Why We Should Be Building with Dirt

[@ARTiculations]

Thanks again for AEC Daily for sponsoring this video! I’ve been taking courses there since even before I made KZbin videos. If you’re a licensed architect, interior designer or other AEC professional who need CE credits, especially at the end of licensing cycles, they can be a real life saver!! It’s almost the end of an AIA cycle so this might be you! Check it out: www.aecdaily.com/?KZbin&ARTiculations&Dec2022

[@gregorykelly8000]

Law is crippling the poor

[@bcooke1000]

@@gregorykelly8000 No sweetheart. Lawlessness.

[@gregorykelly8000]

@@bcooke1000 who said anything about no law?? All I want is to not be harmed by other humans. Harm no other, unless necessary.

[@robertmccabe8632]

Fossil fuels? Coal: plant based Gas: plant based and Abiotic based Crude oil: a.k.a. "mineral oil" ie. ABIOTIC Oil.

[@hoseqt1]

We stopped building with Dirt, BECAUSE it s much more difficult to make a THREE Story House with Dirt than it is with Rocks.... This is why AFRICA has not passed the One Story Mud Hut, on their Own.... They cannot think that far ahead.... I know it sounds ""racist"", but it isn't racist, it just a fact, it is truth, and truth isn't racist...

[@carlosdumbratzen6332]

My dad was a reseacher for structural engineering and always complained about how versatile standard bricks are, but also how difficult to calculate its properties are and that that is one of the reasons steel and concrete and sand-lime bricks dominate modern architecture, because they have clearly defined properties.

[@CountingStars333]

Dominate where? Brick is still dominant in many places.

[@stevenscott2136]

@@CountingStars333 For tall buildings, radio towers, industrial structures, etc. You can't trust bricks when you're stacking them 100 stories high, or trying to support a crane that will lift multi-hundred-ton objects in varying positions, or a structure that will bear high wind-loading on a long leverage axis, or a structure that has to deal with heavy vibration.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Was he complaining about even fired clay bricks?

[@Eduardo_Espinoza]

Can't they refine it though?

[@micha_666]

That is exactly the commenti was looking for. I like the idea of showing old techniques but i was sure there are some major cons.

[@msl9927]

My first house ever was built with dirt. I lived there for awhile with my husband until the house was destroyed by a creeper. We simply patched it up with more dirt. We have since moved onto other materials such as deepslate and spruce, but we will never forget our first home. It may have just been a simple dirt house, but it housed us, our beds, furnaces, crafting table, chests, and most of all--our first memories living together as a couple.

[@Alizudo]

👏🏻😂

[@craigathonian]

Hi there, what do you mean by "destroyed by a creeper." ?

[@ninjireal]

@@craigathonian the little green fuckers, them. Back in 2-0 ‘12 I was in my house, something wasn’t letting me sleep. Gut feeling. One of the things were at my door. Barely made it out alive, but I ate enough to heal.

[@audreymcknight]

@@craigathonian so they're these green guys with rather sad faces that sneak up on you or your home, then detonate themselves suicide bomber style.

[@craigathonian]

@@audreymcknight 😁😂🤣

[@nickploszay2310]

My parents bought a earth home kit from a popular science magazine in the late 80s. When I was a kid we would sled off the roof. It wasn't made with bricks it was a kit that you nailed together using pre- fabbed arched panels that were then covered in a waterproof coating. Once the arch was together a crane put the dirt on the top. Their house is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

[@kentwilbourne996]

What state wearher did it work in?

[@nickploszay2310]

Wisconsin about the middle of the state.

[@gta-6837]

Find that issue.

[@chrisgreek4285]

Your parents did what I dream about. I think that would be the perfect retirement home as the required maintenance is quite minimal.😊

[@VH-ew7oq]

I would like to know more. Any idea what the system was called? The company that sold them?

[@tommunyon2874]

Back in the 1960s, once land was opened for private home ownership in my hometown, the most expensive private home built at the time was a hacienda-style home made with true adobe and full timber beams. The basic ingredients may have been inexpensive, but the labor intensity and scale are what made it so expensive.

[@UTArch1]

Any experienced architect or builder knows that 2/3 the cost of any construction is labor plus "overhead".

[@PentaSquares]

I dunno how relevant it is, but I've tried making some mud or dirt bricks before and it's not too hard to get the materials to make it, but making the bricks themselves are kinda hard and time consuming.

[@babaG819]

@@PentaSquares I imagine a large part of that is the industry investment into other building materials. Concrete would be hard to make "right" and time consuming especially large scale, but there's the industry for it.

[@cassiecaradoc2070]

I was going to say exactly this. Earth building is great, if you have the time... but it yielded two two things: Less time-intensive architectures, and architectures that could support more vertical construction. I'm not sure you could actually build a 27 story building out of adobe or other earth type constructions... though you could build 27 stories down, but again... it would be far more labor intensive than building a steel structure 27 stories up.

[@Aidan42781]

Couldn't the labour cost be a matter of lacking an established high volume productive industries for said materials? I'm not sure to be honest but my knee-jerk reaction is to ask if old materials are economically disadvantaged due to the present industry landscape moreso than an intrinsic quality of the material.

[@unvergebeneid]

I mean, concrete is sand, gravel and cement. So it sounds like there's a spectrum of cement-aggregate mixtures where those earth bricks are on the very low-cement end of the spectrum.

[@SweBeach2023]

It's actually rather impressive how little cement is needed to create a stable material, be it one not suitable for building multi-storey buildings.

[@turun_ambartanen]

Yep, still helpful, but not a new type of material that is climate neutral. Worse mechanical properties (not needed for small buildings) for half the CO2 cost (still significant).

[@MrOiram46]

It’s not just any type of sand you can get anywhere though, it needs to be river sand, which is much more limited than regular sand

[@Thaccus]

@@MrOiram46 Why river sand? What about river sand makes it better? Does it have a better shape? Do other sources have some mitigating property? How does this work?

[@eragon78]

@@Thaccus Yea, its about the shape. Sand eroded by water is different than sand eroded by wind. For concrete, you need sand that isnt too smooth. It needs to have more jagged edges which lets it lock into place with other grains. There are also different types of sand in their composition as well depending on where they are located. For example, black sand has much higher iron content than normal sand which is what gives it that black color. The reason why sand can have different compositions is because "sand" isnt actually a specific material, rather, its a description of the size of grains of the material. If the grains fall within a certain size category, its sand. This is also true for materials such as silt or gravel which are also descriptions of the size of the particle and not the material itself. Quarts sand is the most common sand, but not all sand is quarts sand. But yea, the main difference though is the shape of the sand which determines what can be used for concrete. You can also manufacture the properly shaped sand particles as well, but its more expensive. Thats about the limit of my understanding though, for a more in depth analysis youd have to research more. Im not a material scientist or anything. Im sure there are plenty of videos on the various differences and which ones have the best application when it comes to concrete.

[@z0bi_]

My father had a clay building company, which sadly wasn't sustainable enough to live of of. But he lives in and renovated a beautiful 150+ years old traditional european timber truss house (known in germany as "Fachwerkhaus") Which uses solid oak beams and clay as the primary materials. He is a big advocate for clay and earth material in modern architecture.

[@StefanMilo]

I love modern cob buildings, they have a texture and life that my standard house totally lacks

[@DesertOwlForge]

I am the opposite. I can't stand cob or adobe buildings, earth ships and straw bale houses. I also sick of Earth tone buildings. I lived in an adobe house for 15 years and it's not very comfortable. They're heavy and bulky and super labor intensive. Also you can't find the right soil in many places, so it isn't as sustainable as you might think.

[@ANTSEMUT1]

@@DesertOwlForge obviously otherwise every culture on earth would have adopted it at some point. They use what they have in their environment.

[@priestesslucy]

@@Nahrix pretty sure the idea would be to sell the sterile house and build an earthen house from scratch on their new property

[@katherandefy]

I think it is super easy to build it wrong and we have lost a lot of the know how. It isn’t as easy as 123​@@DesertOwlForge

[@HipposHateWater]

Same. I'm not fond of that weird fairy-tale-witch-hut look that many of the modern examples on KZbin are built to resemble, but that's just design aesthetics. I love the concept and material itself. There's several surviving adobe buildings from settlers in my area, and quite a few of them are still in use by modern businesses today. Most of them just look like normal buildings instead of gingerbread houses and Yoda huts. You almost can't tell until you see a small bronze placque out front.

[@chinchin2121]

I learned in my history classes that mud buildings fail above a certain latitude/moisture level. And north of that line, wood was always abondent. That's probably why its not more widespread

[@stevesmith-eq9fv]

Need a good engineer,and imagination

[@chinchin2121]

@Lind Morn did anyone in similar climates build houses out of mud?

[@DaDunge]

In Europe we built semiburied houses using dirt not for strength but for insulation.

[@TheGrinningViking]

Bugs, rodents, permeability to rain without additional materials, lack of light, lack of verticality, and many many other advantages to things above the mud hut technical era that every culture went through are the main reason people have moved on. If not Europe than the idea would have naturally spread from China, where they independently invented their own stone carving and wood buildings because they were just a very good idea.

[@hoominbeeing]

@@lindmorn5909 lmfao Not building with an inferior building material = colonialism and capitalism If that's the case, then those are good things. And the latter is unironically a good thing.

[@t.b.cont.]

My only problem with things like concrete is that we never do anything creative with it just simple square pillars and walls. The Romans had such beautiful creations made from their own version of concrete, it’s unfortunate how modern construction is so focused on uniformity and practicality rather than creating buildings we could be proud to live in or look at

[@bobaldo2339]

When I first moved to New Mexico, fifty some years ago, most people I knew lived in real adobe houses. Now, frame stucco houses built to look like traditional adobe houses dominate because real adobe houses are generally too expensive for people to afford - due to their construction being much more labor intensive.

[@alkanista]

I live in one of those of the latter type. It seems odd to me that there seems to be a lot of underemployment and unemployment in the state, but yet labor intensive things are too expensive. Something doesn't compute, at least in my limited comprehension.

[@swest6982]

@@alkanista It's the negative cycle of poverty. Home owners don't have enough money to build expensive adobe houses, so they pay less money to hire construction companies to make cheaper faux-adobe houses. As a result those companies can't afford to hire the amount of workers that would be needed for adobe houses, which feeds into unemployment. So instead of adobe houses being the staple housing of ABQ, they are only built by the rich in exclusive mountainside neighborhoods. And the cycle of poverty and gentrification continues. Or at least that's my guess.

[@rogerjensen5277]

Perhaps the solution to high labor costs might be the old system of barn raising wherein all the local people would get together (under the supervisor of experienced builders) and build structures as needed. If a standardized structure could be agreed upon by the local people, then (especially as the builders became more experienced) each home or better yet 4-home structure with a shared central fireplace with a oven and metal stove top going into each home would reduce heating and cooking costs! I believe that having these structures sunk about 3-4 feet below ground level would greatly reduce energy costs with pipes bringing outside air directly to the central fireplace/oven to keep colder air being drawn into the rooms directly. That same piping could be used to help pre-heat fresh air coming into the rooms themselves. With proper design, efficiencies can be much higher than 2x4 framed housing and less expensive. Also, rounded roofs (think mushroom top) with thin layers (6-8inches) of soil planted with permaculture plants would also help moderate internal temperature and provide a use for waste water! There is no waste in nature, everything is recycled, mankind needs to learn this! I have no experience with making or using CEBs, but earth bags reinforced with metal fencing (like cattle panels) are quite simple to use, though both are labor intensive!

[@wiiu7640]

@@alkanista There can be several factors that would add up to explain this. 1.) a higher minimum wage would require all labor to be paid a base amount regardless of if that labor is economically stable. For example, an engineer might be paid $15 per hour, but if the minimum wage is $15 then a construction worker with a high school diploma would still be paid $15 per hour. The clear solution is to have the engineer with a 2-4 year degree be paid $25 per hour, but it's not so cut and dry because the cost of living and demand will determine what people are willing to pay for houses. If demand is high then you can charge more, but if demand is low and the cost of living is low then people will refuse to pay for expensive housing. That brings me to my next factor. 2.) Expensive housing is typically higher quality and requires more trained professionals rather than a few trained professionals and a bunch of laborers to do the heavy lifting. Imagine the cheap fabric wallet from Walmart vs. the expensive wallet you get from a wallet company that specializes in wallets. Maybe the expensive one has biodegradable materials and is also designed to last 50+ years. Such a wallet can not be massed produced which ties back to demand. If the only way that CEBs would ever be used is when there is high demand for buildings, then not enough buildings would be made to meet the demand even though people are willing to pay for it. 3.) The very problem is that CEBs are not able to be mass manufactured in the same way that traditional bricks and other materials are. If you could create demand in cities for higher quality and higher density housing then CEBs would be great if you could get enough of them. This would require a factory for CEBs to be created locally so that enough CEBs could be cheaply manufactured and quickly shipped to the job site. Demand for CEB housing would be needed first to make a factory capable of running long-term. You would most likely need a construction company to monopolize the construction process which would require a great deal of capital. 4.) If the cost of living is high and demand is low, you most likely have a very bad town or city. Economic growth is stagnant or severely declining while the area is undesirable due to some type of company layoff or crime-related reason. A city like this could hypothetically create CEB houses if a change in government was underway and abandoned buildings were being torn down and rebuilt. So you get rid of the crime, you create more construction jobs, and you provide some sort of incentive like a tax deduction or give people something for free to convince them to move into your new and improved [insert city name]. You work with these construction companies to create roads, buildings, and centralized planning to take full advantage of CEBs and earth construction. Everyone is flocking to your city for its great standard of living and job opportunities. Demand is now higher, but you only have 1-2 factories that are producing CEBs. How do you overcome this obstacle? A.) You could develop more efficient manufacturing processes. B.) You could build more factories but will result in too many jobs which makes construction workers unhappy with working conditions. C.) You could outsource CEBs but will subsequently increase the price of living or at least the price of houses which will make citizens complain or choose not to move in. or D.) You could provide cheaper housing using traditional materials which will lower the cost of living and meet the demand for housing. If you are an optimist, you plan for A, but if you are a realist you plan for D. Now if you have your whole centralized planning going on, you might opt for B or C because you want to use the effectiveness of that original plan. The only problem is that centralized planning almost always has too many problems that will result in neighborhoods becoming crime-ridden and the actual designs that were meant to be positive turn into a way for people to do more crimes and/or have the opposite of the intended effect. It's like you build a bench, except no one wants to sit on it because it hurts to sit on. Decentralized planning is better at designing effective designs for each neighborhood. Having multiple construction companies create a series of standards so that all the buildings mesh together in multiple systems of operation will provide a better quality of living long-term. If multiple construction companies are using CEBs then the end result will be higher utilization of the material's benefits. So you want to encourage the use of CEBs and higher-quality buildings, here is how you do it. Become the mayor of an abandoned city. Create tax cuts for using larger timber framing methods and earth building materials such as CEBs and clay. Work with construction companies to formulate building codes and standards that will allow decentralized planning to work later on. Take the information you learn in the first 6 months of doing this and find better ways to manage these new development projects and finances within the local government. Most likely you've taken out a loan at this point which means new businesses will need to be taxed somehow to make up for the monthly expenses of loan payments. This is easy to fix, have exports be taxed so that other areas looking to buy CEBs from your factories supply you with better economic stability and encourage more construction within your city fueling the local economy. Basically, CEB factories will give discounts to local developments since shipping is much easier and costs less, and developments outside your city are much more likely to not use CEBs or are likely to purchase a lot of them at once. This will help create more CEB factories as demand will go up with large purchases of CEBs while retaining the stability of the local economy for CEB manufacturing year-round. This also drives competition which will help construction companies have options when building with CEBs in your city and subsequently create innovations before you have problems with output, not after. If you've executed everything correctly, your city should be the number one growing city in your state or even nationwide. Keeping economic stability while meeting demand will be hard, but what you should keep in mind is that incentives for new businesses will create a more prosperous city as they decide to compete with each other and also meet the expectations of quality that individual citizens have. After 2 years you'll start to get entertainment and luxury companies that provide high standards of living. Buildings will become denser and construction companies will find ways to use CEB and earth building materials to make high-rise buildings. All of the sudden, you'll see CEB being used in 5 story buildings such as offices and apartments. Penthouses and theaters will push the limits of the materials for high-quality buildings. CEBs will be a common construction material throughout the nation for new developments around 10 years after you've become mayor. At this point, you could easily step down without negative repercussions on the city. If you have a successor you want in that you've been training then you might even get away with 5 years into being mayor before you step down. Not everything will be perfect, and you'll probably hurt a lot of people by accident in the process, but if you're the mayor of an abandoned city then you will do a lot of good if you take some of my advice. Governor will be a logical step in your political career. Many will find your influence on the economy a great skill and your reputation will proceed you. You will be highly respected for the good works you do for others, and many will find your efforts noble. You are responsible for the better tomorrow which you desire, and your responsibility will forge a great man or woman out of you.

[@meady50]

@@rogerjensen5277 I think that’s an absolutely great idea, though I don’t live in or near ABQ and have little to no knowledge of architecture. But I absolutely agree about needing to learn more from nature!

[@FrozenMadLad]

There are temples in Japan that were built entirely of wood, which have stood their ground through hundreds of years. This includes many years of weather catastrophes. Certain sections are obviously replaced over the years, but they use no metal (screws, nails) in the construction (other than tools to carve/cut wood and joints).

[@coltondodger]

There's a much higher cost of skill and what can be classified as "very finite" materials. While new lumber can be grown, oftentimes, their Full logs, like the kind that can be found in large temples are a little bit more tricky. At least, that's my understanding for the rarity of using that tech

[@Jinkypigs]

Wood .. is totally different from clay dude .. and while I find this video disingenous and skewed .... wood is definitely not within the topic of discussion. They are talking about pure dirt .. not even fired clay bricks qualifies, for them

[@FrozenMadLad]

@Chang Fong Chua My point is that we don't have to settle for dirt. It's not the only renewable resource. And yeah, I'd reserve mud housing for only the most temporary of situations. A storm would destroy it.

[@coltondodger]

@@FrozenMadLad This is an excellent point. I myself am rather cynical whenever I hear of the new "green" initiatives that pop up, but I am not opposed to the idea of "green friendly" technology. Unfortunately, in order to make adopting that technology reasonable, it must be competitively priced, equal in quality, and practical. For instance, theoretically, Trees could be grown to make almost "living" houses... it would be incredibly green, and likely more affordable... However, it is a wildly impractical, almost farcical idea.. However, building a house into the side of a mountain like a hobbit hole, is more practical, but there is a lack of reasonable demand, and the cost goes up. (it also isn't scalable.)

[@internetopinion3043]

Check out Stave Churches. There is one in Norway that is 800 years old. Kristen Dirksen recently dropped a video that talks about it

[@nathanielescudero5379]

I've been living in a rammed earth house in Portugal for 8 years. The original walls are 150 years old. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I'd never go back to bricks and cement again.

[@gudmundursteinar]

In Iceland the prime reason to abandon Torfhús (Peat Houses) was cleanliness, rodents and pests. The secondary reason is that they require more maintenance from the home owner e.g. mowingt the roof than modern housing. Finally they were abandoned because it was cheaper to build modern cement houses and the material (sand etc) was and still is very commonly available. My great-great-grandfather was the first person in his village back in 1900 to get a Norwegian package wooden house. It was cleaner, less infested, safer and easier to maintain that traditional peat houses. My great-grandparents were less likely to get diseases than their poorer and less fortunate neighbors living in peat houses. The house he imported is still there, the peat houses are all gone and the neighborhood has about 80% cement houses built in the style of a wooden house and 15% cement houses built in a modern style and 5% old wooden houses. Perhaps there is an opportunity to use peat in modern buildings. So far, it hasn't really been done, no matter how nice and traditional (traditional is very popular in iceland since the banking crash in 2008) the preseved houses you might find in museums. To the best of my knowledge the peat wouldn't be a subtantial part of any such building since it would require a modern foundation (no more dirt floors), be light and open for the daylight hours in the common areas (meaning glass and steel and cement for sunlight). Adding a grass ramp coving the main direction of wind where you might have bedroom and storage areas in the house directly under the peat might make sense. Iceland also has virtually limitless warm water for house heating combined with mild winters (+5 C) and mild summers (+15 C) so saving money by using peat isn't really a priority .

[@ToniGlick]

Peat isn't really sustainable for large scale building either, being a finite resource. They're saying resources for concrete are also diminishing.

[@gudmundursteinar]

@@ToniGlick Eh? Peat is grass and soil. There is no lack of that in Iceland. Indeed, grassland the same size as the city can easily provide more than enough peat for the entire city.. every 2-3 years. Concrete is made from limestone and sand, there is more than enough sand and more than enough limiestone in the world.

[@Tanjaaraus]

My neighbor, here in Norway, got a peat roof. But they have opted for moss, cloves, and other naturally low heigh plants for the roof to avoid the mowing. I also want that type of roofing for my future house - due to the isolating effects, but also because I think it's beautifull. I don't think mud or dirt bricks are a good idea with the walls though. due to the severe cold and bad winter storms we can get here. there is just so, so, soo much water lol. But wood walls, with rockwool and wool insulating layers are a good option. So still somewhat natural, and I live in a country that is more woods than anything.

[@ladyflimflam]

@@gudmundursteinar i wonder if you are using the word peat where turf would be more correct. Peat is partially decomposed grass and often compressed. Turf is the living leaf, root and soil complex of grass.

[@gudmundursteinar]

@@Tanjaaraus Yeah, that's how I see modern Peat/Torf housing, it's a decorative extra, not an actual part of the strucutre of the house.

[@ZacharyRodriguezVlogs]

Building with dirt is fun. It's a bundant and you can make a lot of crazy structures with it. From a house, to a bridge, yiu can even use it to safeguard against zombies. It's a really underrated block, and I think it should be used a lot more.

[@TheIronMenace]

You would build a bridge from dirt???????

[@alexisleskinen6090]

@@TheIronMenace yeah, it's better than sand and gravel at least

[@satadenai9182]

just don't build in flood plain or on the beach, or in a swamp, or in places with heavy monsoon weather events

[@Nocare89]

I made a crown with that block.

[@JLCL01]

@@satadenai9182 woah monsoons? What version is that in? 😳

[@zerahmot1787]

I briefly stayed with a family in a small Kenyan village that had a clay home the father built himself. I got super envious when he talked about his ability to add rooms and move walls when his family’s needs changed.

[@TristouMTL]

"Now back to talking about dirt." Always appreciate your humour! And adding only 6% concrete made the bricks stable and weather-resistant? Wow. Brilliant.

[@MrChillerNo1]

related results can be acchived with lime. Which is less environmentally problematic, can often be locally sourced and binds CO2 whhile getting harder over time. Of course you won't reach the same stability as with concrete, but its massively better than mud bricks alone. Keep up th e interest.

[@farmboycharlie6543]

I my earthship my finish rendering is in what I call a stabilized Adobe. Along with the normal sand and clay I also add hydrated lime and masonry cement instead of Portland cement. Finish then is more moisture tolerant and still resists cracking. Note anytime you can use lime over Portland I highly advise it as it finishes nicer and flows more like earth plasters. Lime renderings over earth bricks or waddle and daub is old world proven so stabilizing rammed earth or earth plasters only makes sense. Sadly won't know if it stands up to the time-test for another 25 years or so. Can tell you first 15 went fine

[@priestesslucy]

@@MrChillerNo1 do you know what percentage of Lime to soil is ideal?

[@MrChillerNo1]

@@priestesslucy en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material) no idea exactly, Have also a look at lime ash floors. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime-ash_floor for ideas of how to reinforce bricks. Testing out local materials is still the best method to find the right mixture. But I guess less than 1/3 by volume.

[@turun_ambartanen]

They add 6% *cement*, not concrete. This is a big difference, as concrete, the building material commonly used contains 10-15% cement itself. And considering the remaining 85%-90% are water and dirt it's not really that crazy to think that using a bit less of the expensive stuff and more dirt would make a slightly worse, but still very much usable material.

[@Kiwjtastic]

Aren't mud bricks highly susceptive to moisture? I remember reading that in antiquity there was a mud brick belt, out of which the material just didn't stand up to erosion. In medieval europe up to modern times it was common to have a stone foundation with a wood frame building, and use earth composite materials to fill out the walls in a "Fachwerk / Riegelhaus" type of construction.

[@irisachternaam]

And the European style spread globally through colonialism.

[@giwingnut8856]

@@irisachternaam if that IS the case, why did the Peasants of Middle Ages Europe use mud/dung/straw to build with. It was the same Elitists we are dealing with today, thus the regulation of building materials, especially in America, where the government wants you to put your garden on the map. The Boring Company, another Musk business, is using the removed soil to make CEB and giving them away to those building "Affordable Housing". Still, dirt bricks are susceptible to moisture.

[@HallyVee]

There isn't a building material that isn't. Bricks need shelter and protection just like wood and metal. But they frequently cost way less in terms of labor and material cost to coat. Although roofing is as complicated as ever.

[@GeorgeMonet]

@@giwingnut8856 That mud dung and straw were used together to create a form of cement. But those materials were superceded by drywall and insulation which could be produced at scale and easily and more quickly installed by contractors anywhere with very little knowledge or experience needed in comparison. Plus working with dung is unpleasant.

[@giwingnut8856]

@@GeorgeMonet Agreed. But frankly, I would rather work with dung than run certain other risks. Like formaldehyde found in some drywall or chemicals released from newer carpets and such. Thankfully, I have an older home. The point of my comment was, don't blame an entire community for the actions of a few. Place the blame where it belongs. "Why does the sun never set on the British Empire? Because, not even God trusts an Englishman (oligarch) in the dark." - Scottish Proverb.

[@Bendigo1]

One major factor is using soil as building materials is that is needs to be the right type of soil for it to work. Africa has an abundance of the right type of soil because of the lack of vegitation in the soil, making it much more dense and sticky. In areas where trees and grass are abundant, the soil tends to be less dense and will fall apart much faster when compressed into bricks. That is the main reason why those building materials are not legal in many areas. The problem with using anything as a main source of building is that it will eventually become less abundant as it is used more. Trees in the united states is a perfect example of this. When settlers arrived and saw the abundace of trees, the main building source became wood. It took several hundred years before we realized that we were destroying the forrests by using wood as a main building source and started limiting the amount we use to build with. If we ban wood building and go back to only using clay, it will not be long before clay deposits start running out and we will have to find a new material. There is no ONE way that is the best. The best is using a mix of all sources in moderation and allowing time for them to replenish before they are totally gone and we need to adapt new methods.

[@adelaferreira4575]

And yet ,in the US they keep building out of wood only,instead of playing with different materials,yes soil has to be a certain color and density,to build cob houses , but there’s more soil on earth then any other building material,cement companies ,don’t like to be replaced and wood companies as well ,hurricanes and tornados keep eating wood houses !

[@johgude5045]

@@adelaferreira4575 The solution could be a combination of both wood and soil. And modern machinery to make these materials up to a certain standardized toughness to meet regulations. OSB is a sample for this

[@elijahclaude3413]

They knew they were destroying the forests wayyyyy earlier than a few hundred years lol. Natives were telling them that after a few decades, probably even earlier as they kept killing the old growth forests and had no respect for indigenous knowledge. Many societies throughout history were able to maintain the use of resources through sustainable practices rather than just blind consumption. This is an avoidable problem. Simply use less, use it more strategically, and ensure you have a reliable way to replace what you take

[@pajerry33]

Great comment

[@blademasterzero]

Build with rock. There is far more stone on our world then all other resources. Just dig down

[@SoLNaTaL555]

We need a whole series on dirt building! I want to create a whole sustainable village using organic materials.

[@Interdimensional_Chihuahua]

I have thought about this for a while. We would need to consume so much less energy for air conditioning if we built partially into the ground, it stays cools in the summer and keeps heat in the winter. You can even use hobbits to market it!

[@michaelbread5906]

It's like that some places in Australia. We in California are a little scared of earthquakes, and you won't find a cellar in the state outside of some rich person's wine cellar.

[@MrDavibu]

But you have no window and no air circulation and also no day light. I guess most of these things can be solved, but still not optimal. And don't know how much more maintainance the building needs. Would probably be an awful time when a fire hits or a flooding.

[@satadenai9182]

There's a technique that uses a fan to push warm air into pipes inside cool earth, to produce cool air for less energy. No need to live within the dirt, if all we want is the coolness.

[@DanielScholtus]

Notice he says "partially into the ground", are your windows normally at ground level? I feel like many houses could be built a yard below and still have the same amount of daylight but with better termal properties. Now, not sure how would you solve flooding if your house is below ground level...

[@Interdimensional_Chihuahua]

It would probably be most convenient to build into hillsides for this purpose, and wouldn't be suitable for flood plains. As an example bag end is built into the side of a hill and some people do live in caves which are typically in hills

[@dailyrider2975]

There was a an old Church/school building from the 1800s in San Diego County. It was determined that it had to be torn down as they could not ascertain the quality of the construction. Now it had already survived many earthquakes and storms over the years. Turns out the construction was so strong it cost them 2x -3x as much as estimated to demo. Just an example of how being old doesn't mean poorly made. Bureaucracy also hamstrings possibilities with over regulation.

[@onanysundrymule3144]

I bet what they really meant was that it had to be torn down because some developer wanted to built some expensive high profit margin inner-city 'gentrification' dwellings or a Finance/Stockbroker office tower block there!!

[@RandHdoggy]

I went to the university of buffalo for architecture and spent 3 semesters in grad school making and working with CEB’s and mud mortar to try and create a system for colder climates. It’s an amazing material that makes too much sense not to be used more. Love your video!

[@HosCreates]

how does it work in cooler climates that get from -20F - 20F regularly in winter with freeze and thaw ? ?

[@nick11crafter]

Seeing that it has terrible r-value I was thinking that that is likely the issue keeping it from being used in more northern regions. You say you were studying that, could you share what you found?

[@RandHdoggy]

We haven’t studied the R-value as it’s not really great in that regard. However in a wall assembly it can serve as a good weather guard in the same way we use bricks as facia in this part of the world. To answer how it works in cooler climates and resists weathering comes down to the different ingredients you add to the block, you need a larger array of different sized aggregates to deal with the freeze that cycle and very strong bonders. We found that 7-9% Portland cement made them comparable to a cmu in strength.

[@cheifei]

Hi fellow UBer. Do you have more info (like somewhere in UB's library) on your discoveries about it?

[@RandHdoggy]

@@cheifei unfortunately it hasn’t been posted yet, I’m guessing there are still a handful of semesters before it’ll be published.

[@johnlinnemeier9624]

I'm a great believer in architecture that doesn't look like it's intruding on the environment. I'm also a retired painting contractor. Some basic paints like classic off white or "COW' as it's sometimes called, contains clay of a standardized color. It might be fun to mix the natural occurring clay from around the building site with small amounts of detritus like ground up leaves and bark surrounding the structure you're putting up. Something akin to this was done in Umbria in the Middle Ages. If anyone wants to take this idea and run with it, feel free. Incidentally you're probably already aware of the extraordinary mud mosques and houses also found in Mali. 50 years ago a friend and I awoke on the roof of a house in a Dogon village we'd arrived in after dark. It was a moment that makes you realize why you travel.

[@slXD100]

my favorites are classic central/northern european log houses.

[@dennynikaj]

The natural style that make the building look like it is part of the nature is called Genius Loci-(lat/ Spirit of the Place), albanian architecture is so heavy on this movement, also the mud bricks were a big part of architecture, but not anymore unfortunately.

[@johnlinnemeier9624]

@@dennynikaj What a marvelous Latin phrase! I’ll bet the Japanese have a word or phrase for it as well

[@johnlinnemeier9624]

@@hhjhj393 A great architect can turn the simple materials used to make a shed or warehouse and create spaces that inspire. This structure is an example.

[@MadamoftheCatHouse]

The school building is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

[@roystonlodge]

One might note that every example in the video comes from a very dry part of the world where protection from rain and snow isn't a priority.

[@bacilluscereus1299]

Surely sizing the roof appropriately for typical precipitation is done in areas where this material is employed. Perhaps a surface treatment exists for repelling moisture?

[@aleenaprasannan2146]

Mud brick buildings are part of our culture here in tropical rainforest climate of India, which gets two heavy monsoon seasons every years. My great grandmother stayed in a mud brick home with tiled A frame roof and she stayed in it till her passing, after seeing three more generations. The house was still fine and it was only demolished because there was no one staying in it anymore. So if a mud brick house can hold up for four generation in a place with two seasons of torrential monsoon, if will be fine. I'm guessing that the A- frame roof was the key because I have seen compound walls built with mud bricks will also have sloping rooftiles or thatching on its top.

[@aleenaprasannan2146]

@@bacilluscereus1299 Yes there are different sealing techniques for walls and floors in many cultures.

[@pauljs75]

Also it's likely there's not too much geological activity like earthquakes where shifting structures may be a concern. Having to reinforce and allow for that makes construction practices a lot more challenging.

[@tylerslagel5485]

@@bacilluscereus1299There’s also severe weather events you can’t really plan for without the thickness or sizing getting too impractical. There IS a reason we moved onto steel and concrete: They’re less vulnerable to the elements. Extreme or otherwise.

[@chamuuemura5314]

This is great! I actually designed an “earth” homestead with an architect friend. The only problem is we live in an earthquake-prone region making adjustments necessary.

[@thornyback]

I live in Iceland where you have to submit your building plans for public record. You can literally walk through Reykjavik and pick yourself a structure you'd like to copy or adjust and then get all of the drawings for it - up to Icelandic and EU code in a very earthquake prone area. We had a volcanic eruption last year and before that the ground shook in Reykjavík for months. I'm on the 10th floor in a building built 1960 and although I could feel all the vibrations stronger than people on the ground it was amazing that the building didn't even crack. Good cement is key here.

[@sydyidanton5873]

@@thornyback That’s impressive, not a crack? I wonder what the use to provide that degree of forgiveness, the mortar must have some flexibility also to withstand that degree of stress. I would expect the building codes to be of a high standard in Western Europe, particularly Scandinavian countries and your country where designs are both intelligent and extremely attractive. I love the incorporation of many natural materials such as timber. It would be terrific to visit Iceland someday, such unique and beautiful topography with so many thermally active areas, quite a contrast the snow and ice. I seriously ought to have been born in such an appealing climate, I love winter. It is now summer here in Australia and New Zealand, the temperatures are okay at the moment, next month they’ll fly through the roof, I would gladly trade that for snow! Have a safe and enjoyable holiday season. Cheers, Anton

[@thornyback]

@@sydyidanton5873 Oh, don't get me wrong, we've got cracks due to leak and frost, just not earthquakes :D

[@annak804]

Cob would be great material then as it hardens to earthquake proof structures

[@Sgt.chickens]

@@sydyidanton5873 Honestly a large majority of building codes standard in western europe comes from the weather. if your homes are built with too little insulation. hundreds to thousands of older retirees will die of the cold each winter. the homes having to be up to code for weather and extreme wind makes them pretty decent against shaking ground allready. iceland is one of the more serious places for high quality builds because of its large ammount of geological activity. In other parts of western europe earthquakes are not really common. and certainly not large ones.

[@jonathanallen2390]

As an engineering student this is a very eye-opening watch! In the US, and especially in western prairie regions, in school we learn about the earth-based dugouts called "soddies" that western pioneers lived in. Rather than building up (which was rather limited due to the lack of lumber on the plains), settlers would dig downward and use the naturally dense roots of the native grasses to keep the soil clumped overhead. In theory they were cool in the summers and warm in the winters, withstood the constant winds of the plains, and were both simple and readily available; however, their single biggest flaw, evidently, was that the soil composition fared poorly in rough weather - a facet I'm pleased you touched upon. Once again, a very informative video

[@yoshilovesyoshi]

I really like the brick aesthetic, and you've made great points about sustainability and even thermoregulation. However, the main reason (that I know of) we don't use CEBs in California is because compressed materials don't flex, and we need them to flex in order to withstand earthquakes. I'm sure however, this might be remedied with rebar or steel beams, but if it was that easy, I think Californian builders would have started doing that already, especially because of how expensive land is here.

[@eragon78]

Yea, there are advantages and disadvantages to every type of material used. Thats not to say CEBs are bad, but they do come with many disadvantages and are not suitable for every area or application. That doesnt mean they cant be used though. For certain applications they definitely can be used and should be encouraged. But yea, it just depends. You cant fully replace steel and concrete structures, because sometimes a structure needs those materials to be safe.

[@yoshilovesyoshi]

@@eragon78 Yes for sure! I never meant to say that CEBs are bad, I think they're super cool! But I like the way you said it better, they "are not suitable for every area or application."

[@TheGrinningViking]

Bugs, vermin, wet weather not being kind to these buildings, and lack of light or airflow, are the main barriers.

[@jameshunt2905]

I’d offer there is much to explore on this in California as there are regions where adobe has been used extensively and where evidence of enduring shifts due to earthquakes and has held up well. See Petaluma California/ Adobe Road and several areas around Sonoma and Napa also still have buildings that originated some 200 years ago.

[@kkgauthier]

@@TheGrinningViking "Bugs, vermin, wet weather not being kind to these buildings, and lack of light or airflow" are not any more of a problem with CEBs than with pine beams and drywall. If you're a homeowner, you know these problems all too well in the American suburbs.

[@jayski9410]

I was always drawn to the "earth sheltered" architecture of Malcolm Wells in the 1970's & 80's. Actually building into the earth rather than making blocks out of it just seemed to make so much sense. Although you have to be very conscious of drainage on the site when you build this way. And of course solar orientation is important so you bring natural light into the interior and not wind up with a cave.

[@John_Doe-007]

You should check out "The $50 and up underground house book" by Mike Oehler, he put a lot of thought into building with natural materials underground, and built multiple homes in various climates over multiple decades, one day I plan on building a Mike Oehler style house and greenhouse.

[@Zeagods-CyberShadow]

The one that has stuck with Faroe Islands is the houses that use Grass roofs though not every does this its still one of the oldest house features of Faroe Islands

[@heronimousbrapson863]

Homesteaders in North America often built dwellings out of sod in areas where wood was not readily available.

[@roystonlodge]

Yabbut, they were built as a temporary measure. The homesteaders built wood and/or brick houses as soon as they could afford to. According to one source I found online, the average stay in a sod house was five years. Soddies needed constant maintenance because they would absorb moisture and settle. The walls were breeding grounds for insects and rodents. Earth-based construction works best in dry climates.

[@nicholasnissen1547]

The plains had lots of sod houses.

[@mr51406]

Lovely video! ❤️ Kéré is an admirable architect. And good luck on the masters!🍀 Suggestion: universities should encourage students to make educational videos like this one as an alternative to the traditional paper or even thesis. It’s accessible, still requires all the writing and research, but also helps broadcast the knowledge to the world, not collect dust in the department library.

[@ARTiculations]

Thanks professor Frank! I totally agree and in fact my class actually did have a video making component! Except, I still had to write a traditional paper haha and the video couldn’t be longer than five minutes, which is why this version of the video is somewhat different from my assignment. But yeah I was so excited when I saw one of my assignments was make a video about your essay topic I was like wow it’s a class designed for me!!! 😂

[@stormveil]

Video Essay. ☹pfft Video Thesis. YEEEAAAAH 😍

[@Igorooooleynikov]

no please, then yt will be flooded with low effort and low quality biased content with bad research.

[@ARTiculations]

@@Igorooooleynikov the research requirement a college student needs to meet is higher than the vast majority of research KZbinrs do. College papers usually need multiple sources from scholarly and peer reviewed publications and students are not allowed to use Wikipedia. Sure not all college papers are good but there are much more poor quality content on KZbin than college student videos.

[@itoobable]

@@Igorooooleynikov hahaha ya, totally a risk!! Hopefully more skilled academics like this one will feel inspired to post :)

[@DaxxTerryGreen]

Some of us haven't stopped building with dirt. I just helped Red Dirt Design Build in Carrboro, NC build a nice curved rammed earth wall near there. Rammed Earth is awesome. So are Earthships.

[@nhansen197]

I remember the adobe buildings in and around Monterey California. In order to keep the old historic buildings from turning into big piles of mud in heavy rain they needed to have layers of plaster and paint on them refreshed regularly. Some of the buildings have sheeting on the side of the building where the worst storms came from, and all had wide overhangs. Every last one had to be retrofitted for earthquakes.

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@BIGBIRDSMEAL what do you mean nothing comes up, this is pretty basic, what were you typing in when you looked it up?

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@BIGBIRDSMEAL theres no such thing as keeping building principles state secrets, or rather anyone who does is mentally deficient to the point of me genuinely asking why they havent been shot yet.

[@juangoria3517]

I grew up on a house built with adobe bricks and moisture on the walls has always been a problem. In time those bricks become almost like sand, very unstable and definitely it wouldn't last an earthquake

[@xiemeon2268]

Here in Germany there are more and more people building their one or two storey homes by stacking hay bales and finishing the outside and inside with a layer of clay. The fire resistance had to be tested and approved by authorities first, but the materials excelled at all tests. Building with hay bales ist rather fast (die to their size) and the insulation is great as you perhaps can imagine. I quite like to see a video about this here 😀

[@AuroraLalune]

Doesn’t that have downsides like rodents? And what do you do when it degrades?

[@sockymcblackface7698]

@AuroraLalune flax bales last as long as any modern house. They're are piles of them in my area, as the only way to get rid of it efficiently is to burn it. Even if you break it up and turn it up into the ground, it will cause you issues for years. Check out how the Japanese did it, they have homes hundreds of years old built in this fashion

[@peoplez129]

Hay bales are awful in the long term without lots of preventative maintenance. They're quick and easy in the short term, but they're a haven for pests you don't want living in your walls, from small rodents to insects. And it's going to happen, because there will always be some hole or crack somewhere. They also have no real structural stability. You bump up against a wall hard enough, and you're either going through it or causing some sort of shift, and eventually after enough shifts, something somewhere will crack. And when the coating does finally start coming apart, it's just an ugly mess and even if you add another layer to make it look cosmetically good again, it doesn't change the fact that the inner layer is still falling apart, and also a bad support structure for the new outer layer. And when hay bale homes do catch fire...well they burn really well.

[@XMaster340]

@@peoplez129 That's why Fachwerkhäuser exist. Just place your haybales into a supporting structure of wood logs and you're golden. Thats how they built it in medieval times and a lot of those houses still stand to this day.

[@paddington1670]

Coming down in the first earthquake they get................. yes i am aware.

[@senoje]

I love the idea of using natural products from the Earth whenever possible. I love the young man's designs and so happy to see him helping others. Thank you for sharing.

[@SameAsAnyOtherStranger]

This video reminded me of an article I read in Scientific American about ancient Iranian Arch Vaults. One page listed on the search page had the word "arch" separated from "itecture." I just never noticed the connection. Anyway, I always thought that would be a whole cool thing to revive as a building technique. The bricks are made of mostly sand and straw. The originals are huge and have stood for millennia.

[@skyval6359]

The techniques are alive and well in New Mexico ... all types of earthen constuction thrives there .

[@ppqp83]

"architecture" actually comes from the greek words archós ‘chief’, and téctōn ‘builder’

[@SameAsAnyOtherStranger]

@@skyval6359 Thanks for the information. That matches with my affinity for both places.

[@ToniGlick]

This is a brilliant concept in the appropriate region. I'm from Arizona where adobe and rammed earth is used but the addition of concrete for stability makes sense. Also love the raised roof to allow for airflow. Sorely needed in hot climates.

[@jesusmywholehaschanged]

Does the concrete affect the cooling/heating properties of traditional mud homes?

[@kenandzana]

Totally agree. I live in tropical north Queensland Australia and I have built two earth homes. One was traditional mud brick and the house that I am presently living in is a sinva rammed earth block home. The reason that earth is not used more extensively is that most western populations are never presented with the truth about earth construction. Also, the west is not a tribal society and earth construction is labor-intensive and you have to be fit to build by yourself. Yes, lobbying has also played a big part in keeping Earth construction to the rural regions. Earth is in my experienced view an answer for low-cost urban housing in Australia.

[@sadarax4405]

I would be interested to hear your take on how places with extreme weather shifts throughout the year should deal with materials. The United States for example has areas that see scorching hot summers, very wet autumns, and extremely cold and snow winters.

[@TheGrinningViking]

It's only even vaguely a reasonable choice in hot, dry, areas with less rodents and bugs. Even then, not great.

[@meteorstarthearcher5350]

@@TheGrinningViking I would agree. I live in the us and I could already imagine how it would feel to have a mole or soemthing dig through my walls 😂We already have to deal with termites!

[@banjo3751]

Yea….. build a city with dirt 😂😂. We have advanced past the cave men and this chic wants to revert so we can save the planet 😂😂

[@WhoMe87799]

Same. Here in Idaho we can get 100F degrees for weeks or months in the summer and then get temps below zero in the winter. There is almost always snow on the ground from December thru February. The fall isn't usually that wet though.

[@gjh42]

It is not temperature swings that are the issue, but moisture. Earthen buildings need appropriate protection, or a culture of constant maintenance. Earthen materials are actually superior for rapid temperature swings, not so much for constantly cold climates.

[@rebeccajesse4604]

A huge issue my pharmacy school was teaching me about is voluntourism, where people impose their own culture/ideals/methods on another country without any thought as to wether it is needed, wanted, or sustainable. The fact that Mr. Kere was from that culture and knew the strengths of his community and asked for and used their insight and ideas is paramount in making sure that the school can be used for decades. It empowers the community rather than pities them. Great demonstration!

[@nakzadi4015]

Agreed with everything you said 👍🏼

[@paddington1670]

@Julian Kazmier countries join NATO because theyre afraid of being invaded by typical russian aggression. NATO is a defensive organization that has never been mobilized because no one is stupid enough to invade a NATO country and draw ALL of the members into conflict. Thank god NATO exists to protect those who want to link arms with the international community for safety. And the institution youre grabbing at straws to make a point is the UN peacekeepers who tried to keep peace in the Balkans. If youre going to point fingers at least get it right.

[@oxylepy2]

@Julian Kazmier 'Murica!

[@dashsocur]

Definitely, I remember reading an article written by someone who did one of those "voluntourism" trips in college but (unlike most people) actually paid attention to what was going on. Her group of college students was building a some kind of cinder block structure for an African village (don't remember if it was a school, clinic, or something else). Given that none of them had any construction (much less masonry) experience the construction quality was extremely poor. What she noticed, however was that it was substantially improved each morning compared to where it had been left off. She asked about it and (after much prodding) got one of the locals to admit that the village men completely dismantled the students' work and rebuilt it each and every night because they (understandably) wanted a good structure in the end but also didn't want to offend the tourists who were funding the construction. If it was really about giving that village a new building, it could have been done much more cheaply and in less time by simply buying the materials and having the locals build it (as they ended up doing in the end). Instead, it was really about giving those students a feel-good Instagram-worthy experience that kind-of-maybe helped some poorer people in the process. When you really look into it, it's even worse as these kind of projects also out-compete any domestic attempts to build a construction industry as they can't compete with "free." In trying to "help" the 3rd World, these well-meaning people are making it even more dependent on charity.

[@TheRealNickG]

Dave's not here, man.....

[@richardjohnson8796]

The sponsor for this video actually looks beneficial, and this is the first time I've actually gone into the site to check it out. It's late on a Sunday night my time, so I'll likely be signing up into it tomorrow and seeing what opportunities it holds. Nice video, I loved it, and I'll be sure to check out more!

[@davidmorin7939]

That was an amazing video! Having a background in building construction as a firefighter and builder, I like the fact that they naturally fire resistant. Keep them coming and I hope it will open some eyes!

[@maximthemagnificent]

A big benefit of on-site automated home construction (including, but not limited to, 3D printing) versus a pre-manufactured approach is the ability to more easily use heavy materials with lots of thermal mass. Dirt seems like a great fit.

[@expressmangaming650]

I'd be curious about radon levels in some of those in-ground and partially in-ground buildings.

[@cloverfields6339]

Are radon levels known to be high in the ground? Any particular geological region? Genuinely curious, I haven't heard this before.

[@Ifakojesfd]

this video is SO interesting, I had never considered why we don't build with earth anymore. Thank you so much for sharing 🎁

[@George_M_]

"why did so many die in the earthquake?" "Because their clay and stone houses pancaked" I'm not convinced. At least in my area.

[@darthroach9057]

I was just going to say this.

[@luisfelix7989]

Where do you live? Or is this an inside joke?

[@gjh42]

Earthquake zones are not appropriate areas for unreinforced earth construction. There are lots of areas where that is not a concern, and earthen materials are appropriate.

[@innovativeatavist159]

I think some of it is that there's a certain latitude or level of humidity/precipitation level where even the most sophisticated adobe starts to simply fall apart. BUT further north people used turf roofs and earth bermed houses, which is the same basic principle. Part of the building code problem is also that many of them were targeted specifically at "shanty towns". They were designed to be very specific or take up more space in order to have a readily available excuse to evict poor people who had settled on unclaimed land decades prior, and bulldoze their homes for private development, industrial output (think river towns vs shipping), or simply because they disliked them.

[@brandondavis7777]

As a Mason, I like the Hempcrete bricks that have come about recently. Very good stuff, and hemp is just a wonderful product.

[@СергійМайоров-м2у]

You just had to mention that you're a mason.. It really correlates with everything else you've written(no)

[@phillipmosin]

@@СергійМайоров-м2у A mason is a person that works with stone and bricks

[@ksamusilver212]

@@СергійМайоров-м2у What do you think masons... do?

[@СергійМайоров-м2у]

@@ksamusilver212 it's obvious, it's in the name, mason jars..

[@T3n50r]

@@ksamusilver212 dude is mistaking it for freemasons, haha

[@daniell1483]

As a child, there was this house I'd often pass when going to school, or the store, or whatever, and I couldn't help but be fascinated with it because of its unique design. My mother told me it was an "earth contact house", I don't know if that is the right terminology or not, but the house looked very similar to a Hobbit hole, but the sole side of the house facing the street had a more traditional brick and mortar siding. I always thought that looked like such a cool home. Then, when I bought my first home, I was disappointed how all the houses you can buy in the US are standard houses, not at all similar in style to that one I so admired growing up. When I get a new home, I'd like it to be one that takes advantage of the many benefits outlined in this video. Maybe get a Hobbit hole for myself!

[@onanysundrymule3144]

It sounds like it would have been a compacted earth house (rammed earth) from your mother's description.

[@thebigdawg61]

We take dirt, mix it with water, form it into rectangular solid, bake those in an oven and then use them for brick walls. We use a very similar method for roof shingles.

[@brettstone87]

Living in Peru for a couple years, almost all the rural homes and many businesses were adobe / mud brick. The materials were inexpensive, but like others have mentioned, quite labor intensive. The other things going against them are earthquakes and rain. Peru often experiences large earthquakes and I was truly afraid of being in an adobe building during one. Especially since the effects of rain were very obvious at the base of adobe buildings where the rain splatters would erode away the bottom layer of bricks significantly. I think there may be ways to overcome those issues, but definitely need to be considered.

[@susandoerr3896]

bamboo is used for strengthening inside some mud dwellings.

[@bartvanderoordt510]

in iceland most earthen buildings have a small foundation of rocks to avoid this problem

[@samuraijackoff5354]

A strong foundation and support

[@danielrickel8807]

I once helped move someone into an underground house, ever since I’ve wondered why more people aren’t building them. It was a very hot day (95f) and yet the inside of the house was cool without the air conditioning being on!

[@xe-wf5iv]

Underground comes with huge problems dealing with the water. Generally you will need a run a dehumidifier 24/7 in underground structures, which power wise is the same thing as running an AC unit 24/7.

[@HosCreates]

some people need sunshine to be happy .Me I couldn't live underground without good windows

[@oftin_wong]

I like air flow

[@GalliadII]

I find living underground to be depressing. the lack of sunlight destroys your circadian rhythm and causes vitamin D deficiency. And that can both cause depression.

[@lloydbenham]

Very encouraging video! I live in a region where volcanic rock is abundant, and would love to see it used more in habitat construction. I've seen several small "castles" built with it, and was very impressed. I understand consistency and safety are concerns, but can be overcome.

[@willy5241]

Wow at our School in Germany Mr Kéré visited and told us all about the advancements and how you could use it. We even held a very successful run for charity for his project, i think our school collected over 30k in the end. So glad to see he has found more success in helping others ❤

[@josephertz5786]

We stopped building with dirt because we found rocks.

[@Behr-hammer]

Got 'er

[@ajmosutra7667]

I wanted to say this, as a person living in the mediterranian area, we use rocks and its very isolating and enduring but hard and costly to build

[@josephertz5786]

@@ajmosutra7667 I learned something that I didn't know. Thank you for the education

[@TheFedor47]

Rocks are very bad insulation. It has good static properties because of how hard it is but it has poor insulating abilities. I am from Central Europe, we have many castles built from rocks, they were very cold, Lords would even put carpets around the walls to minimize the radiation of cold. Just put your hand on a rock or sand in the summer and I guarantee it's going to be very hot then do that in winter and it's going to be cooler than the ground itself. The reason why the stone buildings are cool in the summer is because the walls are usually very thick, but good luck trying to heat such buildings in the winter. If we talk about primitive raw materials you want to use material which has low heat transfer, like wood for example, wooden houses are cool in summer and warm in winter. Where I am from all houses used to be made of wood despite the fact there is an abundance of rocks and stones around since I am from a mountainous area. Some people would build from mud, but the walls were over one meter thick and the buildings were used mostly for livestock and hay storage and they were not as resilient in wet weather. It's all about the heat transfer, the more heat the material transfers the thicker the wall needs to be, so more material needs to be used. Actually you don't want your walls to freeze at all, because the moisture inside will freeze and form cracks, that will shorten the longevity of your house. That's why we put insulation on top of the walls, so there would be no condensation and no freezing inside the walls.

[@TheFedor47]

@@lazaruslazuli6130 You are right, the word I used is not the correct scientific terminology. So read it as following please "The Lords used to put carpets on the castle walls in order to put a barrier between the rock wall and the rest of the interior in an attempt to reduce heat absorption by the rock walls."

[@lopaka76]

7:08 I live in Phoenix Az and I have wondered how well a roof for the roof could help cool a house.

[@HallyVee]

Always dreamed of living in a rammed earth or CEB or cob house. Roofing however never gets any simpler :)

[@deadwingdomain]

Rammed Earth has such a nice look.

[@ryancoakley]

Very informative video! One thing to mention is that buildings made from dirt are really not built for wind and rain. Great for homes in the desert, but myself coming from the great lakes region, where we get plenty of lake effect snow and weather, building a dirt home is impractical. Modern stick framing (framing with 2x4s) has proven to be exceptional and affordable. It is much more resistant to water damage, can shift in the wind instead of buckle, and is easier to install electrical, plumbing, and hvac in.

[@bartvanderoordt510]

iceland scotland germany and england all have traditionally earthen buildings some of which still stand after more than 500 years though most of these structures have a wooden structural elements its still a very building material.

[@ryancoakley]

@@bartvanderoordt510 Many of the countries you just mentioned have wooden framed structures that were erected over a thousand years ago that are still standing. Never have I ever seen a dirt house where I live, and that's probably for good reason.

[@agalie7139]

My grandparents had an old mud-brick house ( 200 years) and also a new type house with brick and cement. Each year during summer vacation I was helping them to repair the old house , replacing the lose earth were the rain got, patching the rodent holes , repainting ... well to add more resistance they used some horse manure mixed with the earth ( not any kind of earth either) . I was the only youngster to accepted to put his hands in the manure so I think that's one reason of moving on to modern building materials. After the passing of my grandparents the propriety was inhabited form 3 years and the old house just crumbled on itself. Today with the increase prices of the building materials it will became trendy to use again the earth but it will be economically viable only in the countries were the work-hands are cheap.

[@jjano2320]

People didn't expect their buildings to last forever and used what they had.

[@Bateluer]

Such passively cooled structures, rammed earth construction, etc, should get move attention in desert climates. Phoenix Arizona's common wood frame and stucco material for residential constructions are very . . . sub optimal.

[@paulsophocleous2544]

Excellent video! If this is an adaptation of one of your assignments, I'm sure you'll get top marks!

[@ARTiculations]

Thank you! I just got my grades today and…I got an A! 😊

[@adelaferreira4575]

I have an Arquitect friend who build her restaurant with strawbale and mud in the 90’s ,the building is there like she build it last year,it’s beautiful,insulated( it’s hot around here in summer) warm in winter and cool in summer,earth building is fabulous ,and yes cement is practical,but a combination of both is very smart ,thanks,great illuminating video ,big fun of earth building !

[@coffeyvideoproductions7767]

I love that roof at 7:00. I've been thinking of what I call an umbrella roof for a few weeks now. It's interesting to see one actually built and performing the function I thought it would. How does it hold up to heavy wind? Is it noisy?

[@Muljinn]

Probably depends in part on how the prevailing winds hit the structure.

[@furripupau]

I think the term is "double roof" although that gets a bit confusing because the same term is used for several different meanings. But if a building has a roof that is covered by another roof, giving an air space in between, "double roof" seems to be the common term in English. The space between the inner and outer roof provides venting, and the outer roof shades the inner roof preventing heat build up.

[@aaronpoole5531]

I would love to see more natural buildings. Although in the UK, the closest I've seen is a stone cottage.

[@Igorooooleynikov]

With uk weather - itvus unlikely. I saw cork brick house on youtube, but it had its own quirks. Moisture, microbes, mold, disibtegration are priblrm for any natural material. Even wooden houses need a lot of shit to not disintegrate in 10 years.

[@fairyheli2]

There's not a huge difference between mud and clay bricks, other than the firing that makes them resistant to water

[@CountingStars333]

Clay brick is natural

[@madisonbrigman8186]

I believe daub and wattle is essentially straw and clay. I know those buildings are very common in continental Europe in some places but I believe they also are in England?? with the right upkeep they stay in good shape and can last literal hundreds of years.

[@farmboycharlie6543]

They are all over the UK just have to know what to look for. Look for either a green or living roof or a thatched or slate roof. As she sad they fell from fashion and were manly a commoners or farmers house. Most now would be a couple hundred or more years old and many have been covered with "modern' finishes and a more conventional roof system

[@daveman9712]

I used to work in outdoor science education. At an educational conference, I made a birdhouse out of cob, and the thing weighed about 50 pounds! Anyway I think we should try to build more things with earth and clay. Last I heard one of the main issues is that these materials don't meet building code for earthquakes. But with adding some concrete to the mix and with either steel or heavy wood timbers for the frame, it seems possible and indeed has been done in some places. I'd love to see more of this. Thank you for making this video.

[@ThisIsSuperSelf]

Love this, the mud houses are just so beautiful as well.

[@kerrybailey7599]

I built my own house from mud bricks which I made in my early forties. I became very slim, very strong and very happy and went on to expand it a few years later. It was beautiful to live in and having moved away from it in my later years, I do still miss it, even though I have a lovely home. Cheers from Australia,

[@johnree6106]

Concrete is basically a mixture of earth- limestone, sand, clay, rocks, and other martial.

[@Igorooooleynikov]

I think those bricks are for countries with stable weather. In places with summer +35 and winter -35 those bricks just disintegrate into dirt during autumn or spring.

[@HallyVee]

Like all building materials you have to coat them with protection from the weather. In dirt's case it usually just needs a water proof coat every few decades.

[@songweaver6076]

the bricks are stabilized

[@danielboughton3624]

if the vikings could use them there must have been a way. One thing a lot of people do not know is old clay bricks were also pretty unstable. They had a hard surface but a soft interior and the hard surface would spall when they got wet and then froze and then the soft interior would just erode away. Old houses with these bricks in areas with freeze/thaw cycles need a special mortar and care needs to be taken to protect the brick and replace bricks that have been compromised. When doing any repair work f you use the newer style mortar then they will be ruined in a few years.

[@curiousworld7912]

I like the idea of using locally available and sustainable materials for building. I've seen both mud-built and straw bale houses, which were lovely and the temperature was very comfortable, despite the weather outdoors.

[@CopenhagenDreaming]

In many Western countries straw bales are such an easily accessible and cheap material that it definitely makes more sense than the more labour-intensive mud bricks. (And in, say, Scandinavia, the added insulation is definitely not un-welcome!) So yes, building with what's locally available and finding a way of using those materials to create buildings that fit into a vernacular style and the way people traditionally use their homes in a region definitely makes sense. I'd love to live in a house made of straw...

[@curiousworld7912]

@@CopenhagenDreaming After looking at a few, and seeing how they're made; I'd love to live in one, too. :)

[@kaitlyn__L]

It’s fascinating and illuminating how many English people talk with nothing but romanticism for their clay/cob and straw (“thatch”) millennium old houses, but then will sneer at other countries for “living in dried out (poop)”, sometimes even the same people who live in those old English houses which usually did also incorporate cow poop will say that without even thinking about it. I smell racism.

[@curiousworld7912]

@@kaitlyn__L It would be pretty silly of any English person to mock or deride other cultures from using dung as a building material - considering 'wattle and daub' houses used animal dung, along with straw, sand, and other materials, in their construction.

[@piccalillipit9211]

The same but different - Im sat right now in a 1970's communist built apartment block in Bulgaria - I have no heating on and its -4ºC outside, I have not had the heating on yet and last winter I did not have it on at all, not once. The block is a thermal battery - the 30cm thick concrete walls heat up all summer and release through winter. In summer we have passive cooling cos there is a wind catcher on the roof that pressurizes a column in the centre of the building, you open a window and you get constant cool air blowing through the apartment. Its one of the best buildings I have ever lived in and I have lived all over Europe.

[@sonofeloah]

I have been thinking on this and experimenting for a couple of years now. To strengthen and make more water proof/resistent, simply adding quick lime to clay/cob medium seems to work quiet well. This is going into two experimental constructions, one being a rocket stove and the other for the structure of an earth berm green house.

[@michaelkovalsky4907]

I would suspect the issue is that there is only so much height that can be achieved. Large skyscrappers are probably impossible to build, likewise for large apartment buildings. Certainly, it is doable with steel reinforcements. However, note that this will certainly raise the cost of construction as it takes significantly more time and effort to place each block. There is an economic reason we've switched to other types of building material. We use wood in America because it is readily available and rather easy to work with. Europe used a lot of wood as well, with a combination of locally available organic material (other than wood) to produce the highly pleasing white and wooden framed houses we see in quaint towns. Again though, each one could only support so much height, and certainly was cheaper to manufacture than if we used bricks. Fortunately or unfortunately, especially in advanced economies, brick construction is a luxury.

[@stormveil]

How much height do you really need? Tallest wooden building is 18 storeys, 85m high. A hotel in norway. That's already taller than most buildings

[@HallyVee]

Yeah it's a big limit for sure city centers will no doubt need higher tech stuff. But it's not line we're running out of space to build single family dwellings.

[@robertpearson8798]

@@HallyVee In a political sense we are. I live in Canada, the second largest country in the world with a low population density, yet there's still a big push in my area to have as many of us as possible living in little stacked boxes in the sky.

[@HallyVee]

@@robertpearson8798 another regulatory challenge like the building codes for earth...

[@Ocyla]

The sod houses described in the "Little House on the Prairie' books were always fascinating. Might be a great idea with the terrible cold we're getting up north lately.

[@Angelic_Hero]

the sod houses were typically temporary because they were flawed such as rains could collapse the roof from over saturating the dirt. that's why their sod house was replaced by a log cabin. and also why most hill houses made at least in America are a steel or concrete frame covered in dirt and sod to form the hill. while it fixes the structural issues their are others that cant always be avoided like ground moisture buildup ruining the foundation, frame, or can even build up inside to cause damage to furniture

[@falconerd343]

Woo! The clip of the red rocks at 8:00 is from Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs! I grew up about a mile from there and have been in that exact spot. =D Gorgeous park if anyone wants to visit. =)

[@cult_of_odin]

When I was a teen I built my own dugout cabin in our forest. Dug down about 5 feet and used logs. Even had a fireplace. Took me an entire summer. Best hunting cabin ever. Would hunt and fish from there for years.

[@-MacCat-]

Good luck with your Masters and thanks for sharing this excellent, informative and entertaining piece of work.

[@lesliesmith7312]

I always thought we stopped because dirt can be vastly different based on the area it comes from, it turns to mud when it gets wet, it erodes and slides around due to wind and gravity. Other building materials are a lot more consistent and durable

[@NBH-xh3nq]

Most buildings in Santa Fe and other parts of New Mexico are actually built from concrete made to look like adobe, a few notable structures actually are made of adobe and require heavy maintenance each year. The style is sometimes called faux-dobe

[@--Paws--]

I'm glad Minecraft still teaches its players that using earthen ware, dirt, stone and such are great materials for making their homes and other structures. Dirt, stone and wood are the earliest materials available for construction in Minecraft.

[@cobyboyd4096]

As a structural engineer, I would say earthen construction is not used for safety concerns in natural disasters: earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. Unreinforced earth is simply not strong enough to withstand the forces applied to structures by these events.

[@LuxisAlukard]

Those buildings look great, every single one of them!

[@EpicScizor]

How does earth handle temperature regulation in very cold climates? As far as I know almost nobody has used earth as the main building material in Norway for centuries (millennia?), almost always preferring stone or wood with soil as a filling material. I suspect the abundance of wood is the reason, but it would be interesting to compare the thermoregulation with earth houses. Also my first thought seeing the title was "cozy Hobbit homes in the Shire"

[@ARTiculations]

Based on my understanding earth can still be a good thermal material in cold climates however it probably needs to be used in combination with other methods within a bigger assembly. Probably need to add things like insulation material, air pockets, air and moisture barriers and such. But I think with the high R value of earth, having it as a part of an exterior assembly can lead to better performance than another traditional cladding material. But I think this needs more research, so perhaps this will be another paper I write in the future! Also ye we should all be building hobbit homes too 😂

[@ragnkja]

It’s good insulation, which is half the reason it’s traditionally used to hold down the traditional birch-bark roofs of Scandinavia. These days those roofs tend to have plastic under the turf instead of seven layers of birch bark, but the thermal properties remain the same.

[@zedek_]

On it's own, pure earth can't handle it. However, that is why you mix it with other things, such as in the case of a bale cob home. You say it hasn't been used for centuries, but I suspect you have seen earthen homes without even realizing it. There are even wattle and daub buildings throughout Europe that remain standing (and in active use) since the medieval era.

[@pendlera2959]

I vaguely remember a Lindybeige video where he said mud brick doesn't last long in wet climates.

[@ragnkja]

@@pendlera2959 That depends on how windy it gets when it rains. If the rain tends to fall close to straight down you can protect the walls with overhanging eaves.

[@davidtraugot1405]

Thank you so much for this video! You are not only a perceptive observer and analyst but have become an environmental and ecological crusader and advocate with the professional skills to make a real and practical difference in the world.

[@namastenation4890]

We stopped building with dirt because the banks invented house loans and told you that you need a big house to be happy

[@Geospasmic]

I really hope to be able to make an earth house some day. Probably the only way I'll ever own a home lol

[@seraphcreed840]

The government literally forbidding earth basedd homes is just whacky to me. It was good enough for thousands of years for my ancestors, but can't pass inspection in 2022. Lmfao

[@EdHanulChung1]

I 100% agree with you. I used mud mix with coconut fiber and straw for perfect prevention from the crack as well. It's an excellent building material and cheap and easy to use. I love it!

[@Master_Art_the_Gamer]

I live in Vancouver, Canada. This whole region is a rainforest, which makes wood the traditional go-to material, and earth largely impractical due to how it would wash away. Even so, there has been a strong shift towards more metal, glass, and concrete buildings over the last 30 years or so. I would love to see a return to more local materials. Wooden houses that blend into the forest is a relic of the past, but had a lot of benefits that made it well suited to this environment. For example, we are on a fault line and prone to earthquakes. The flexibility of wood means it survives quakes a lot better than brick and stone structures. When I was a kid, this was common knowledge, but now I'm 40 and I don't see it being talked about anymore, let alone utilised in new buildings.

[@luisfelix7989]

Mmhh, I'm a structural engineer and must disagree vehemently. Reinforced concrete and Reinforced steel structures withstand earthquake movement beyond ability of wooden structures. Perhaps one tiny reason skyscrapers are constructed from reinforced concrete and steel components?

[@dragongrazer7620]

Here in Sweden, wood is the traditional and most abundant building material, I have seen experiments with using wooden beams instead of steel ones, since they dont deform by heat in case of fires. But there is still a lower limit on the hight of possible buildings compared to steel beams. Still a 6 story building constructed entirely from wood is not impossible.

[@Embracehistoria]

So if I build my house out of mud, does that make me an earthbender?

[@jeremyjw]

city councils don't want you to build small cheap houses they want large taxable mansions

[@stevenqirkle]

It would be interesting to see some case studies comparing housing built with dirt vs typical construction materials in various regions. How do they perform in terms of cost, time to build, insulation, environmental impact, etc., vs typical housing. I suspect if dirt were really superior (or more cost effective), we would already be using it more. I would also be interested to know the cost of that school that Kere designed. While it’s a beautiful example of architecture, it also looks very expensive and thus not something that could be easily replicated in other poor communities across Africa.

[@kgoblin5084]

Not sure why the building 'looks' expensive to you, TBH... my impression was it reminded me of those cheap, open air shelters in boy-scout camp. That's probably a bit unfair on my part, but it doesn't have hardware like doors/windows; no air conditioning, it's basically JUST the structure itself, which is obviously carefully designed to be easy to build (only 1 story, a few simple shapes repeated over & over). Not sure where you're getting the additional apparent expense from. I would agree that the video most certainly glossed over labor & maintenance costs. However, the other side of that coin is in less industrialized countries, labor is often cheaper than materials, which I think would apply to the Kere build & replicating it elsewhere in Africa. If you were to build the same thing in the USA... yeah you'd get killed on the labor, because labor costs more than any material in the USA period. The biggest con IMHO would probably still be maintenance, which as other comments have stated & as was mentioned in the video needs to be done regularly or else the buildings dissolve in the rain.

[@stevenqirkle]

@@kgoblin5084 i was specifically thinking it looked expensive in terms of design and labor costs vs a single-story wood-framed structure. I understand the theoretical arguments for using locally available materials and inexpensive labor, but without actual cost numbers it all still feels very hand-wavey to me. Edit: also that roof seems pretty extravagant to me.

[@Sgt.chickens]

Downsides can include weight sometimes depending on what structure type you are building. but the main one is that Typical classic style mud construction doesn''t work well in colder environments. in europe much of the mud would be too hard to work and the manpower required to get it up and such would be far larger espiecially pre-industrial era. the mud doesn't stand up well to weathering from the Extreme wind speeds and wet weather erosion that are common in places like the UK, ireland or scandinavia etc. In the UK you can see some earth construction using other methods involving grass covering like a hobit hole. Ancient style Celtic homes built mostly of stones stacked up during neolithic times. and Cottages using Thatch roofs and other earthen construction.

[@Ssyphoned]

Believe it or not, dirt is labour intensive. Unless the labour is (dirt) cheap, you are better off using processed lumber, blocks, or poured cement.

[@clergyman-4281]

I felt that you glossed over the fact that this material melts when it gets wet. That seems like a pretty major drawback and deserves some more discussion at least.

[@mrgreensuit7379]

Enviro-cultists gloss over reality daily. No one has done more damage to the environment than bad environmentalists. Just look at our recycling farce or their save a tree campaign in the 80's and 90's that switched everything to plastic.

[@90degreesSquare]

@Cancer McAids Simple, sure, but still very expensive and difficult I shouldn't need to worry that my house will litterally melt if I don't paint it. While materials like wood and steel rot and rust, they take much longer to do so and display very noticeable signs of decay long before they actually structurally fail.

[@PJDAltamirus0425]

Yeah. Earth houses are very high maintenance. Does she want everyone to coat their houses in lime regularly. Maybe she wants to everyone to buy drones fitted to spray guns and run routes around the outside of their homes like room has.

[@theinacircleoftheancientpu492]

Yeah, it's important to present the pros and cons clearly otherwise it's not good research.

[@HallyVee]

None of this is true. Wood warps immediately when wet. Stone/dirt houses last decades without maintenance. All buildings require protection and stone/dirt is one of the simplest and cheapest.

[@akesha4138]

Earth construction housing, when recycled take note: Do not grow crops in the same spot. Housing generally imports a lot of toxic material, including plastics, paints and many others. A previous Earth building site needs 10 years into the future, to plant any crops. Wonderful presentation. A very common building technique is to build into a hillside so that 50% is in ground and 50% above to take advantage of both natural lighting and Earth's thermal efficiency. Ordinary cinder-block construction or even better, hemp-crete, can be used as low cost building materials.

[@joem8496]

this was my dream as a kid. I spent hours imagining building a fortress like this.

[@T3n50r]

Now you can spend hours making it in minecraft

[@joem8496]

@@T3n50r I have!!!

[@T3n50r]

​@@joem8496 Fuck yeah, dude! =D

[@Spooksmagoo]

I've seen a few other videos looking at dwellings built from earth, and another common issue is that these wick a lot of moisture and produce thicker walls, since in most homes electrical, plumbing, and HVAC are run through the walls and need to be somewhat accessible. These are the same issues encountered with historical homes built with plaster. In arid climates this seems like a fantastic solution, but I think there are some logistical issues which still need to be worked out for use in temperate or tropical areas.

[@lukacsnemeth1652]

As long as you have insulation from below like bitumenous on a fired brick foundation moisture is not an issue. I live in a 60 year old adobe house and it is not damp whatsoever, and we have 20 inch of rainfall yearly.

[@ltjon1924]

The answer to your thumbnail question is, in order to do so, you have to do a bunch of work before you can even start to do the work... labor is almost always one of the most expensive overhead items universally... and concrete is liquid rock, as where Earth construction is more like scissors... and what you should be doing is a video on Farrow cement, and how it's like paper... rock paper scissor baby

[@manelbeldi-wn3nw]

Wonderful video ! would love to hear more about indegenous techniques

[@Rose-yx6jq]

Because we unlocked better crafting materials and had no need to use dirt for our bases.

[@ericjohnson9468]

I’ve always been interested in ‘straw-bale’ homes, & have visited a number under construction & occupied, here in central California. I gather that the ‘straw-bales’ are often gleaned from the massive rice fields of the Central Valley… baling the straw rather than burning it in situs. Besides the ‘thermal performance’ of these homes, which look like massive ‘abode’ structures once the exterior coatings are applied… which I love, what also grabbed my attention was HOW QUIET they are. I spent a long career in heavy construction, & I hate noise… so I relished the quietness. If I was going to build a new home in this area, I’d opt for ‘straw-bale’ const.… while fully aware of its ‘drawbacks’.