As we get a lot of visitors from around the world, we should list some of the earth building Associations around the world. If you wish to add to this list, please contact us through our contact page.
Africa
Egypt – Egyptian Earth Construction Association (EECA),
Asia
Nepal – Abari Adobe and Bamboo Research Institute
India – Auroville Building Centre
Europe
Italy – Associazione Nazionale Città della Terra Cruda,
CEDTERRA
Germany – BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Dachverband Lehm e.V.
Portugal – Centro da Terra,
France – CRATerre,
UK – Earth Building UK
Bulgaria – Gaiapolis
Romania –Grup Arhiterra,
Czech Republic – Hlína
Switzerland – IG Lehm
Spain – Interaccion, contrucTIERRA
Ireland –The Centre for Irish Earthen Architecture
Netherlands – Leembouwacademie Nederland,
Sweden- Lerbyggeföreningen i Sverige,
Norway – NJH Earth and Strawbuilder Organisation
North America
USA – Adobe Alliance, Adobe in Action
Oceania
Australia – EBAA Earth Building
New Zealand – Earth Building Association of New Zealand
South America
Brazil – ABCTerra,
Latin America – Ecosur, PROTERRA
Columbia – fundacion Tierra Viva
Sara and gregican
This week we were visited by Sara and Greg who are traveling OVERLAND from New Zealand to Spain. Sarah is an Architect who is researching earth building throughout the world. Greg is a specialist in water management. It was great hearing their stories of earth building throughout the world. We were able to show them only some of the many local earthern houses of pacific palms.
Their visit made me realise how important it was for me in visiting other people’s earth homes. A good place to start would be to contact your local earth building association. In Australia it is the earth builders association of australia. In the next post I will list the different earth building associations around the world.
I like the simplicity of this Polish home. Small in scale and great solar passive design and thrmal mass. I cannot work out whether they have insulated the southern (actually north in the northern hemisphere) wall but with the snow on the ground you would surely hope they have. It proves that energy efficient dwellings don’t need to be expensive. Food for thought! Re-post from rammed earth is for everyone. Funnily, google translated rammed earth in polish to “beaten earth”.
The Earth Builders Association of Australia are a great organisation promoting natural building solutions. Their annual conference will show case the different techniques through presentations, workshops and homes tours on the South Coast of NSW on the 4th to 6th of October. For more information click on this link. Whilst there why not sign up to their newsletter.
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Thermal mass and fire places are good friends. This fire place is designed to take a combustion fireplace. We will upload some more photos when it is fired up.
Here are some photos of window heads and door heads.
This job is in the Hunter Valley, near Newcastle, a couple of hours north of Sydney.I love the hardwood earth combo!
We recently built a wall 7.5 meters high at beautiful Hyams Beach. They say it has the whitest sand in Australia, so fittingly we used the white sandstone material. These photos are just after the walls were stripped so they will lighten up.
We built the walls in a T-shape to make them strong. Lucky, because a mini cyclone came through a couple of days after we finished.
We paid a visit to Craig Scott’s house on the central coast. His place looks great with combination of the rammed earth, sandstone, rusted steel sheet cladding and thick hardwood beams. Even though his family is very artistic, he hasn’t needed to endure the dramas of colour charts.
And If you are after some beautiful flowers contact Craig at East Coast wildflowers (no relation).
High Performing Thermal Mass ©Larry Speck
“Increasingly, I’m more interested in what architecture does than just what it is.” This is how American Architect Larry Speck describes the newly built house in Santa Fe, USA (not built by us). ” In short, we’ve built a beautiful, self-regulating performance envelope with essentially just dirt.” See more pictures and information at his web site by following this link.
Our most recent job was in the Hunter Valley near Newcastle. This photo are are a good example of heads constructed about windows and doorways.
Here is an example of windows cast in using formwork to make a void.
We recently attended the annual ebaa conference at bamarang retreat on the south coast of NSW. Here are some pics of a demonstration rammed earth wall we constructed which included a stratification layer using some local material.
Earth Dwellings 