VII Congresso Internacional de Arquitectura en Tierra_Cuenca de Campos

VII CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE ARQUITECTURA EN TIERRA TRADICIÓN E INNOVACIÓN

25 y 26 de septiembre de 2010. Cuenca de Campos, Valladolid, ESPAÑA

PRIMERA CIRCULAR. Información y presentación de resúmenes de comunicaciones

Organiza:

GRUPO TIERRA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID

Comité Organizador:

Director: Félix Jové, Dr. Arquitecto, Profesor de la Universidad de Valladolid

Miembros:

José Luis Sainz Guerra, Dr. Arquitecto, Profesor de la Universidad de Valladolid

Mª Soledad Camino, Dra. Arquitecto, Profesora de la Universidad de Valladolid

Juana Font, Historiadora, Miembro Proterra

José Mª Sastre, Arqtº Técnico, Coordinador Lista Arqui-Terra

1. Presentación. Con este congreso se pretende establecer un foro de debate sobre la arquitectura tradicional, principalmente de tierra, ya que ésta es la materia más frecuente, pero no se cierra el campo a otros materiales de similar importancia, como la madera, la piedra, o a técnicas mixtas.

El objetivo es el estudio de la arquitectura tradicional y la aplicación de sus técnicas en la actualidad, a través de su mejora.

2. Temas. Las comunicaciones y carteles se deben encuadrar en alguno de los siguientes temas relacionados con la arquitectura tradicional: - Patrimonio edificado - Protección y legislación, planeamiento urbanístico y gestión del patrimonio - Patrimonio y nuevos usos de los edificios, técnicas y métodos de conservación - El nuevo proyecto de arquitectura en tierra, ecología y hogares sostenibles - La vivienda social y la arquitectura en tierra

3. Idioma oficial.

El idioma oficial será el español. Los resúmenes de las comunicaciones y los carteles se

pueden presentar en: español, portugués, inglés, italiano y francés.

4. Características del resumen.

Las comunicaciones deberán encuadrarse en alguno de los temas señalados en un punto

anterior. Los interesados en la presentación de comunicaciones o carteles deberán enviar

el resumen de comunicación y la propuesta de cartel hasta el 30 de julio de 2010, a la

dirección de e-mail indicada al final de este documento.

El resumen deberá contener:

• título del trabajo,

• nombre del o de los autor(es),

• institución a la que pertenece(n),

• dirección, teléfono, e-mail,

• tema en que se encuadra la comunicación y

• 3 palabras clave.

El resumen deberá escribirse en Arial 11 y tener una extensión de 500 palabras como

máximo. Al pie del resumen se incluirá un breve curriculum del o de los autores de un

máximo de 5 renglones.

Para la aceptación de carteles se enviará un borrador en tamaño UNE A4 en formato “pdf”,

“word” o”power point” junto con una memoria con las mismas características y datos que el

resumen de comunicaciones.

• Los autores serán informados de la aceptación de sus trabajos antes del día 13 de

agosto de 2010, fecha en que se enviarán las instrucciones para la redacción final y la

impresión de los carteles.

• El texto final de las comunicaciones y los carteles podrá ser enviado hasta el 5 de

septiembre de 2009.

• El programa provisional se enviará hacia el 10 de septiembre de 200.

5. Inscripción y cuota de inscripción.

Abonadas antes del 10 de septiembre de 2010:

• Para participantes 100 euros (si presentan comunicación 60 euros)

• Para estudiantes universitarios (50%) 50 euros (si presentan comunicación 30 euros)

Abonadas a partir del 10 de septiembre de 2010:

• Para participantes 150 euros (si presentan comunicación 90 euros)

• Para estudiantes universitarios (50%) 50 euros (si presentan comunicación 30 euros)

Para estudiantes se establecerán tres becas, las solicitudes de las becas se enviarán

antes del 15 de julio, con un currículum vitae, fotocopia de la matrícula en estudios

universitarios y solicitud con sus datos.

Se comunicará en los próximos días en la página web www.uva.es/grupotierra la cuenta

bancaria donde hacer el ingreso.

La inscripción dará derecho a la asistencia al mismo, al material del Congreso, (CD con

publicación digital completa de las ponencias, la publicación “La arquitectura construida en

tierra. Tradición e innovación. Congresos de Tierra en cuenca de Campos 200472009”),

los almuerzos de los dos días y certificado de asistencia y/o participación.

Información, consultas e inscripciones: E mail: tierra@arq.uva.es

PATROCINAN:

Caja de Arquitectos ARQUIA

Excma. Diputación Provincial de Valladolid

Caja Rural del Duero

COLABORAN:

Cátedra Juan de Villanueva. Escuela T.S. de Arquitectura de Valladolid

Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Cuenca de Campos

Catedra Unesco “Patrimonio, Restauración y Habitat” de la Universidad de Valladolid

Vicerrectorado de Relaciones Institucionales. Universidad de Valladolid.

Curso ArquitecturasdeTerra_Julho 2010

CURSO ARQUITECTURASdeTERRA *

O ArquitecturasdeTerra vai promover em parceria com a ARQCOOP e o apoio da associação CentrodaTerra um curso teórico-prático de Construção com Terra a ter lugar em Lisboa durante o próximo mês de Julho.

Para todos os interessados aqui ficam os dados de informação relativos ao curso, aqui em formato PDF e aqui a respectiva ficha de inscrição:

DESTINATÁRIOS:

Estudantes, recém-licenciados e profissionais das áreas de Arquitectura, Engenharia Civil, Património, Arqueologia, Investigação e Tecnologias de Materiais, e todos os interessados pela temática da construção com terra crua que desejem adquirir formação específica, ampliando e aprofundando os seus conhecimentos nesta área.

OBJECTIVOS:

Domínio dos conceitos teóricos e ferramentas práticas associadas à construção com terra crua, dotando os formandos dos conhecimentos necessários à implementação em projecto e obra das diversas tecnologias tradicionais e modernas de construção com terra.

PROGRAMA:

- Introdução, especificidade, diversidade e universalidade da construção com terra.

- Sustentabilidade, práticas construtivas e gestão de recursos.

- Técnicas construtivas com terra crua.

- Recuperação do património construído em terra, conservação e manutenção.

- Identificação, análise e ensaios de solos para construção.

- Construção de modelo protótipo em Taipa.

FORMADORES:

Arq.ª Eva da Silva Quaresma

Arq.º Pedro Alves de Abreu

CARGA HORÁRIA E CALENDARIZAÇÃO:

23 horas;

12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 22 e 24 de Julho;

2.ª, 4.ª, 6.ª, 3.ª e 5.ª, das 19h00 às 22h00, e Sábados, das 10h00 às 14h00.

INSCRIÇÃO:

200 € (Isento de IVA, ao abrigo do n.º 14 do artigo 9.º do CIVA.)

Para + informações e inscrições por favor contactem:

ARQCOOP - Cooperativa para a Inserção Profissional em Arquitectura, CRL

Rua João Nascimento Costa, Lote 7

1900-269 Lisboa

Telf: 210107840

Fax: 210107841

arqcoop@gmail.com

http://www.arqcoop.com/

* Esta actividade formativa foi validada pela Ordem dos Arquitectos e permite a obtenção de créditos para efeitos da formação obrigatória em temáticas opcionais, complementar ao estágio profissional.

OBRAS na SEDE do CdT_19/20 Junho 2010

"Numa fase importante de reestruturação e organização da nova sede, a associação Centro da Terra propõe-se dar continuidade ao estudo, documentação e difusão da construção com terra em Portugal, promovendo a aproximação dos sócios à associação e a participação activa daqueles nas iniciativas promovidas pelo CdT, aproveitando as infra-estruturas de que agora dispõe.

Neste sentido, a associação Centro da Terra convida todos os sócios e amigos a participarem connosco já nos próximos dias 19/20 de Junho, no encontro

OBRAS na SEDE do CdT - 19/20 Junho 2010

Quem se quiser juntar a nós só precisa de trazer roupa e calçado confortáveis e sobretudo muita vontade de ajudar a lixar, rebocar e pintar a nossa sede!

Vamos organizar equipas de trabalho e respectivas tarefas, teremos no local da obra muito trabalho para fazer, ferramentas para todos, chouriço assado e boa disposição!

Para mais informações contactem a associação pelo mail: info(at)centrodaterra.org "

1º Ciclo de Conferências_Arquitetura em Terra_Minas Gerais

Para mais informações contactar:

Sandra Fosque telf. 313551.2014

Auditório da FAOP | Casa Bernardo Guimarães

Rua Irmãos Kennedy, 601 - Cabeças - Ouro Preto - MG

Inscrições gratuitas pelo site www.faop.mg.gov.br

8º Festival_Grains d'Isère 2010

O CRATERRE organiza, de 17 a 29 de Maio de 2010, o 8e Festival des architectures de terre, um conjunto dinâmico de eventos compostos por seminários e ateliers práticos sobre Arquitectura e construção em terra.

O programa encontra-se disponível online no site do CRATERRE.

SEMINÁRIOS TEMÁTICOS

Ciências da matéria e do material (17 e 18 Maio 2010)

Património e desenvolvimento local (19 e 20 de Maio 2010)

Culturas construtivas locais e melhoramento do habitat (21 e 22 de Maio 2010)

SEMINÁRIO DE EDUCAÇÃO

Educação para a arquitectura de terra - TERRA

Education 2010 (24 a 29 de Maio de 2010)

ATELIERS

Grãos d'Isère, uma pedagogia da experiência em acção

Para mais informações consultem o programa aqui, e se estiverem por França, aproveitem!

Seminário Cal&Pigmentos Ourique_25|26 Junho 2010

Nos dias 25 e 26 de Junho de 2010 irá decorrer em Ourique um seminário dedicado ao tema dos revestimentos tradicionais à base de cal aérea e pigmentos.

Com este seminário, pretende-se chamar a atenção para a enorme diversidade e riqueza decorativa tradicional das fachadas do nosso património edificado, com especial atenção para o do Alentejo, demonstrando, em simultâneo e de forma prática, que a sua recuperação é possível e vantajosa.

Local: Centro de Arqueologia Caetano de Mello Beirão (CACMB), em Ourique

Programa do evento:

25 de Junho

8h30 Recepção

9h15 Sessão de abertura

1º Sessão –9h30-11h00

O Património Edificado

O espaço urbano e a forma de o habitar - Pedro Prista

A cal na época romana - Rafael Alfenim

Tradições de produção e utilização de cal no Alentejo - Goreti Margalha

Café

11h30-12h30

Argamassas de terra e cal - Maria Fernandes

Argamassas antigas – conhecer para preservar - A. S. Silva / António Candeias / José Mirão

ALMOÇO

2ª sessão –

As técnicas decorativas

Cor e Conservação de Superfícies Arquitectónicas - José Aguiar

Os pigmentos e as tradições da pintura a cal - Milene Gil

Redescobrir o esgrafito no Alentejo - Sofia Salema

Cal & Pigmentos há séculos - Sandra Alves / Deolinda Tavares

Nanotecnologia aplicada aos tratamentos de restauro e conservação - Nanocal - Giovani Borsoi

Café

3ª Sessão – 17h00-18h30

Os Materiais na Recuperação do Património Edificado - Painel a cargo de empresas de comercialização de materiais para restauro de construções tradicionais.

26 de Junho

1º Sessão –9h30-11h00

Questões sobre a Recuperação do Património Edificado

Trabalhos em massa e estuque - Maria Teresa Freire

Reparação das fachadas do edifício principal do LNEC - António Santos Silva

Argamassas de cal com pozolanas e outras adições - Paulina Faria

Café

11h30-12h30

Para além do Visível – Conservação de Revestimentos - InSitu

Práticas de conservação e restauro em revestimentos decorativos em argamassa – intervenções recentes

Nova Conservação

ALMOÇO

2ª sessão – 14h00-17h00

WORKSHOPS

1. Preparação e utilização de pigmentos p/ cal - Milene Gil

2. Execução de marmoreados / escaiola - Cenfic

3. tadelakt (demonstração) - João Bernardino

Nº máximo de participantes:

Conferências – 100

Workshops – 20

Informações:

Câmara Municipal de Ourique, Gabinete de Cultura;

T. 286510039;

email: cacmb.cultura(at)cmourique.pt

9° Concorso Fotografico Internazionale_"Le case di terra paesaggio di architettura"

scarica modulo

CALENDAR:

Termine presentazione opere / Entry deadline: 30/06/2010

Riunione giuria / Judges meeting: 07/08/2010

Comunicazione risultati / Announcement of results: 31/08/2010

e su pagina Internet / on the Internet page: www.casediterra.it

Esposizione opere / Works exhibition: dal/from 18/09/2010 al/to30/09/2010 presso il / in the CED Terra Casalincontrada

Inaugurazione / Opening: 18/09/2010

Premiazione / Prize-giving: 18/09/2010

GIURIA / JURY:

Presidente di Giuria / President of jury:

Sig. / Mr Maurizio Morandi - Università di Firenze / University of Firenze

GIURATI / Jury

Sig.ra / Mrs Concetta Di Luzio - Sindaco di Casalincontrada / Mayor of Casalincontrada

Sig.ra / Mrs Stefania Giardinelli - Associazione Terrae onlus / Terrae onlus Association

Sig.ra / Mrs Gaia Bollini - Associazione Nazionale Città della terra cruda /Città della terra cruda National Association

Sig. / Mr Gianni Ortolano – Consigliere Fotoclub Chieti / Member of Fotoclub Chieti

GIURATI SUPPLENTI / TEMPORARY JUDGES:

Sig. / Mr Gabriele Esposito – Associazione Terrae onlus / Terrae onlus Association

Sig.ra / Mrs Caterina Buccione - Associazione Terrae onlus / Terrae onlus Association

PREMI / PRIZES:

TEMA OBBLIGATO “LE CASE DI TERRA” / FIXED SUBJECT: “RAW EARTH ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURES” Sezione unica B/N e Colore / One single section: B/W and Colour

1° Classificato/1st prize winner: Euro 515,00

2° Classificato/2nd prize winner: Euro 260,00

3° Classificato/3rd prize winner: Euro 130,00

Cinque segnalati/To the five outstanding photographs: libro sull’architettura di terra / a book on earthen architecture;

PREMI SPECIALI / SPECIAL PRIZES

- Alla miglior foto di nuova architettura in terra/To the best photograph on new earthen architectural structures;

- Alla miglior foto di architettura in terra in Abruzzo/To the best photograph on earthen architectural structures in the Abruzzo Region;

- Alla migliore foto di architettura in terra per ogni Regione italiana/To the best photo of earthen architecture in Italy;

- Alla miglior foto di architettura in terra nel Mondo/To the best photo of earthen architecture in the world;

- Premio speciale per la partecipazione di Scuole/Special prizes for schools.

PRESENTAZIONE / PRESENTATION

Il 9° Concorso Fotografico Internazionale sul tema “Architetture di terra: paesaggio di architetture” è un’iniziativa del Centro di Documentazione sulle Case di Terra di Casalincontrada (CH) e dell’Associazione Terrae onlus. La “riscoperta” delle conoscenze legate alle costruzioni in terra cruda, ricompongono tasselli di un mosaico fatto di uomini, cose, materie, luoghi, in immagini. Immagini che possono essere “sopravvivenze”, ma anche “nuovi paesaggi”, architetture di territorio, memorie e realtà.

The 9th International Photo Competition on “Earthen architectures: landscapes of architectures” is an initiative of the Municipality of Casalincontrada, in the Italian province of Chieti and the Documentation Centre on Earth Architectures, Terrae onlus Association The “rediscovery” of the knowledge linked to earthen architecture recomposed in images, like tiles of a mosaic made of people, things, material and places. Images that could be interpreted as “surviving structures” or “new scenarios”, as well as architectures of the territory, memories and situations.

Mesquita de Komio_Mali

Perspectiva exterior da Mesquita de Komio, no Mali
© Sebastian Schutyser



Interior da Mesquita de Komio, construída em adobe e inteiramente revestida com rebocos de terra.
© James Morris

Terres, d'Afrique et d'Ailleurs_Argélia

O 2º Festival Cultural Pan-Africano de Argel, na Argélia inclui uma exposição e um simpósio intitulado Terres, d’Afrique et d’Ailleurs, patrocinados pelo Ministério da Cultura Argelino. A exposição, comissariada pela Arq. Yasmine Terkhi, tem a participação de 19 artesãos de 5 países (Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Nigéria e Argélia) que preparam paineis e estruturas com terra aplicando técnicas e motivos decorativos tradicionais representativos das suas culturas.

As conferências previstas no simpósio incluem oradores como Ronald Rael, Hubert Gillaud, Hugo Houben, Salma Damluji, Marcello Cortes, Mariana Correia, Laetitia Fontaine e outros especialistas e investigadores do tema da construção com terra.

Aqui deixamos o programa das conferências:

Programme des conférences

25 a 28 abril 2010
Ecole Polytechnique d'Architecture et d'Urbanisme d'Alger
Journée du 27 avril 2010 :
8h30 Ouverture (10mn) : Mot de la Ministre, lu par son représentant; Mot du Directeur de l’EPAU; Mot de la Commissaire d’Architerre
8h40 Selma ZERHOUNI : Architecture contemporaine de terre au Maroc (20mn)
9h00 Mariana Correia : Architectures contemporaines en terre en Europe (20mn)
9h20 Ronald Rael : Earth Architecture: A Digital Future (20mn)
9h40 Débat
10h10 Pause café
10h40 Marcello Cortes, Patricia Marchante et Anne Lemarquis : Architecture Contemporaine en Terre au Chili: dans la continuité d'une culture constructive locale, la « Quincha Metalica » et les développements architectoniques actuels. (20mn)
11h00 Satprem Maïni : Architecture de terre à Auroville et études de cas de l’Institut de la Terre d’Auroville (45mn)
11h45 Débat
12h15 Pause déjeuner
14h00 Maddalena Achenza : Constructions contemporaines en terre en Italie et problématiques liées au manque de normalisation (30mn)
14h30 Mariana Correia : Architectures de terre et développement durable (30mn)
15h00 Débat
15h30 Pause café
16h00 Hamid Benouali : Constructions en terre en Algérie: Etat des lieux et perspectives de relance (20mn)
16h20 Aïcha Boussoualim et Nadia Daoudi : Architectures de terre et notions de confort et bien-être micro-climatiques (20mn)
16h40 Débat
17h00 Clôture des travaux
Journée du 28 avril 2010 :
8h30 Claire Anne de Chazelle : L’architecture de terre crue à travers le prisme de la recherche archéologique (20mn)
8h50 Hubert Gillaud : Panorama universel des architectures de terre et principales techniques de construction (60mn)
9h50 Débat
10h10 Pause café
10h40 Laetitia Fontaine et Romain Anger : GRAINS DE BÂTISSEURS Bâtir en terre, du grain de sable à l’architecture (30mn)
11h00 Hugo Houben, Laetitia Fontaine et Romain Anger: Normalisation de la construction en terre (30mn)
11h30 Débat
12h15 Pause déjeuner
14h00 Yasmine Terki : La préservation du patrimoine architectural en terre en Algérie : de la théorie à la réalité (20mn)
14h30 Salma Damluji : Cities of the future, mud brick architecture in Wadi Hadramut: Yemen (30mn)
15h00 Débat
15h30 Pause café
16h00 Hubert Guillaud : La Chaire UNESCO "Architecture de terre, cultures constructives et développement durable": agir en faveur d'un continuum culturel (20mn)
16h20 Satprem Maïni : 20 ans d’activités et de formations de l’Institut de la Terre d’Auroville (20mn)
16h40 Débat
17h00 Mot de clôture de la commissaire

A back-to-the-earth approach to housing_Jean Dethier

Unbaked earth dwellings at Shibam in the Wadi Hadramaout valley, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. Built around the 4th century AD, the town is one of the most remarkable examples of Yemeni art and architecture. Its constructions of unbaked earth date from between the 16th and the 20th century. In December 1984 the Director-General of Unesco launched two appeals for international solidarity, one for the safeguard of Shibam (which has been on Unesco's World Heritage List since 1982) and Wadi Hadramaout, and the second on behalf of Sanaa, the historic city which is capital of the Yemen Arab Republic.

A back-to-the-earth approach to housing

Jean Dethier, 1985

"A realistic picture of the new trends in architecture and housing techniques that are destined to prevail at the end of this century would be incomplete without reference to a domain in which rapid and important developments are already taking place--building which uses unbaked earth as its prime material.
Earth building as an architectural technique, which in its up-dated form has an important role to play in meeting the needs and challenges of our time, has very long history. Since towns were first created, some ten thousand years ago, men have used this material to build entire cities--places and temples, churches and mosques, warehouses and forts, defensive walls and proud monuments.
Readily available over most of the globe, this seemingly humble material has been used in every continent and climate, in all latitudes and in nearly every pre-industrial culture and civilization, in long stretches of the Great Wall of China, built over twenty centuries ago, as well as in both the simplest and the most imposing dwellings. It has proved its versatility and the extraordinary variety of forms and functions to which it can be applied. Its solidity and strength, when it is correctly used, have been abundantly demonstrated.
Over recent years Unesco has helped to promote recognition of this part of the universal heritage by proposing the classification of towns with fine examples of buildings in unbaked earth such as Ouro Preto, in Brazil, Shibam, in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and Sanaa, in the Yemen Arab Republic.

Since the beginnings of modern science attempts have been made to rationalize and improve the empirical earth-building techniques used in pre-industrial societies all over the world.
The pioneer in the use of these techniques in modern times was the French architect Francois Cointeraux (1740-1830). As early as 1797 he invented several processes for stabilizing earth to increase its mechanical and chemical resistance and its adaptability to the new creative trends in architecture which had been launched by such visionary architects as Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) and Etienne Louis Boulee (1728-1799).
Cointeraux was not only a theoretician, he was also a practitioner and an enlightened teacher and published many works which were widely read not only in Europe but also in the Americas and Australia. For the best part of a century his designs were used in the construction of factories, schools and public buildings as well as of dwellings of all kinds, ranging from stately homes and middle-class residences to housing estates for workers and five-storey city apartment blocks.
Cointeraux can thus be considered to have invented modern earth architecture two centuries ago. In the Grenoble and Lyons areas of France, where Cointeraux lived, several specimens of his creative talent survive in perfect condition, adding their contribution to the age-old traditional urran and rural architectural heritage of buildings made of earth. So this region is a kind of vast open-air museum of the oldest and the most modern earth-building techniques.

But in France, as elsewhere, the irresistible commercial progress of industrial materials such as cement, concrete, baked bricks and steel has led to a gradual decline in the use of earth during the present century. It was only when violent crises interrupted the production of these materials that architects and builders again had recourse to unbaked earth. This happened in Europe during and after both world wars. Tens of thousands of earth dwellings were built, especially in Germany, during the 1920s and again in the 1940s. Also during the 1940s some of the great stars of modern architecture--Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) in the United States and Le Corbusier (1887-1965) in France--designed a number of projects in unbaked earth.

During the same period this new architectural approach had its first repercussions outside the industrialized countries. A very rational and impressive regional hospital was erected in 1943 at Adrar, Algeria, by the Belgian architect Michel Luyckx. In Egypt, Hassan Fathy was to set out on a long cultural odyssey lasting forty years which would lead him to rediscover the ageold earth building traditions of his country and to rehabilitate and modernize them. His approach, at one and the same time theoretical and practical, philosophical and militant, was to make him the first guru of a democratic form of architecture that was specifically adapted to the cultural and economic realities of a Third World country.

However, despite the important work accomplished by these and many other architects all over the world, during the 1950s and 1960s earth building continued to be marginal and precarious as compared with the predominant modes of thought and production. The advocates of "progress at any price' were strong in numbers at that time of economic euphoria in the West and of political euphoria in a number of Third World countries then coming to independence. From the very start the mere idea of using earth as an officially approved building material was scorned and rejected.
This was the golden age of the "international style' in architecture, of unbridled industrialization and "heavy' technology which so many countries adopted as their chief or sole model for economic, technical and cultural development.

For many reasons decision-makers and planners have now become more realistic and have adopted a more diversified approach. Various development myths have given way to doubts followed by a search for less grandiose, less "universal' solutions that are better adapted to local realities. The concepts of "appropriate technology' (appropriate to a specific context) and "intermediate technology' (intermediate between the costly heavy technology of the industrialized countries and archaic, outmoded traditional techniques) have come into their own.
Since 1972 international energy and economic crises have imposed an urgent reappraisal of modes of thought and action, not only in the rich but also in the poorer countries. Substitute energy-saving solutions were suddenly needed in the building sector--a big energy consumer in all countries. It was then discovered that the customary building materials, such as cement, concrete, steel and even baked bricks, were, by their very nature, high energy consumers.
By the early 1970s a small international group of architects and engineers had already foreseen this inevitable development. They started discreetly to elaborate alternative solutions and set up a non-profit association within the Grenoble School of Architecture--the Craterre group. Its aim is threefold: first, to study the whole range of earth building techniques scientifically and without any pre-judgment, to modernize them and make them operational, reliable and economical in the light of present and future requirements; second, to participate directly in earth building schemes, both in Europe and in the Third World, so as to provide a practical demonstration of new approaches to housing and public works problems; finally, on the basis of this balance between research and its applications, to fill a serious void in the field of training by setting up specialized courses at university level.
In the early 1970s, thanks to this threefold approach, the Grenoble School of Architecture became the only one in the world to provide this type of training, which was open to architects and engineers from all countries. A setting was thus created for study and practical work on the future of economical building techniques at a time of very rapid growth in demand for ultracheap of the symposium, provisionally entitled Le World (the needs of urban Africa alone within the coming fifteen years are estimated at fifty million housing units) and of worsening economic crisis in many of these countries due to their enormous foreign debts.

Under these circumstances, recourse to earth makes it possible to avoid importing costly materials or the energy to produce them locally. The earth option enables a form of development to be envisaged that is centred on the indigenous economic, natural, cultural and human resources of the country or region concerned. Thanks to appropriate transfers of modern earth building technology it is possible to move directly from outmoded techniques to the most efficient processes, the houses being constructed, if so desired, by the future occupants themselves.
There has been a radical change in recent years in the attitude, both of the public and of decision-makers, towards the use of this material previously regarded with prejudice if not hostility. This change has been confirmed by the international success of exhibitions such as Earth Architecture: the future of an age-old tradition (organized in Paris in 1981 by the Centre de Creation Industrielle) and the construction of a unique experimental housing centre in the new town of I'Isle d'Abeau, at Villefontaine, near Lyons, France.
The interest aroused by the latter achievement has led many experts and technicians from other parts of Europe as well as from Asia, Africa and the Americas to come to I'Isle d'Abeau to study on site the possibility of adapting the techniques used there to the needs of their respective countries. In November 1984, Unesco, in collaboration with the Craterre group, organized a one-week, on-site seminar for a group of architects and decision-makers from six countries in Africa and the Middle East who are faced with the need to build a large number of schools at very low cost for which this technology could be adapted.

Encouraged by the success of this initial experiment in earth-built dwellings and the international interest it has aroused, the authors of the project are already planning a second, more ambitious and structured project in France to meet the growing demand in this field.
An International Earth Building Institute is to be established this year with Craterre as its nucleus and association with a number of scientific, technical, university and cultural partners. Its activities will be concentrated in four sectors of major importance: research, practical applications, university-level education and information. This strategy corresponds exactly to the forms of action requested as an "urgent prionity' at the First International Symposium on Earth Construction, held at Brussels in December 1984 under the auspices of the United Nations.
It is hoped that a second complex will be built in earth at I'Isle d'Abeau to house the future Institute, the complex being completed by an Earth University, an Earth Embassy, a Museum of Earth, Building Techniques, an hotel and a number of individual and collective dwellings. By its nature this complex would provide an opportunity to make use of an extensive range of architectural, urban, technical and functional variations using earth as the building material.

This project should be completed by the summer of 1987, the date set by Plan Construction--an experimental and research body attached to the French ministry for housing and town-planning-- for an important international symposium in this region to be organized in collaboration with the Institute. One of the objectives of the symposium, provisionally entitled Le Sommet de la Terre, will be to review the real political, economic, social, technical and cultural issues involved in the use of earth-building methods in different parts of the world.
Meanwhile, in 1985, China will play host in Beijing to another international seminar which will review the results of recent research in which that country, like so many others, is closely interested.
These reviews and perspectives will form a vital, realistic contribution to the International Year for Housing and the Homeless which has been proclaimed by the United Nations for 1987.
"

Jean Dethier

COPYRIGHT 1985 UNESCO

Publicação_Fibre Series_CEB

Can compressed earth blocks be a viable building material for affordable housing?

"The 2005 UN Habitat report, Global Report on Human Settlements, estimated that over the next 25 years more than 2 billion people will be added to the global demand for housing.This, the report concludes, translates into completing 96,150 housing units per day. With much of this demand coming from countries where poverty remains an acute problem, the funding of this demand for housing presents challenges, particularly in relation to the costs of building materials. This research project, by a team led by Joseph Arumala at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, USA, explored the possibility of using soils for making compressed earth blocks for constructing affordable residential buildings, using relatively cheap and locally available technology. What he found was blocks made using this approach satisfied code requirements for compressed earth block one-storey housing construction. What his work also showed was that using small amounts of additives, such as agricultural fibre – readily available in many developing countries – could also make a significant and positive impact to the performance of the blocks."
Arumala J. O., Gondal T. (2008) Can compresses earth blocks be a viable building material for affordable housing? in Fibre Series: findings in built and rural environments. RICS

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