Ugo writes – “If the production of cement is one of the highest carbon dioxide emitters in the world today, how can we reform the way we build in order to reduce these emissions? One of the answers might lie in the use of rammed earth as a material for construction of buildings.” – Link.
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Rammed earth construction – Link.
14 thoughts on “Rammed earth construction”
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Interesting concept, but none of the links seemed to point to any real useful info. Just some blurbs about how it’s eco-friendly, but nothing detailed enough to allow me to try this technique.
So.. it’s dirt. packed together. That would be a little hard to swallow as a serious construction material! I’d love to check out a building made like that, though; it sounds like it could be really nice.
dculberson,
My parents actually live in a rammed earth house, and I can tell you first hand, you will not find a stronger building material. Traditionally, a reenforcement bar (rebar) skeleton is constructed, wooden forms are built around it, and an earthy cement is poured into the forms and pneumatically compacted. The resulting structure is fire-proof, weather-proof, earthquake-proof, extremely well insulated, and very beautiful to look at. I am actually good friends with one of the world’s leading architects in rammed earth, David Easton… check out his website here:
Rammed Earth Works
Interestingly enough, I met one of the most well known rammed earth/creative brick layer about 2 months ago, he gave me his card, his name is Joseph F. Fait:
http://www.hustonrammedearth.com/
Old man, has been doing it all his life… I would become his apprentice if I wanted to learn how to do rammed earth construction :)
a good website to visit is
rammedearth.ca
dculberson,
These messages all seem to be a year old, but if you do get this – let me know whereabouts you live, so I can share examples of rammed earth construction with you to check out for yourself.
-Nanette
You can’t beat the earth, we have a lot of it for sure. My favorite rammed earth website is
http://www.rammedearth.info