworld.co.uk/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[7] No name (2011, May 24) How to Build Using Wattle and Daub [online]. Available:
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http://www.backwoodssurvivalblog.com/ Nov. 15, 2013.
[8] Linda C. Brinson (2012,may 14) How Earthbag Construction Works [online]. Available :
http://home.howstuffworks.com/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[9] No name (no date) Adobe[online]. Available: http://www.iagram.com/ Accessed Nov. 15,
2013.
[10] No name (no date) Rammed Earth [online]. Available: http://www.iagram.com/ Accessed
Nov. 15, 2013.
[11] No name (no date) Cob[online]. Available: http://www.iagram.com/ Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.
[12] No name (no date) Wattle and Doub [online]. Available: http://www.iagram.com/ Accessed
Nov. 15, 2013.
[13] No name (no date) Earthbag Construction [online]. Available: http://www.iagram.com/
Accessed Nov. 15, 2013.