This paper presents an overview of the different earth building techniques, the latest innovations and the normative aspects. The oldest man made earth constructions known to exist date back to 10 000 BC. Since then, earth has remained a popular building material throughout history. With time, different techniques evolved, starting from sundried adobe blocks to cob constructions, rammed earth walls and compressed earth bricks. Today these techniques are still being optimized and alternative binders, specifically adapted admixtures and surface treatments are being developed. Even though nearly one third of the world’s population lives in an earth construction, few specific building standards and testing methods exist. Many of the tests used today are based on tests for concrete and thus do not take into account the complex nature of earth constructions, such as their sensitivity to water. RILEM, the union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures, set up a new Technical Committee in 2016: TC TCE (Testing and Characterisation of Earth-based building materials and elements). This committee, consisting of an international group of experts on the topic, aim to define testing procedures for earth as a building construction material. To end with, this paper also gives a short introduction to “Deep soil mixing”, an “earth” building technique dedicated to geotechnical engineering.
Abstract. This paper presents an overview of the different earth building techniques, the latest innovations and the normative aspects. The oldest man made earth constructions known to exist date back to 10 000 BC. Since then, earth has remained a popular building material throughout history. With time, different techniques evolved, starting from sundried adobe blocks to cob constructions, rammed earth walls and compressed earth bricks. Today these techniques are still being optimized and alternative binders, specifically adapted admixtures and surface treatments are being developed. Even though nearly one third of the world's population lives in an earth construction, few specific building standards and testing methods exist.
Since 1947, the mission of RILEM, the International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, has been to advance scientific knowledge related to construction materials, systems and structures and to promote and encourage transfer and application of this knowledge worldwide. Since 1968, the peer review RILEM Journal MATERIALS & STRUCTURES has been RILEM’s flagship for disseminating the latest advances in construction materials research and structural behaviour.With the present new scientific peer review journal, RILEM Technical Letters, RILEM seeks to venture into the new era of open access publishing by disseminating contributions breaking new ground in the field of construction materials science in the form of short letters. In particular, RILEM Technical Letters is focusing on the publication of short reports of major innovative research or strategic research needs in the field of construction materials and structures, specifically written to comply with the format of this new journal. By providing a fast publishing process, RILEM Technical Letters will constitute a new landmark among the publications devoted to construction materials science.RILEM Technical Letters will be published as a Diamond Open Access journal available online free of charge. Publishing in open access format will allow a broad readership from all around the world to get unrestricted access to the latest knowledge in all subfields of RILEM. Moreover, RILEM will provide an additional benefit to its members by waiving publication costs if the corresponding author of the letter is a RILEM member.On behalf of the whole RILEM community, we would like to thank the authors, reviewers and editors for their priceless contributions and wish the new journal all the success!
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.