"Earthen constructions" - towards creating asustainable habitat

by minimising the ecological footprintApa rna Das

School of ArchitectureM.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology

India-560012

Abstract

Sustenance of the hu man race has put an immense pressu re on our planet Earth in terms ofsustainability of natural resources . The gree nhouse effect and the ozone hole are the two mostthreaten ing effects of pollution. Constructions of buildings as well as materials contribute toa large percentage to this pollution . Again every materi al used in the bu ildi ng ind ustry has itssou rce in the Earth . In general the low energy materi als w ill be least polluting . The conventionallyused building materials like bricks, cement, steel, timber, plas tics, glass etc. usually involve hugetransp ortation costs and also manufactu ring processes which are detriment al to the environmen t.On the other hand the demand for new buildings as well as the cost of building construction isgrowing a tremendou s pace. We have to search for alterna tive materi als which are energy efficient,environment friendl y and economical like our traditional build ing materials - mud walls and thatchroofs . Of (Illthe alterna tives available to us which lead the way to sus tainability, buildin g with ear thhas been an ancient and accepted practice am ong comrn uni ties all over the worl d . It is estim atedthat the cons truc tion and the operation of buildi ngs is res po nsible for aro und half of all glob al C02emissions, thereby contribu ting the largest single sou rce att ributable to climate change. Ear thenconstruction has been, is and will con tinue to be a reality. Stabilised rammed earth walls can beused as a buil din g integra ted sou rce of passive cooling techniqu e. A hu ge population in Indi a livesin the rur al areas whe re there has been a growing trend in shifting towards brick and concre teconstruc tions in sea rch for socia l status . Even a small percent age can lead to massive increase ingloba l C02 emissio ns if the trend is not checked at this point. This pa pers looks into the currentscenario and hence the corresponding responsibility on architects, planners and policy makers tobring in technology reforms; thegreen wayof thinking' which will see a better and safer tomorrow.

Key words: sustainability, ear th const ruction, ecological footprint

Int roductionUnited NationsWorIdCommissionon

Environment Conference in 1986, chai redby the the n Prime Minis ter of NorwayGroHar lem, Bruudtland, established theconcept of sustainability, which it defi nesas, ' those pa ths of social, economic an dpolitical progress that meet the needs of thepresent withou t compromising the abilityof future gene ra tions to meet their ownneeds' [Steele 19971J. Sus tainability is the Figure 1 : Ram esseum vaults

13

JOllmal ofDesign and 'lie BuillEnvironment

moral impera tive of the age of architectsas said by the President of the Royalinstitute of British Architects (RIBA). Atthe beginning of the 21st century arch itectsare expected to be ever more creative,while being mindful of the impact of theirbuilding designs on the ecological systemsof the planet.

Earthen ConstructionNext to food, water and air, shelter

is man's most basic need . Earth has beenthe most basic building material sincethe dawn of man . To be sure, the earliestknown kinds of earth construc tion werevery crude by our standards tod ay.Gradually man learne d that some kindsof earth made better houses than others.Some of the best would last his entirelifetime. Rammed ear th construc tion wasfirst recorded by the Babylonians in 5000B.C. The 1500 mile long Great Wall ofChina is the only man-made structure thatcan be seen from the moon with the nakedeye. The wall was built around 300 B.C.

and part s of the western portion are buil tof rammed earth . From there rammedearth migra ted to India, over the IndianOcean to Madagascar, across the continentof Africa, to Morocco, and then withHannibal to Spain, the Pyren ees Mountains(where he built a string of watch towers,made from rammed earth, within eyesight of each other, many still stand ing),through the Alps, down into Italy (218-201B.C., Hannibal introduced rammed ear thto the Romans during the Second PunicWar), then the Romans transported theidea to France and the lowland countriesof Europe (http:/ / webs.ashlandctc.org /jnapora / hum-faculty / syllabi / trad .htmI.] .The Kanu zi Nubians, faced with thechallenge of a harsh, treeless environmentand the problem of roofing over spaceswithout wood for beams or supportingmembers for centering, have perpetu ateda building technique that has been used inEgypt since at least the 13th century BC, asin the Ramcsseum, the mortuary complexof Ramses II. This method of construction

Figure 2: Vikas Com munity: Houses designed by the people of Auroville itself as wellas architects. Photo Acknowledgements: 'Earthen Architectu re and Stabilisedearth techniques in Auroville', Satprern maini, 2007.

14

(Figure 1) shows a great understanding ofthe laws of statics. The vaults that formthe basis of the system are made in aparabolic shape that will keep the materialin compression only.

Earth construction exists in twoformats today: the traditional mode whichrelies essentially on the use of unstabilisedearth and the modern format oftenusing stabilised earth. A majority of themodernizing societies tend to reject thetraditional approach, with the possibleexception of the use of adobe in certainparts of the world. With the addition ofcement or cement and lime, earth acquiresthe strength and durability comparable tobrick and is often accepted on that account.However, there are many societies whichconsider stabilised earth to be closelyrelated to traditional unstabilised earthand prefer to use brick and concrete whoseperformance is never in question [Jagadish20073]. The use of earth on the site as abuilding material saves cost, time, energy,and transportation. Buildings with earthhas been an ancient and accepted practiceamongst communities all over the world. Itis estimated that the construction and theoperation of buildings is responsible foraround half of all global C02 emissions,thereby contributing the single largestsource attributable to climate change.

"Earthen Constructions"

Stabilised rammed earth (SRE) materialshave low embodied energy contentbecauseapproximately 95% of the raw materialsare unfired and are locally available, thusminimising transportation. Recently, theuse of crushed recycled aggregates (e.g.demolition waste from bricks, concrete orSRE itself) is increasingly used instead ofvirgin sub-soils. This offers the advantageof reducing landfill and converting on­site waste materials into a high qualityproduct for new-build processes. Earthenarchitecture in Auroville shows a widerange of buildings: from houses toapartments and public buildings. Thedevelopment of Vikas community showedthat earth can be used for building aprogressive and harmonious architectureup to 4 floors high. Compressed stabilisedearth blocks (CSEB) are mostly usedin Au roville and many stabilised earthtechnologies have been developed, fromfoundations to roofs and for disasterresistance.

Building technologies based on earth

Compressed Stabilised Earth Block(CSEB)

A wide range of equipment forbuilding with earth, Auram, has beenresearched and developed from the very

~~$J ~EtJ ~~$ ~~~ @ @j240 Series 290 senes

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Varlnus blncks

@)~6@? ~~~ ~%:?@@~~;l (~ 0 ~

245 Series 295 SerIes

~~~~ @?J ~ ~ ~ ~ l®Figure 3 : Wide variety of compressed stabilised earth blocks, by the Auram press 3000.

15

!olfrl/al of Design alld the Built Enuiromnent

onset by the Auroville Earth Institute. Thepress 3000 is today being sold worldwide.The Auram press 3000 as shown in thefigues can fit 17moulds on it, for producingabout 75 different types of blocks, withvarious shapes and thicknesses. Thefigures below indicate the wide varietyof compressed stabilised earth blocksproduces by the Auram press.

SEB made in Auroville with 5%cement, have an average dry compressivecrushing strength of 5MPa and a wetcompressive crushing strength of 2.5MPa.The water absorption is around 10%.Country fired bricks have around 35 kg/em' for the dry compressive strength and12% water absorption. The cost of CSEBwalls (at Aurovillc) is 25.9 % cheaper thancountry fired bricks.

Stabilised Rammed Earth (SRE)The soil is mixed with sand and

stabilised with 5% cement. The mixis rammed by hand . Foundations arerammed directly in the trench. Walls arerammed in between Iormworks. Rammedearth walls are45.3 %cheaper than countryfired bricks.

Composite Basement and Plinth BeamBasements are made with CSEB

stabilised with 5% cement. The plinth beamis cast into a U shaped CSEB. Reinforcedconcrete is cast in the U shape blocks. Thisis a very neat and efficient way to do aplinth beam.

Composite ColumnsRound hollow CSEB arc reinforced

with cement concrete. Reinforcementsvary but the rod diameter cannot exceed10 nun for the round blocks 290 (290 mmdiameter) and 12 mm for the round blocks240 (240 nun diameter).

Composite Beams and LintelsReinforced cement concrete is cast

in U shaped CSEB. The bottom part of the

16

beam is precast in a reversed position onthe ground. Once cured, it is lifted andthe middle and top parts are built on it.Three different heights of beam are done,according to the span (see Figure 32) andthe blocks are used as lost shuttering in allcases :

• Single height beams: up to 1.25 mspan with 2 bars of 12 rnm . U blocksalso help in this case the compressivestrength of the beam, as they are ontop of the beam.

• Double height beams: up to 2 m spanwith 2 bottom bars of 12mm and 2top bars of 8nun.

• Triple height beams: up to 3 m spanwith 2 bottom bars of 12nun and 2top bars of 10mm.

a. Stabilised rammed earth foundationand wall

b. Reinforcements and casting

c. Composite columns

Figure 4 : Uses of solid rammed earth

"Earthen COIIS/ruCtiOIlS"

Figure 5 : Segment al vau lt 10.35m span, 2.20m rise, 6m long, built in 18 days wit h 4masons

Vaulted StructuresAt the Auroville Earth Institu te, the

Nubian technique of vault construction hasbeen furt her reasearched and new waysof building vaults and arches ha ve beenworked upon. The free spanning techniqueallows courses to be laid horizontally,which presents certain advantagescompared to the Nubian technique whichhas vertical courses. Depending on theshape of vaults, s tructures are built eitherw ith horizontal courses, vertical ones or acombination of both. The Auroville EarthIns titu te has develop ed an optimisationmethod for calculating the stability ofvau lted structures. This me thod has beenespecially developed for designing andbuilding vaults wit hout Cen terings [Mai'niSatprem 20074].

Bu ilding Process/ Welle r Cob - WallingTechnique

The most impor tant technicalprogress in comparison to the traditionalhouse is the introduction of a damp proof

course, a brick founda tion and mixing ofloam with straw. The traditional buildingtechnique (where very wet loam is used)was replaced by the "Weller" techniquethat is quite similar to the traditionalone. The 'Wellerba u' is a historical ear thbuilding technique. Loam is mixed withstraw, which is a kind of reinforcementfor the wal l. Neither cement is ad ded,nor any other supporting structure. The"Weller" - wall (550mm) is constructed inlayers. Each layer is buil t approximately70 cm high, dries up within 3 - 4 days andis trimmed on the sides with a spade toget the accurate shape (Figure 6). After asecond d rying period, an other layer canbe added. The building process is muc hfaster in comparison to the traditionalmethod: the layers can be much high erdue to the straw "reinforcement" andthe bearing streng th is high enough aftersome da ys to step on the wall and to addanother layer. Even sandy loam is suitablefor this technique and fertile sticky soil canbe saved for agri culture.

Figure 6: Source, Anna Herringer, 2007. Weller construction : mixing; placing of firstlayer, trimming with the spade; 2nd layer (Herringer, 2007)

17

Journlllof Desigll II lid tile Built ElllJirOlllllellt

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Internal te m p era lu re withhigh th ermal moss.

Inte rn al temperature w ithlow thermal mass.

Exl ern a l tempera lu re

Figure 7 : Internal temperature stabiliz ing effect of thermal mass (de Saulles 2005).

Passive Air Conditioning Potential ofSRE

The use of air conditioning tocontrol the indoor thermal environment(temperatures and ieshumidity) ofbuildings, within comfortable levels forthe occupants, is now commonplace.Stabilised rammed earth (SRE) wall s canbe used as a building integrated source ofpassive cooling technique..

SRE has a simila r heat capacity toconcrete and the additional advantageof being hygroscopic while offering alow carbon alternative to the high cementcontent of solid concrete. Today, buildingdesigners are increa singly becom ing awarethat SRE walls can be used in modernbuildings for the combined functions ofload-bearing structure, external enve lopeas well as for passive cooling technique.Some of the row housing approachesin traditi onal ru ral India have buil t-infeatures whic h protect earth wa lls againstrain. For instance, the side wa lls of rowhouses, which are perp endicular to thestreet, are never exposed to rain as thespace between two wall s is too narrow andis further protected by roof projections.The front walls of the house are also oftenprotected by a sloping vera ndah (or cowshed ) roof. The ligh ting is often providedby sma ll courtyards and the mud wa lls arecompletely protected against rain erosion.

18

The only threat to such mud walls ispossible flow of water from leaking roofswhich can locally damage the walls if itis not attended to in time [SAllinson 0 &Hall M 2007].

Alte rnative Specifications for EarthWall s

It is possible to consider a hierarchyof ear th wa lling solutions wherein some

Figure 8 : Rigid cavity fill insu lation incomposite SRE walls.Photo courtesy of EarthStructures Private ltd

of the stringent performance criteria areprogress ively relaxed retaining some ofthe esse ntia l criteria.

The following hierarchy of solutionsis suggested by the author]agadish andUllas, 2007 [6]

a. Whe n u nstabilised earth constructionis used it is possible to cons iderwalls which have satisfactory drycompressive st rength (-3.0 MPa)and resistance to rain erosion. This isquite cost effective.

b. Partly stabilised earth can beconsideredwhichhasdrycompressivestreng th (-3.0 MPa), resistance torain erosion and retention of shapeof earth block even after soakingin water for 24 hour s although thesaturated compressive strength isinadequate. This is moderately costeffective.

c. Fully stabilised earth cons tructionwill satisfy all the four criteria.Costlier than the earlier op tions,but favourable with brickwork andconcrete block work.

Tolal Cost 01 house Rs.23000Cosl/sqrt - Rs.t 07.62

Figure 9 : Circular Rammed Eart hStructure Bhunga at Hodka,Kutch, Cujarat

"Ear/hell Ccnetructione"

Use in disaster resi stant homesThere was a huge demand for

houses to rehabilitate the earthquakeaffected fam ilies in Cujarat sta te afte r 2001Kutch earthquake. Initially CompressedStabilised Ear th Block (CSEB)cons tructiontech nology was use d but as a variation ofthe CSEB technology, cement stabilisedrammed earth techniques were adoptedand deveioped to suit the various forms ofhouses include the tradi tiona lhouses calledBhunga [Jagadish & Ullas 2007]. However,as societies come under the influence of'Development' earth construction appearsto be less attractive. Environmentalistsare eloquent about the ecological benefitsof earth construction but the poorersec tions in developing countries are notimpressed.

Fu ture Resea rch AspectsThere is a need to examine afresh

the durability aspects of traditionalearth constructions since lllany usefullocal practices are vanishing from ourknowledge systems due to the perceivedinferiority of earth construction. Suchtechnologies are likely to spread in areaswhere entrepreneurs or entrepreneurNCOs are able to provide the technologydelivery systems [Abey & Smallcombe2007] .

1. While it is energy efficient to usestabilised block technology instead ofbricks, its accessibility to the poorersections of society does not appeal' tobe satisfactory.

ii. In terms of new materials, cob isa traditional building material inthe South West of England. It is amixture of subsoil, straw and waterand is built with no shuttering. Cobhas a real future in mainstreamconstruction - it is sustainable, lowenvironmental impact, versatile,durable and aesthetically pleasing.

19

10l/mal of Designand tlleBuilt Enuironment

iii. There have been a number of highprofile examples of rammed earthconstruction in recent years, heavilyinfluenced by the high qualitycontemporary work on continentalEurope by Martin Rauch. In theseprojects earth construction acts asan emblem of 'green construction',though the walls are rarely used totheir structural or environmentalpotential. Again the work tends tobe slow and expensive, and whereunderstanding or quality control isnot good, the results can be somewhatdisappointing.

iv. The high public profile and'engineered' aesthetic quality ofsuch contemporary earth buildinghas served to dispel the 'mud hut'image of a material associatedwith hand-made buildings of lowquality in dry climates, rather thana one suitable for contemporaryUK construction projects. However,because of its expense, rammed earthwill not become a common formof contemporary construction andremain in the niche of'eco-buildings'special clients.

v. The improved image of earthconstruction brought about bysuch projects has coincided with agene ral increase in the importance ofconsidering environmental impact inthe U.K. constructionindustry. Drivenas much by cultural aspiration as bychanges in building regulation, thereare increasing opportunities for newsustainable products and methodsto break out of the green fringe intocommon use.

vi. Criteria for Mainstreaming : Theniche of green building has allowedexperimentation in a wide variety of'alternative' construction materialsover the last 15 years, but very fewhave broken into the mainstreamof everyday buildings thereby

20

making a significant difference tothe environmental impact of theway we create and manage ourbuilt environment. Some are tooexpe nsive, some are difficult touse, some do not suit commercialconstruction processes and programand some are difficult to develop ascommercial products. Ones that havemainstreamed, such as sheep's woolinsulation, have been simple to useas substitutes for conventional, moreenvironmentally damaging products,are not disproportionately moreexpensive, have a marketable imageand could be brought to market withlimited investment. In the family ofearth construction techniques, onlyearth masonry fits these criteria in aU.K. context.• It can be affordable and, in a

climate of increasing energycosts, will become

increasing low cost compared tocompeting products.

o It is easy to use and relatesclosely to existing commonconstruction practices.

o There is a large, establishedmanufacturing industry withexcess capacity that coulddevelop commercial productsrelatively quickly, at low initialinvestment.

o Given basic guidance, buildingdesigners could easilyincorporate it into currentbuilding designs.

o In design terms, it would havemultiple technical benefits andrespond to a growing interest inthe use of thermal and moisturemass to mnunuse energyconsumption and improvebuilding health.

o Clients have a track record ofresponding favourably to itsuse.

Thesecredentials meanearthmasonryhas the ability to be turned, relativelyquickly, into a new mass constructionmaterial. Investmen t by the brick industryis key to developing the ima ge of an eco­friendly product of progress and buildin gdemand for these products in a market itknows well.

The effect of housing on EcologicalFootprint

The Living Planet Report 2006,[9) (WWF, Institute of zoology, GlobalFootpri nt Network, 2006) declares Indiaamong the countries having smallest"ecological footprint" at less than 0.9global hectares per person. In 2003 thefootprint per Indian was reported as 0.8global hectares (gha). In comparison, USArequired equ ivalents of 9.6, China 1.6 andGermany 4.5 global hectares per person(as on 2003). However there is a changein this positive scenario if we look at theNational ecological footprint in relationto the nationally available biocapacity. Ata total bio-capacity of 0.4 gha per Indianthere is a deficit of 0.4 gha per person.With a populat ion of 10667 Million thesum of -0.4 hal person causes a footprint

'",.up0: ECOlOOICAl OE8TORA1IDCREOITOR COUIlTRlES, 2003' loti:.." Ecd~" f«A+O\tnllIM 10

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Figure 10 : Source: Living Planet Report 2006

"Ear/hellConstructions"

which is more than100% large r than thebio-capacity of the country.

There is a crucial need to findstrat egies to improve this situation. Buthow? India is one of the developingcou ntries. It is very clear : we must figh tpoverty in India and find strategies thatimprove life for each individual person.

At the same time we mu st avoi dthe increasing of the ecological deficit.This might sound presumptuous takin ginto account the situa tion of high-incomecountries that are causing much moredamage to our planet than develop ing ofthe ecologica l deficit. This might soundpresumptuous taking into account thesituation of high-income coun tries that arecausing much more damage to our planetthan developing There is a crucial need tofind strategies to improve this situation.But how? India is one of the developingcou nt ries. It is very clear: we must fightpoverty in India and find st rategies thatimprove life for each individual person . Atthe same time we mu st avoid the increasingof the ecological deficit. This might sou ndpresumptuous taking into account thesitua tion of high-income countries that arecausing much more da mage to our planet

)

21

Jourl/al of Desigllatld tile BuiltEnoircnment

than developing countries. But at presentthere is no country in this world that isreleased from the effor t to save our planet.Sustainable development is a commitmentto "improving the quality of human lifewhile living within the carrying capacityof supporting ecosystems" (IUeN et al.,1991)[10]. What is the role of architecturein the process of development - in animprovement of living standard and aba lanced eco system?

A sur vey of rRural architecture inIndi a (Tobias Hagleitner et al., 2003)shows(Figure 7), that all expansion is happeningonlyis mostly horizontal. In the surveyarea all with majority of the houses beinghouses were single storey. In addition tothat wWealth causes two major effectson arch itecture and settlement pa ttern:It helps transforming settlement patternsfrom very dense and compact settlementto broader and expatiating ho useholds.Two hamlets with very low incomefam ilies have for instance 41 where 200people live on an area of 10 000 sq. rn . and17 fam ilies with 80 inhabitants on 5 500sqm respectively. But on 5000 sqm only 8households wit h 35 persons live in "Saha- pa ra" which means "the hamlet of therich".Theother effect of financia lcapabilityaccord ing to the sur vey mentioned abov eis reflected in the building material. This isvisible in the pr ivate temples and sh rines.They all follow the unwritten law, whichprescribes that all temples must be built inthe most valuable mater ial that is used inthe homestead. The hierarchy is clear to seewhile walking through a Bengali village:Brick (best), loam (mid dle), bamboo andstraw (last). To bring it to a point: All theexpansion caused by the dem ograph icdevelopm ent as we ll as financial abili tyis shown in captur ing sp ace and buyingmaterial instead of taking the (dir ty) mudto one's feet. No t only comparatively " rich"people follow that pattern: also NGOsor publ ic buildings from governme nt dothe same, wh ich stand for development

22

and improvem ent. What will be theconsequence if this trend will continue?

Back to the concept of the ecologica lfootprint and its respective components:The actual footprint of Indi a due to thebu ilt-up land (meaning infrast ructu reincluding hydro power) in 2003 was0.04 ghat pe rson. More specific: the bio­capaci ty of cropland was 0.29, graze land0.00 and fores t 0.02 gha t person. Thetotal bio-capacity of the land is only 0.314gha per inhabitant whereas the nearb ycountry Myamar with simi lar climaticcond itions has a biocapaci ty of 1.04 ghatperson. (Living Planet Rep ort, 2006)[Livillg Planet Report, 20069] The decisivedifference is the population density. Onan area of 1442973190.000 sqkrn aand a apopulation of 1066 Million ([ http:/ / www.worlda tlas.com / webimage / countrys /asia / in.htm#facts]. Wikipedia, 2006)Eevery square meter is vital to cultivatemost important ea tables, wh ich is mainlyrice, wheat and jute. Of course it is mai nlya mailer of agriculture to introd ucea cultivation strategy to enhance thebiocapacity.But it is a ma tter of archit ectureto care for the basic prerequisite, i.e, land.India must get out of poverty and seekto find a strategy to avoid an increasingfootprint in the sector buil t-up land. Thestrategy is simple: a vertical extension ofbuilt-up land to save the precious landfor a sus tainable cultivation. "Populationpressure continues toplace asevere burdenon produ ctive capacity, creating a fooddeficit. Foreign ass istance and commerci alimports fill the gap. Underemploymentremains a serious problem. Findingalternative sources of employmen t willcontinue to be a daunting prob lem forfuture governments, par ticularly with theincreasing numbers of landless peasantswho already account for about half therura l labou r force." (Pearson Education,2006)[l'earson Educa tion 200612] As thisquo tation states, saving land is inter linkedwith many aspects such as economics,

increasi ng debt, health / food, employmentfacilities and in a wide r perspective - evenwith de mographic changes in larger scale(migration), stabilised democracy andpeace [Herri nger 200713]..

Another crucial factor to measureIndia's footprint in future will be thecountry's C02 emissions from fossilfuels. And architecture will have a majorinfluence on that. Following article statesthe present trend: The Brick indu stry isworldwide consta ntly growing - Since1990 the worldwide production of bricksis significantly increasing. The salesvolume of that sector is estimated to be26 million Euros at present. In China thebrick pro du ction currently samples a vastboom. Now also the brick pro ductionin the Arab ic countries of North-Africa,which up to now knew mainly handmadebricks is increasing. Globally seen bricksand roof tiles have reached a level ofquality and sales quantity that let us lookposi tive into the future (ARCHmatic,2006).[ARCHm atic 2006 14]. At presentap proximately 20 percen t of the houses inrura l area are built wit h bricks. The rest arebamboo/ straw or loam buildings. Whatif India continues the present trend in itsru ral areas and follows the global model ininvesting in brick ho uses? This would causea tremendous rising of the C02 emissiond ue to the coal, which is the ene rgy sourceof the brickfields. The same would applyfor steel instead of bamboo plus the energyconsumption for the transport. In 2006 thetotal population of India was 1067 Million(Wikipedia, 2006),[15]. 75% of the totalpopulation ) were settled in rural areas .Out of these 80% of; wh ichthat meansover 80640 Million Indiansi live in housesbuilt in loam or bamboo /straw. If thesebuildings will be replaced by houses builtout of locally fabricated bricks, in brickfieldthat not even underlie the standards forfilterin g and reduction of emissions - therising of C02 emissions would increase indramatic scale (in worst case about 20150

"Earthen Constructions"

Million houses). C02 in the atmospherecauses 80% of the global warming. Therising of the sea level would hit Indi a asone of the first countries and 60 mill ionpeople in Calcutta and Bangladesh wouldbe homeless, the nu mber and power of

. destroying floods (due to melting glaciersin the Himalaya) and cyclones (due tothe wa ter evaporation caused by highertemperature of the Ind ian Ocean) as wellas a severe and permanent water crisisdu e to the d rying-up of the river Gangesand Brahmaputra are predicted to be theimmediate effects (AIGore, 2006)[16J.Thatmeans building with loam is a va luableaction aga ins t an increasing ecologicalfootprin t and it is even affordable for thepoorest of a least de veloped coun try .

The Role of Architects and PlannersIt is our resp onsibility as planners

to support implementing bodies in termsof research in appropriate techn iques,train ing and design. Policy makingorganisations, government and non­government organisations must set goodexamples through representative publicbuildi ngs as well as through pilot projectsfor residen tial houses tha t can be multipliedby the villagers. For a real change towardsa social and fair economic improvementwe need to find ways to strengthen localidentity and craftsmanship. Culture couldbea possib le way tosucceed .There is a greatexample in Indian his tory of an effectiveprotest against global industrialisation andfor an independence through focussing onlocal production: Gandhi's philosophyof hom espun, tradi tional clothes was astrategy to free from imported goods, tofree from powerlessn ess again st socialand economic disc rimination through self­production . Beside this it was a method toeliminate social differences fortified by thedisti nction between those who can affordbuyi ng prestigious English clothes andthose who need to spin it by themselves.Isn't that situation very similar to the one of

23

]ollYllal of Design and t1,CBuilt Enoircnnnen!

brick- and loam -buildings? The homespun"khadi" even became a kind of uniform forthe Indian independence movement andwas a symbol of independence as well asa deliberate return and appreciation of itsown culture. (Nanda, 1958)[RabindranathTagore 193118]

ConclusionEvery man needs a shelter. In

today's urban world, every man needs ahouse that is economic, durable as well asaesthetic. Right from the dawn of the 20thcentury, mass production of housing usingindustrial materials has been the onlyanswer to cater to the growing demands.This has lead to large negative impacts onthe existing environment, The man's dayto day activities which are at par with themodern society has lead him to spend hugeamount of energy in order to gain a certainlevel of comfortable living. However,with the present day trends, the futurelooks bleak with high carbon emissions,large ozone holes in the atmosphere anddegraded human health. The time hascome to rethink scientifically new ways ofbeing more innovative and modern but lessconsumptive. The time has come when weneed to give a serious thought as to howwe can build upon the existing naturalresources rather than unthinkingly depletethe existing ones. The famous Bengaliphilosopher Tagore describes beauty as"perfect harmony". And can that harmonyexclude the elements of sustainability?How could something be beautiful if it isnot sustainable? "When our universe is inharmony with man, the eternal, we knowit as truth, we feel it as beauty. Beauty is inthe ideal of perfect harmony, which is in theuniversal being." (Rabindranath Tagore,1931).[Nanda 195817]. As architects weare in the service of beauty - it is on us torealise an architecture that is not a matterof self-infatuation but a trial to reach trueharmony on all levels of the entire being.

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Earthasbuilding material has the potentialsto reach a high level of sustainability in allits social, economic and ecological aspects.But there is a surplus in building withearth: it is much more than just a buildingmaterial: it is an essential element thattouches our inner emotions. In everyculture there are poems or songs aboutearth, but I have never heard one aboutconcrete and steel. If we do not only findthe right rhymes but also the appropriatearchitectural language I believe earth willno longer be the "material of the poor" ­but the material of the future .

This paper has discussed the role ofearth in construction of new buildings asa means of sustainable humane living.Some serious efforts on our parts canhelp us upgrade our lifestyles so that wecan optimize our dependancy on the non­renewable energy sources.

References

Abey, J and Smallcombe, J (2007). Cob inContemporary Architecture . InternationalSymposium on earthen Structures, IndianInstitute of Sciences, Bangalore, India.

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