Raw earth is a natural building material that offers outstanding building possibilities that will excel in terms of ecology, living and hygroscopic comfort, acoustic, air quality, fire resistance, aesthetic, fitting with the natural landscape, cost
efficiency, and more.
As a raw material, earth has been used for construction purposes for more than 12 000 years and more than one-third of the world population is currently living in earth houses. Earthen architecture brought up some of the most impressive and original
construction ever built. In fact, over 10% of the World Heritage properties incorporate earthen structures.
Over the last decades, in search of more ecological and affordable ways of building, many architects and builders all over the world found a remarkable answer to this quest by using raw earth as a construction material. This is visible also in
the work of very well known contemporary architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Martin Rauch, Anna Heringer, Renzo Piano, Diébédo Francis Kéré or Christian Benimana who introduced raw earth in their projects.
In this course, the apprentices will learn in an interactive and straightforward way the main qualities and the construction possibilities offered by this raw material. The information and knowledge included in this course will be given through
different videos including theoretical facts and practical demonstrations and accompanying assignments and interactive tools. As complementary resources, an extensive list of suggested additional materials ranging from research papers, videos,
interviews to websites will be provided at the end of every weekly session.
