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Rammed
Earth Homes
Chances are that, like many other people, you never heard of
rammed earth homes. This ancient building technique involves using
earth, lime, clay, chalk and gravel.
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Rammed Earth Home |
Over two thousand years ago people in some parts of our planet,
due to lack of technical knowledge, proper building materials,
or maybe both, used to construct their homes by compressing a
damp mixture of the materials mentioned above. It was a difficult,
laborious process and such homes were often washed away by torrential
rains or simply crumbled and fell apart.
Rammed earth homes were known in ancient China, where some of
them dated back to 5000 BC. Evidence of building such homes could
be found everywhere in Europe and Middle East. They also existed
in some parts of Africa.
The immigrants from colonial countries who traveled to the United
States brought the knowledge of rammed earth homes with them.
In the 1920s, particularly during the Great Depression, the U.
S. government issued instructions to impoverished farmers on how
to construct rammed earth homes. At the same time, such buildings
were getting more and more popular in Australia, where lack of
timber limited the potential of the traditional architecture.
Photo Courtesy of Bruce Lepper who is building
his own rammed earth home - See
More Pics Here
It's a Revival ...
These days nobody needs to build anything from earth and clay,
but the rammed earth homes have seen an unexpected revival. This
is due to people seeking alternative, eco-friendly methods of
construction and changing their surroundings and building their
homes.
Building an rammed earth home can be compared to the construction
of a sand castle. The rules are similar, with some exceptions
including often wooden structures, cinder blocks or cement are
used to support the mass of earth, clay, sand and other materials
and some heavy machinery is employed to do the ramming.
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Building rammed earth homes without
the machines, however, can prove to be very laborious.
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That is why another version of earth homes exists, sandbag homes.
Sandbags are filled with the same building material as used in
rammed earth homes and they are then stacked on top of one another.
This method, however, is limited. Sandbag homes are usually smaller
in size and do not have the same esthetic effect as rammed earth
homes.
Advantages of living in an rammed earth home:
First of all, rammed earth homes are cheap. All that is needed
for an rammed earth home is some physical space and the building
materials. Earth, rocks, gravel, sand, clay and other elements
are cheap and readily available.
Also, very little labor is needed when carrying out the construction
of such dwelling. In fact, smaller rammed earth homes can be completed
as a hobby. A few hours on several afternoons spent on gathering
the building materials and planning can produce and astonishing
result in the end.
Rammed earth homes are usually fireproof by nature (earth or
clay don't burn) except the exposed face of the home would not
be fireproof if wood is used. rammed earth homes can be biodegradable
if earth, wood and other bio building materials are used. Of course
if cement, concrete blocks, PVC pipes are used then this limits
the biodegradability.
Conclusion
Finally, why do people build rammed earth homes in the first
place? We've already talked about the low cost for building. A
secondary reason is energy savings. Earth, clay, dirt, etc. are
not only organic but prove to be wonderful insulation. For people
wanting to cut their heating and cooling bills drastically, burying
1, 2 or 3 sides of your house with Mother Earth will do just this.
Rammed earth homes may not be for everybody. But, you're not everybody
otherwise you wouldn't be reading this. So, rammed earth homes
may just be for you and a few others like us.
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