Rammed earth in the modern world

S. Dobson
Director, Ramtec Pty Ltd, Australia, VicePresident EBAA

ABSTRACT: Modern rammed earth has a long and successful history. Rammed earth is arguably the most
popular form of building that exists on the planet but in some modern countries it is presently considered
alternative or new and innovative. Modern engineering is being applied to structural design, thermal modelling,
mix design, construction methodology and other aspects of an ancient building method that is now truly revived.
Modern architecture has captured the essence of the past and the present to produce a bewildering array of
buildings spread across the globe of amazing complexity and stunning beauty. The author has since 1976 built
over 750 rammed earth structures in Australia and describes some old and some new buildings from around the
world whilst outlining the many benefits of rammed earth, some sticking points that need resolution and some
future predictions of where this expanding new industry can go.

Figure 2: Taking Berlin: the Rammed Earth Chapel of Reconcil-

iation
Figure 1: Manhatten of the Desert: the world’s first high rise
ern rammed earth building in Germany for 50 years.
1 INTRODUCTION Rammed earth contractor Martin Rauch, backed by
a group of Engineers, Architects and others built the
Leonard Cohen sang “First we take Manhattan, then curved loadbearing unstabilised rammed earth walls
we take Berlin”. and floor of the Berlin Chapel of Reconciliation. This
Taking Manhattan: was considered a major breakthrough in Germany,
The unfired earth building industry built the first a country with thousands of old successful rammed
Manhatten in the desert of Yemen at Shibam, over earth buildings including House Rath in Weilburg,
1500 years ago with local earthen materials, all un- Germany, 7 stores high, loadbearing and built in 1828,
stabilised and using the procedures of mud brick, cob which is still in use.
and rammed earth (Figure 1). Over 500 buildings to
14 stories high. Some walls 1.2m thick. All UNESCO Rammed earth taking Manhattan, then Berlin, then
World Heritage Buildings at Wadi Hadramaut, mostly the world.
still occupied, all walls fully loadbearing, held to- Rammed earth exists historically in nearly every
gether with just clay and in an earthquake area (Earth country in the world and is now actively being built
Architecture 2014). new many countries worldwide. There are 7 billion
Taking Berlin: people in the world and it is generally said that one
14 years ago unstabilised rammed earth took Berlin third to one half live in earth buildings(earth build-
with the Chapel of Reconciliation, the first mod- ings meaning : mud brick, rammed earth and cob plus
 eas (several Ramtec buildings survived undamaged in
a real Category 5 Cyclone Beaufort Scale 12 Hur-
ricane above 280km/hr in the worst cyclone areas
of Australia, fully exposed coastal), achieving very
favourable thermal ratings, delivering excellent ther-
mal comfort, totally waterproof, fireproof, very long
lasting, extremely beautiful, low carbon, built at high
speed of construction and at reasonable cost.
Modern rammed earth is becoming more globalised
as Conferences spread the word and allow the forging
of contacts and the exchange of information. The in-
ternet has played a large part in extending the reach
of modern rammed earth from the many modern cen-
tres of excellence that include Europe, North Amer-
ica, Australia and elsewhere, to every corner of the
Figure 3: Berlin Chapel: unstabilised loadbearing rammed earth globe. Historical methods of building in rammed earth
are still valid and can still sometimes give walls that
about 20 other techniques), say 3 billion. South Amer- are beautiful, durable, load bearing, and which last
ican researchers claim more rammed earth than mud for centuries. Such ancient techniques include tak-
brick worldwide which makes rammed earth the most ing suitable soil directly from the base of the build-
popular building material on the planet. Interestingly ing, dug out at the right time of year so that it is at
it is still listed as an “alternative” building material in optimum moisture content for maximum dry density
most modern countries. compaction, and without any additive or mixing, hand
Australia leads the modern world in quality and ramming it using clay as the only binder, into tradi-
volume of modern rammed earth, all cement sta- tional formwork and incorporating suitable wall pro-
bilised and almost all load bearing and often unpro- tective measures(damp proof base course and top cap-
tected from the elements and over all Australian cli- ping, controlled erosion breaks etc). Also examples
matic zones, from the deserts to the snowfields and abound of modern successful rammed earth buildings
everything in between. Europe leads the world in that are built to last, to almost every style of architec-
modern unstabilised rammed earth, most loadbearing ture.
and much of it unprotected from the elements. Sta- In the past, earth was not widely promoted as it
bilisers other than cement, such as lime, abound but was freely available to all and thus not the prove-
will be given little mention in this discussion as most nance of serious business. Previously in many coun-
rammed earth in Europe and in third world countries tries, earth was seen as a poor mans product and
uses clay as the binder (termed unstabilised) and in less desirable than the modern industrialised prod-
Australia cement is the predominant stabiliser by far. ucts that abounded after the great wars. No longer are
An old Welsh saying for earth buildings was: “Give these scenarios valid with increased enviro-awareness
’er a good hat and stout boots and she’ll last forever”. plus rammed earth is now a serious business and be-
This if course referred to unstabilised earth buildings coming more mainstream in a growing number of
needing a good roof with adequate overhangs and countries. Modern desirable rammed earth buildings
good foundations and details to keep the base of the are now making it an aspirational product. Promo-
walls dry, in order to achieve a long life which was tion of rammed earth is underway and this will grow
generally measured in centuries, for mud brick and as sustainability, healthy home, beauty, low carbon
for rammed earth. This saying is now only partially and other issues become more important in build-
true for rammed earth because with modern stabilisa- ing choices. Rammed earth is itself becoming a mod-
tion methods (especially cement) and also with unsta- ern industrialised product, as wide ranging research
bilised methods, particularly from Europe, these rules moves it ahead. Carried forward by its many advan-
can be relaxed significantly, sometimes totally. tages. Rammed earth is now often considered as the
Enormous advances have been made, in recent product of choice from which to construct appropri-
years so that now rammed earth can be built fully ate environmentally prestigious buildings.
loadbearing in very tall buildings (4 stories load-
bearing and more), in buildings of every size and 2 RAMMED EARTH IN ANTIQUITY
shape, in extreme earthquake areas( including all of
New Zealand, some middle eastern countries and The oldest buildings made of rammed earth are at
North America including San Andreas Fault loca- Catahyouk near to Konya in Turkey, around 10,000
tions, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and years old. They were lived in for about 1700 years.
elsewhere along the west coast of North America, Now it is a famous archeological site with current on-
and including stabilised insulated reinforced rammed going excavations. Here, as was often the case with
earth in most of these regions ), in cyclonic wind ar- old buildings, the constructors were not respectful
Figure 4: Catalhyouk: 10,000 year old rammed earth homes Figure 6: Rauch House: 3 storey loadbearing unstabilised RE

Figure 7: Royal Automobile Club, Victoria.

sands of centuries old rammed earth buildings includ-

ing the part rammed earth UNESCO listed Alhambra
Palace in Spain, parts of which date to Roman times
(Figure 5).
Figure 5: Rammed Earth Alhambra Palace in Spain
Compare these to the Rauch House, a very modern
Austrian 3 storey loadbearing unstabilised rammed
of the techniques used and evidence is clear of mud
earth home using 85% of building fabric construction
bricks of various sizes, with various mortar config-
materials off site (Figure 6), and the Royal Automo-
urations, cob and rammed earth. I have seen clearly
bile Club, Victoria, the biggest modern loadbearing
layered ancient ramming lines. All homes here are
RE building in Australia (Figure 7).
load bearing with earthen walls and roofs and floors.
They are considered to be unstabilised (and clay is the
binder) but Turkish rammed earth expert Prof Bilge 3 MODERN RAMMED EARTH
Isek has been engaged recently to look to see if veg-
etable, or plant matter, as a stabiliser was used in the 3.1 Thermal properties
construction of the walls. Catalhyouk (Figure 4) is
one of the first villages formed by mankind when no- Rammed earth is generally the cheapest way to de-
mads first settled and began to farm. liver high thermal mass walls. High thermal mass as-
China has a history of rammed earth including parts sists greatly in achieving comfort conditions. Both in
of the Great Wall of China (built some 2500 years winter and in summer. In winter they absorb the heat
ago) and other Chinese rammed earth buildings to of the day, from well designed passive solar sun di-
4500 years old. More modern rammed earth circular rection, and re-radiate it at night. Passive solar build-
Hakka structures and other major buildings in China ings can collect free sunshine to provide free heating
are mere centuries old. Mexico at Teotihuacan has forever so long as there is thermal mass to store it
the 1900 year old Pyramid of the Sun about 70m tall though the collecting time of the winter day prior to
made of some 2 million tons of rammed earth, faced discharging it at night when needed. Lightweight ma-
with stone. Watch towers built from rammed earth by terials cannot do this very well, regardless of R value.
Hannibal about 2000 years ago still exist. In summer thermal mass walls, floors and also
The Romans used rammed earth extensively. Cities roofs even out the day to night temperature fluctu-
of rammed earth were built and the method was ations. Particularly where there are significant vari-
widely disseminated; for example, Spain has thou- ations between daytime and nighttime temperatures,
thermal mass equalises and delays temp transfer would now be illegal to build. This is despite some of
through the walls. By opening buildings at night sum- them being certified as true net zero carbon buildings,
mer evening coolness can be pre-loaded into the mass which is as good as you can get. E-Tool of Perth have
fabric of the building and carried through the heat of done Life Cycle Analyses on some of these buildings
the following day. Lightweight highly insulative ma- to show this (eTool 2014). Many countries including
terials cannot do this well, regardless of R Value. Any the UK are planning legislation to have new build-
wall mass outside any insulation layer is effectively ings certified as net zero carbon, in the years ahead.
quarantined from this desirable summer night activity Rammed earth (and mud brick), done correctly, can
known as “night purging”, e.g. in insulated brick ve- do this now.
neer which is currently the single most common form
of building in Eastern Australia the outer brick skin is Using R values as the prime parameter leading to
substantially thermally lost, and with it the ability to measures for thermal comfort is inaccurate, accord-
certainly delay and also reduce or even eliminate the ing to the research from The University of Newcastle
costly daytime cooling loads, as rammed earth can. (NSW) carried out for Think Brick (Page et al. 2011).
Cooling loads in the heat of the day can be reduced The Earth Building Association of Australia agree,
or eliminated in many climates (most climates within with significant such comment on their website. Re-
Australia) and delayed in all climates with common cent Slovakian climate chamber tests of Australian
300mm monolithic rammed earth walls. With the style cement stabilised rammed earth walls with mod-
hottest summer day airconditioning cooling caused elled daily outdoor temp fluctuations on the outside
electrical loads now established as the key determi- (of the test chamber) showed little temp change on
nant of all modern first world electrical infrastructure the inside of the sample within the 24 hour period i.e.
(both electrical generation and distribution), rammed little temp change inside before reversals of temps be-
earth has a major part to play. Global warming will ex- gan again on the outside (Stone and Bagoňa 2013).
acerbate this problem worldwide, and rammed earth With insulation in the middle of the wall there was
is a key part of the solution. In the USA this was re- no internal temp change before reversals of temps
alised and David Easton with a Californian electri- began outside (Stone, C. pers comms). This backed
cal supply company built a thick walled monolithic up the advice of Rob Freeland of AMCER in Mel-
rammed earth home to showcase the advantages. bourne who often stated that the energy rating sys-
Successful rammed earth homes have been built in tems for approvals in Australia were a farce because
every climate zone in Australia (yes, every: desert there was little temp variation further into the earth
to snow) from Zones 1 to 7 of the Buiding Code wall past the half way mark before the outside driving
of Australia (now called the National Construction temp reversed as night followed day. The current re-
Code or NCC) which correspond to northern tropic search by the University of Western Australia, and the
monsoon, high humidity, various desert categories, Western Australian Department of Housing, into the
Mediterranean Climates and temperate warm to mild 2 homes build alongside one another in Kalgoorlie in
to cool moving south to alpine. Western Australia may soon verify this again (Ciancio
Unfortunately most computer thermal simulation and Beckett 2013, Beckett et al. 2014). The 2 homes
programs used to approve buildings from a thermal are identical and only differ in one having insulation
perspective in Australia do not give adequate recogni- in the centre of the 300mm thick cement stabilised
tion to high thermal mass and therefore insulation is rammed earth walls and the other being monolithic
often required to be installed within the rammed earth (no insulation). Both houses are currently being mon-
walls particularly in the colder Zone 6 of the NCC. itored. Also a similar conventional lightweight house
This Zone covers the coast of Victoria, plus almost nearby in Kalgoorlie is also being monitored. Some
from Sydney to Adelaide, and the S coast of WA. For- day in the future the humidity/wet bulb side of further
tunately insulated rammed earth is quite buildable and monitoring of these homes may take place. Humidity
is now in widespread use across Australia. Unfortu- levels are so important for human comfort, that this
nately mud brick cannot have insulation inserted into is an important area of research. Rammed earth walls
the single skin construction without building 2 skins work so well in this area of balancing humidity (ab-
which doubles the cost and makes it uncompetitive. sorbing and releasing it) and most conventional build-
As a result, the USA (with similar min R value leg- ing materials are very bad at this. Within all rammed
islation), which led the world in modern adobe (mud earth there is a humidity flywheel and a separate ther-
brick) construction, has seen it’s output plummet. The mal flywheel concept. Doing full computer thermal
world’s biggest adobe manufacturer, the Hans Sumpf simulations of homes and taking in to account the full
Company of Fresno, California, has ceased produc- hygroscopic properties of all materials is currently
tion. In Australia the mud brick industry centred in near to impossible in Australia. Matthew Hall in UK
Eltham, near Melbourne, in Climate Zone 6 of the is researching this (e.g. Hall and Allinson (2009)).
NCC has been decimated by modern thermal laws. Once this technique is mastered then further benefits
Most of the few thousand successful mud brick build- of building in rammed earth may be able to be better
ings built prior to thermal regulations in Australia quantified.
3.2 Costs the humidity of rooms. But unfired earth is highly ap-
propriate for this. Furthermore phase change materi-
Perth prices today for one square meter of eleva- als are coming in as high tech wonders to the build-
tion wall area of a 300mm thick finished monolithic ing industry and yet rammed earth can outperform
rammed earth wall, of ideal constructability begin many of these products, and often more cheaply as
at A$275 (including 10% Goods and Services Tax well. Suppliers of phase change products can easily
which is $250 excluding tax). In Australia the density calculate the quantity needed of their chemically ad-
is typically around 2 tonnes per sq m with 1.8t/m3 vanced systems yet such determinations for the in-
being a low figure for a lighter cream coloured lime- finitely more sustainable earth wall products have no
stone mix and 2.3t/m3 being a high figure for a mix central promoter/calculator and are thus a more diffi-
using a heavy base aggregate. Cement contents are cult task, in quantifying how much earth will do.
typically 5 to 10% of the dry mix and strengths are
generally contracted to exceed 2.5MPa and usually
exceed 5MPa. The required strength for a single story 3.4 Other properties
heavy tile roofed building with 300mm thick rammed The many desirable properties of well constructed
earth walls without earthquakes or cyclonic winds is rammed earth include:
less than 1MPa. Sirewall in Canada lead the world in
exotic rammed earth of very high strength and colours • Long life;
and have achieved mixes up to 47MPa and typically
achieve above 20MPa with below 10% cement. In • Adequate strength;
the highly seismic areas where they operate they are
• Ability to build very high walls and buildings;
making rammed earth a direct structural substitute for
concrete (generic 20MPa), but with many advantages. • Robustness/durability/abrasion and wear resis-
They do this, by very careful aggregate type and grain tance;
size selection, to facilitate approvals, to meet stringent
earthquake codes whilst having insulation within the • Acoustic: good acoustic properties both in terms
walls which is needed in their very cold climates, and of reverberated sound and also as a barrier to stop
to allow Engineers to use conventional concrete cal- the through transfer of sound;
culations. Far south in California, David Easton faces
less demands for both insulation and strength. In Eu- • Thermal: high thermal mass, and also the ability
rope where cement is frowned upon, due to cement to introduce insulation within the wall (thereby
manufacture releasing about 1t of CO2 per ton of ce- achieving the attractive natural rammed earth
ment and around 7 billion tons of cement being pro- face each side whilst allowing a wide range of
duced worldwide annually, they favour unstabilised R values to be selected) and yet still meet struc-
rammed earth where all the binding is done with local tural and earthquake requirements of the world’s
clay and no additives. Strengths there are generally highest levels;
contracted to exceed 2.4MPa, they generally achieve
2.7MPa, and 3 MPa is considered not consistently • The ability to adjust the density by using dif-
achievable and not needed anyhow. ferent aggregates and thereby produce different
structural and thermal properties;
• Desirable hygroscopic properties unmatched by
3.3 Health and hygroscopic properties
most “modern” building products;
Rammed earth is made as a “humid”mix, it is not
• The ability to breathe, meaning to absorb and re-
liquid, it is not mud. It is a zero slump mix. It is
lease air thereby removing particulate matter and
placed and rammed, using kneading compaction. It
often producing a healthier air environment;
is not poured and vibrated like concrete. The mois-
ture content at ramming must be the optimum to • Nil toxicity;
achieve maximum dry density compaction for that
rammer/ ramming method. A common moisture con- • The ability to produce a desirable humidity
tent at placement is around 10%. Once “dry”, un- within a space that is optimal for human habita-
stabilised rammed earth has an equilibrium moisture tion ie rammed earth, by absorbing and releasing
content of around 6–7% which preserves embedded humidity as it does so well, balances the humid-
wood as that moisture level is too low to permit de- ity and it is balanced to a level that is comfort-
cay/rot (Boltshauser and Rauch 2011). Quite sepa- able being not so low as to be dry and unpleasant
rately rammed earth has a powerful ability to absorb (40%) and not so high as to also feel overly hu-
and release moisture and to balance humidity. (Minke mid and unpleasant (70% ) (Minke 2006). Addi-
2006) states that solid fired clay bricks absorb and tionally higher humidity levels in a building like
release so little water by comparison to unstabilised 70 to 80% foster the growth of fungus spores and
earth walls that they are inappropriate for balancing mould some of which are very unhealthy and
 some even deadly. With the powerful humidity came and with cement stabilised being crushable
equalisation benefits of rammed earth quantified, and re-useable. There is nil toxic residue;
Minke (2006) reports desirable humidity levels
of 45% to 60% in a 5 year test on an unstabilised • Fire: very high fire resistance and recognised as
all rammed earth wall home in 1985 in Germany such since 1786 when the famous French ar-
and further reports that when the owner desired chitect Francois Cointeraux built a gold medal
a 5% increase in humidity in his bedroom he award winning house “an incombustible house
achieved it by leaving the bathroom door open. that used unstabilised rammed earth as an inex-
In Canada a study by the British Columbia Insti- pensive fireproof construction method that was
tute of Technology showed interior relative hu- advantageous against the highly flammable tim-
midity in a rammed earth walled home (with ber homes” (Rael 2009) of the time and he went
insulation in the centre of the wall) just above on to publish extensively and to widely promote
50%, confirming Minkes work in Germany and rammed earth. Modern rammed earth achieving
demonstrating ideal comfort conditions for habi- 4 hour fire test ratings has been used in apart-
tation and furthermore a humidity so low that ment separation as rated fire walls and in bush-
mould growth was impossible. All in a Canadian fire resistant housing which is of increasing im-
area where mould in conventional timber homes portance in a warming global climate;
was and is, a significant ongoing problem, with
serious health issues; • Reinforcement: an easily reinforced material
with conventional deformed bars as used in con-
• Electromagnetic: desirable attenuation of vari- crete but producing a very low propensity to rust
ous electromagnetic influences that can harm of embedded steel, an ability to “protect” wood
some humans (Minke 2006) by maintaining an equilibrium moisture content
so low that timber decay (certain to occur above
• Health: lessening of circadian rhythms being 20% moisture content) is generally eliminated;
upset by electronic interference and increasing
the desirable “earth grounded” human condition • Versatile: able to be used to build walls footings
by sleeping within massive earth walled spaces floors and roofs and lending itself to industriali-
(Nicole Bijlsma, speaking at EBAA 2014); sation as shown by recent developments around
the world and which now are increasing;
• Cavity Problems Avoided: no cavity is required
with monolithic rammed earth and so there is • Speed: able to be built quickly, using materi-
no hidden place for hidden vermin, insects or als often from nearby and sometimes with very
mould; little processing of the raw earth and some-
times with local labour using easily learned tech-
• Air Changes and Health: using rammed earth niques, with very little water needed and poten-
homes in free running mode with often open ven- tially nil wastage of water or other ingredients;
tilation, which is possible in all climate zones
of Australia except perhaps Alpine, gives ma- • Beauty: a very beautiful product reaching deep
jor health benefits and potentially major energy into human consciousness as a visceral/ intuitive
bill reduction. The thermal mass of rammed beauty;
earth allows thermal comfort with reasonable air
changes in Australia, produces a healthy home • and all at reasonable cost.
and avoids the unhealthy “sealed box” approach,
so favoured by the NCC thermal rating pro-
4 CODES, COMPLIANCE AND STANDARDS
grams;
• Environment: Most people respond favourably On the question of standards there is a gap in Aus-
to a natural environment and rammed earth can tralian regulations. The NCC has a heading of Earth
provide this. Rammed earth mimics nature in ap- Building and the words “This page has been inten-
pearance and in other ways. Biomimicry is alive tionally left blank”. Previously this space had been
and well with rammed earth and has been for occupied by CSIRO “Earth Wall Construction” Bul-
thousands of years (BG 2014). Rammed earth letin 5 Edition 4 however after nil complaints and nil
has been acknowledged as providing a relaxing problems with it from either providers or consumers,
and calming effect on the occupants and thus has CSIRO requested that it be withdrawn from the NCC
been widely used in churches, schools, hospi- and it was. Without any consultation with the earth
tals, shops, jails and detention facilities (where building industry, and to the direct and significant
inmates stay calmer) and the like; detriment of that industry.
Bulletin 5 now rates, with other publications as be-
• End of Building Life: totally recyclable with un- ing a good book but having no legal standing, along-
stabilised returning to the earth from whence it side EBAA “Building with earth bricks and rammed
earth in Australia” (EBAA 2008) and SAI Global requires more construction of modern RE buildings.
publication HBD195 “The Earth building Handbook” There is no such problem in Australia. Rauch, a regu-
(Walker and Standards Australia 2002). lar visitor to Africa feels that the solution to the prob-
In New Zealand there is a suite of 3 Earth Build- lem there is to teach the advanced newer techniques
ing Standards operating (e.g. NZS (1998)). They are and to show successful high end modern RE buildings
issued by BRANZ of Wellington New Zealand and so that it moves from a poor choice to an aspirational
covering rammed earth (stabilised and unstabilised) in choice.
a very prescriptive engineering way due to the unique The biggest obstacle to wider use of RE in North
problems in NZ of severe earthquakes, high rates of America seems to be reluctance or the apprehension
and levels of rainfall, high winds accompanying the of some clients, engineers, architects and builders. To
rain and a liking for unstabilised earth buildings from see more successful RE projects would increase their
many “deep green” consumers. confidence. The mass proliferation of domestic RE
In USA there is “Standard Guide for Design of homes in Australia, that aids RE awareness greatly,
Earth Wall Building Systems” (ASTM 2010) which is unlikely there due to the base low cost and quality
covers rammed earth. New Mexico, a southern USA of the common conventional lightweight homes often
state famous for adobe buildings, has an earth build- seen there in “tract” housing. Even the pneumatically
ing standard. impacted stabilised earth (PISE) that David Easton
In Germany there are new DIN Standards only in developed in USA could not compete on pure price
the German language, that relate to mud bricks and with the cheap “tract” housing of USA. In Australia
earth plaster but which do not cover rammed earth. A the ACCC advises that some 80% plus of external
rammed earth standard is being worked on and Prof home cladding is fired clay brick. In WA some 95%
Horst Schroeder , who was very involved, told the plus of homes are made of very high quality cavity
writer not to expect a standard to cover rammed earth fired clay brick, with which RE has been able to com-
inside 3 years. pete on price, quality, speed of construction and to
In France there is no rammed earth building stan- sometimes exceed on thermal, sustainability, beauty
dard. However Craterre-Ensag at their International and general “green” credentials. Particularly in Aus-
Centre for Earth Construction at Grenoble are re- tralian areas that are remote, or subject to cyclonic
searching, teaching, promoting and training in gen- wind or are earthquake areas, the costs can favour
eral earth building at an extensive level. The PIRATE rammed earth even more. Similarly on problem clay
Project (an acronym for “Provide Instructions and Re- sites where brickwork must use the more costly artic-
sources for Assessment and Training in Earthbuild- ulated masonary construction, yet this comes standard
ing”) is moving ahead on a large scale. The ongoing with rammed earth, as no extra cost.
work of Craterre, together with other French teach- In the writer’s view more RE would be built in Aus-
ing institutions has significant positive benefits for tralia if more Architects, designers, builders etc were
the field of earth building worldwide. On the French totally familiar with it, more Engineers had the con-
Island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean due west of fidence to readily certify it, more of the unknowns
Perth, there is an earth building standard. were researched away, thermal approvals were eas-
In Morocco there is an earth building standard, ier, the NCC was improved and big building inter-
written only in French: “Reglement Parasismique ests took part in building RE walls so that larger
Pour Les Constructions en Terre”. projects could be undertaken with contractual confi-
The Standards Association of Zimbabwe have a dence, rather than the small RE contractor (often con-
standard SAZ 724:Code of practice for rammed earth tractually disadvantaged) being screwed by the big
structures (SAZS 2001). builder (with contractual prowess and a killer instinct,
It is the writers opinion that the best and easiest and only one job to get through in RE) as has so of-
way to get a standard into play for earth building in ten occurred. If a major outcome of this conference is
Australia is to take EBAA (2008) to the NCC and to that more Australian Engineers gained the confidence
update it from an engineering viewpoint to NCC re- to use (and certify) RE widely then that is a good out-
quirements so that it can be direct referenced into the come since the NCC relies on Engineers to a signifi-
NCC. This is an overdue issue for the earth building cant extent and their confidence in RE will move the
industry in Australia. RE industry forward a lot.

5 THE FUTURE: BARRIERS TO THE MORE 5.1 Codes

WIDESPREAD USE OF RAMMED EARTH
WORLDWIDE Standards for RE are at best patchy throughout the
world. Modern Engineering practice should be able
The biggest obstacle to rammed earth in Europe, ac- to codify RE on a broad scale. RE is used widely but
cording to Boltshauser and Rauch (2011) is trust, the not to any real code. Of course care must be taken
trust that is generated not by reading but by seeing to not prevent ongoing use of that which works well,
touching, feeling and doing (building oneself). This and this is a very big challenge. Desirably the vernac-
ular needs to be studied and understood first, and that The future of RE will significantly be determined
made the basis of the code. by people at this conference who hopefully at confer-
ence conclusion will have greater confidence to use
more RE. For more than 30 years, many individuals
5.2 Rating have rammed away often alone, but now we have an
Thermal advances need to be sped up to provide better emerging synergy. We are all moving onward and up-
modelling, better laws, movement away from the out- ward.
dated and inappropriate static R value test (a test car-
ried out at fixed temperature) to more dynamic tests REFERENCES
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Beckett, C., D. Ciancio, C. Huebner, & R. Cardell-Oliver (2014,
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life cycle analysis should be implemented as it too in kalgoorlie, western australia: Development of thermal
should better showcase the benefits of rammed earth monitoring techniques. In Proceedings of the Australasian
and also disadvantage many popular “normal” build- Structural Engineering Conference, Auckland, NZ.
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CO2 emissions. 30/10/2014].
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for buildings, such as remote communities, homeless Earth Architecture (2014). Earth architecture. http://www. earth-
areas, disadvantaged and poor people, refugee camps, architecture.org/. [accessed: 18/11/2014].
EBAA (2008). Building with earth bricks and rammed earth in
within volunteer groups, indigenous groups etc, there Australia (Second Edition ed.). EBAA (Aus).
is the opportunity to use rammed earth on a large eTool (2014). eTool. http://etoolglobal.com/. [accessed:
scale over wide areas. We, the developed world, can 18/11/2014].
provide the knowhow, equipment and training with Hall, M. & D. Allinson (2009). Analysis of the hygrothermal
functional properties of stabilised rammed earth materials.
labour and materials provided locally. This is a chal- Building and Environment 44(9), 1935–1942.
lenge to everyone present. Minke, G. (2006). Building with earth — Design and technology
With cement stabilised rammed earth having been of a sustainable architecture. Birkh auser, Basel.
used in many huge and successful dams, labelled NZS (1998). NZS 4297:1998. Materials and workmanship for
Rollcrete in USA and elsewhere, there is a great op- earth buildings incorporating amendment no. 1.
Page, A., B. Moghtaderi, D. Alterman, & S. Hands (2011). A
portunity to use the material in more civil works. study of the thermal performance of Australian housing. Pri-
With stabilised rammed earth having been used in ority Research Centre for Energy, The University of Newcas-
many successful building footing, floor, wall and roof tle.
situations and unstabilised rammed earth having been Rael, R. (2009). Earth Architecture. Princeton Architectural
Press, New York (USA).
used in many successful building floors, walls and SAZS (2001). Sazs 724:2001 standard code of practice for
roofs, now is the time to use these techniques more rammed earth structures.
widely. Stone, C. & M. Bagoňa (2013). Thermal responses of stabilized
rammed earth for colder climatic regions. In M. Kalousek,
M. Němeček, and L. Chuchma (Eds.), Advanced Materials
5.4 Design Research, Volume 649, pp. 171–174.
Walker, P. & Standards Australia (2002). HB 195: The Aus-
Developments in computer cut laminated veneer lum- tralian Earth Building Handbook. SAI Global Ltd., Sydney,
ber and plywood and steel and separately in fabric Australia.
forms will open the door to highly unusual architec-
ture. Rammed earth can peak the “unusualness” since
not only is the form/shape totally flexible but also the
colours and textures, and over a very wide range.
Detailed developments are likely in the field of 3D
printing of houses. Mud (liquid earth) homes have al-
ready been printed and rammed earth will follow, in
time. Using continuous mixing and delivery systems
as developed by David Easton, Meror Krayenhoff
and the author and continuous forming systems (to
Ramtec hunches) and continuous ramming systems
currently in use by Martin Rauch there is currently
a big opportunity out there for a bold entrepreneur.