Editorial

Abstract

It is with great pleasure that I write this Construction Materials Editorial for a themed issue on earthen construction. Over the last 25 years, worldwide research and development work in this most ancient and abundant construction resource has grown significantly. Scientific articles about earthen construction now appear regularly in leading international journals, including Construction Materials, with a renewal in both new construction and conservation developing alongside this work. The response to the call for papers for this themed issue was so positive that a second themed issue will appear in 2017.Earthen construction encapsulates many different and varied forms of techniques and applications, which as a vernacular solution has developed over many thousands of years in all inhabited continents of the world. In many rural regions of Africa, Asia and South America, earthen construction remains the predominant building solution. Although concrete is now often cited as the most used modern construction material, over the course of human civilisation earth construction has undoubtedly played a much wider and, arguably, a more significant role. The raw material of earthen construction is usually sub-soil, sourced locally and mixed together with water -and occasionally other materials such as straw or animal dung -to form materials ranging from sun-dried mud blocks (adobe), compacted rammed earth, moulded cob, decorative plasters and renders for a range of buildings. Earth is most commonly used where other traditional materials, such as timber and stone, are not available or affordable. Consequently, earthen construction is often incorrectly seen as primitive, associated with poverty and vulnerability. However, many of the world's celebrated civilisations have used earth to build many of the world's greatest structures and buildings that remain to this day. Examples include ancient Egyptian pyramids, large sections of the Great Wall of China, the Alhambra Palace in Granada and the Great Mosque in Djenne, Mali. A number of countries around the world now have national standards or design guidelines specifically for earthen construction.The modern development of earthen construction can often find its origins in the need to authentically conserve historic buildings; traditional techniques have been relearnt and provided stimulus for new-build applications. In the search for lower energy (and carbon) alternatives, materials practitioners and researchers have increasingly returned to earthen construction over the past 40 years. Earth offers the potential for a much lower impact solution in a range of applications, but it also offers interesting new benefits for building occupants and the building fabric, such as moisture buffering and hygrothermal performance. Passive regulation of internal relative humidity levels offers potential for improved health and well-being of occupants; since many of us spend around 90% of our lives inside buildings, better indoor air quality will be of great benefit to us all.The four pap...

Rice-Husk Shredding as a Means of Increasing the Long-Term Mechanical Properties of Earthen Mixtures for 3D Printing

“…Because of the renewed interest in recent times, scientific articles about earthen construction now appear regularly in leading international journals [19]. For further information, Table S1 collects a selection of scientific articles that have investigated the topic of earthen construction, published in the years from 1948 to 2019 [10,11,.…”

Rice Husk Shredding as a Means of Increasing the Long-Term Mechanical Properties of Earthen Mixtures for 3D Printing

“…Due to the renewed interest in recent times, scientific articles about earthen construction now appear regularly in leading international journals [19]. For further information, Table S1 collects a selection of scientific articles that investigated the topic of earthen construction, published in the years from 1948 to 2018 [10,11,.…”