Micromorphological description of vernacular cob process and comparison with rammed earth

International audiencePast builders have developed very low-embodied energy construction techniques optimizing the use of local building materials. These techniques are a source of inspiration for modern sustainable building. Unfortunately, this know-how was orally transmitted andwas lost as earth construction fell into disuse during the 20th century in European countries.The absence of written documents makes necessary to use an archaeological approach in orderto rediscover these construction strategies. Micromorphological analysis of thin sections collected in earth building walls was used for the first time to describe cob construction tech-nique and highlighted several typical pedofeatures allowing to clearly identifying this process.Finally, a first comparison of the cob and rammed earth micromorphological features permitted to identify two key factors to distinguish these two techniques, the manufacturing state (solid or plastic) and the organization of the material in the wall

A new methodology to identify and quantify material resource at a large scale for earth construction – Application to cob in Brittany

A new methodology based on the cross-referencing of spatialized pedological and heritage data is proposed to identify and quantify soil resources available for earth construction. The paper underlines the pedological particularities of areas containing earth heritage and uses these particularities to propose criteria to assess the suitability of soils for modern earth construction. The methodology applied at the regional scale in France (for a given area of 27,200 km2 in Brittany) enabled to specify five new texture classes (balance between clay, silt, sand and gravel content) of suitability for cob soils. This result calls into question recommendations available in the literature. The methodology also provides data on the scale of availability of the resource to repair earth built heritage (cob) or to build new low impact buildings with integrated modern cob walls. In the studied area the potential waste recovery of 2.8 Mt per year is measured, highlighting the large availability of materials for earth construction. At least 23% of earthwork wastes of Brittany are suitable for earth construction (0.7 Mt). However, earth remains a non-renewable material and this resource has to be properly managed, requiring an appropriate building design and maintenance in order to increase longevity and to avoid the use of admixture, preventing earth reversibility at end of life

Rediscovered earth heritage becomes motor for local change. The Guérande Peninsula (France)

[EN] In the northwest of France, raw earth has been broadly used, especially in Brittany where cob dwellings have been built since the sixteenth century. Today, cob buildings represent 20 % of the built heritage on this territory (Bardel P., Maillard J-L. 2009). The cob technique is also found in the Vendée marshes, where squat dwellings (“bourrines”), dating back to the fourteenth century, bear witness to the use of local, natural resources (Patte E., Streiff F. 2006; Bonnet S., Alzeort D, Poullain P. 2021). Between these two well-documented earth-building territories lies the Guérande Peninsula where earthen heritage, until recently little-known and neglected, has become the object of study.As a result of several inventories undertaken by earth-building professionals, a part of this heritage has been recorded and mapped (Hilton A. 2016; Miranda Santos M. 2016; Humblot D., Josset F., Marquis B. 2018). Two main research methods have been used: · a general audit of the specific areas of the peninsula where earth buildings exist,· a targeted audit of certain villages and their buildings.This latter entailed a comparison of historical maps with current cadastral maps, followed up by on-site verification.Following this inventory work, a sense of the nature and extent of local earthen heritage is beginning to emerge, feeding synergies with renewed local interest in earth construction. The Maison Neuve eco-district in Guérande presents a clear example of this: its objective is to reuse several thousand tonnes of its own site-excavated earth in earth-building projects over the next 5 years. The results of the inventory work helped this local project to understand the nature of the earth available and the different relevant earth-building techniques. The inventory work has also fed into local educational and awareness-raising activities to raise awareness of local earth-built heritage and disseminate best practice in the renovation of earthen walls.Miranda Santos, M.; Hilton, A.; Poullain, P.; Hamard, E.; Mouraud, C. (2022). Rediscovered earth heritage becomes motor for local change. The Guérande Peninsula (France). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 149-156. https://doi.org/10.4995/HERITAGE2022.2022.1528714915

Earth as construction material in the circular economy context: practitioner perspectives on barriers to overcome

The need for a vast quantity of new buildings to address the increase in population and living standards is opposed to the need for tackling global warming and the decline in biodiversity. To overcome this twofold challenge, there is a need to move towards a more circular economy by widely using a combination of alternative low-carbon construction materials, alternative technologies and practices. Soils or earth were widely used by builders before World War II, as a primary resource to manufacture materials and structures of vernacular architecture. Centuries of empirical practices have led to a variety of techniques to implement earth, known as rammed earth, cob and adobe masonry among others. Earth refers to local soil with a variable composition but at least containing a small percentage of clay that would simply solidify by drying without any baking. This paper discusses why and how earth naturally embeds high-tech properties for sustainable construction. Then the potential of earth to contribute to addressing the global challenge of modern architecture and the need to re-think building practices is also explored. The current obstacles against the development of earthen architecture are examined through a survey of current earth building practitioners in Western Europe. A literature review revealed that, surprisingly, only technical barriers are being addressed by the scientific community; two-thirds of the actual barriers identified by the interviewees are not within the technical field and are almost entirely neglected in the scientific literature, which may explain why earthen architecture is still a niche market despite embodying all the attributes of the best construction material to tackle the current climate and economic crisis

How Properties of Kenaf Fibers from Burkina Faso Contribute to the Reinforcement of Earth Blocks

Physicochemical characteristics of Hibiscus cannabinus (kenaf) fibers from Burkina Faso were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), chemical analysis and video microscopy. Kenaf fibers (3 cm long) were used to reinforce earth blocks, and the mechanical properties of reinforced blocks, with fiber contents ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 wt%, were investigated. The fibers were mainly composed of cellulose type I (70.4 wt%), hemicelluloses (18.9 wt%) and lignin (3 wt%) and were characterized by high tensile strength (1 ± 0.25 GPa) and Young’s modulus (136 ± 25 GPa), linked to their high cellulose content. The incorporation of short fibers of kenaf reduced the propagation of cracks in the blocks, through the good adherence of fibers to the clay matrix, and therefore improved their mechanical properties. Fiber incorporation was particularly beneficial for the bending strength of earth blocks because it reinforces these blocks after the failure of soil matrix observed for unreinforced blocks. Blocks reinforced with such fibers had a ductile tensile behavior that made them better building materials for masonry structures than unreinforced blocks

Redécouverte des stratégies d’adaptation constructive vernaculaires pour la construction durable contemporaine : application à la bauge et au pisé

The use of local, natural and unprocessed materials offers promising low impact building solutions. The wide spatial variability of these materials is, however, an obstacle to a large-scale use. The construction strategies developed by past builders were dictated by the local climate and the quality and the amount of locally available construction materials. These construction strategies can be regarded as an optimized management of local, natural and variable resources and are a source of inspiration for modern sustainable building. Unfortunately, this knowledge was lost in Western countries during the 20th century. Vernacular earth construction know-how rediscovering requires the development of rational built heritage investigation means. Another issue regarding the use of natural and variable building material is their compliance with modern building regulation. The development of performance based testing procedures is proposed as a solution to facilitate the use of earth as a building material. A multidisciplinary approach is proposed, combining micromorphology, pedology, geotechnics and heritage disciplines to study vernacular earth heritage. It provides complementary tools to assess pedological sources of construction material and geotechnical characteristics of earth employed in vernacular earth heritage. It also provides a detailed description of the construction process of vernacular earth heritage. Using these results, it was possible to draw resource maps and provide a scale of magnitude of resource availability at regional scale. Two performance based testing procedures were proposed in order to take into account the natural variability of earth in a modern building context. Earth construction will play an important role in the modern sustainable building of the 21st century if the actors of the sector adopt earth construction processes able to meet social demand, with low environmental impact and at an affordable cost. The study of earth heritage demonstrated the ability of historical earth builders to innovate in order to comply with social demand variations and technical developments. Earth construction benefits of an old and rich past and it would be a non-sense to leave this past behind. The analysis of earth heritage and the rediscovering of vernacular construction techniques is a valuable source of inspiration for modern earth construction. The valorisation of vernacular knowledge will save time, energy and avoid repeating past mistakes. The future of earth construction should be a continuation of past vernacular earth construction.L'utilisation de matériaux locaux, naturels et non transformés offre des solutions prometteuses de construction à faible impact environnemental. La grande variabilité spatiale de ces matériaux est cependant un obstacle à une utilisation à plus grande échelle. Les stratégies de construction développées par les anciens bâtisseurs ont été dictées par le climat local et la qualité ainsi que la quantité de matériaux de construction disponibles localement. Ces stratégies de construction peuvent être considérées comme une gestion optimisée des ressources locales, naturelles et variables et sont une source d'inspiration pour la construction durable moderne. Malheureusement, cette connaissance a été perdue dans les pays occidentaux au cours du 20ème siècle. La redécouverte des savoir-faire traditionnels requiert le développement de moyens rationnels d’analyse du patrimoine. Un autre problème concernant l'utilisation de matériaux de construction naturels et variables est leur conformité vis-à-vis de la réglementation du secteur du bâtiment. Le développement de procédures d’essais performantiels est proposé comme solution pour faciliter l'utilisation des techniques de construction en terre. Une approche multidisciplinaire est proposée, combinant micromorphologie, pédologie, géotechnique et étude du patrimoine pour analyser le bâti vernaculaire en terre. Cette approche fournit des outils complémentaires pour évaluer la source des matériaux de construction et identifier les caractéristiques géotechniques de la terre employées dans le patrimoine. Il fournit également une description détaillée des processus vernaculaires de construction. En utilisant ces résultats, il a été possible d'élaborer des cartes de ressources et d’estimer l’ordre de grandeur de la disponibilité des ressources à l'échelle d’une région. Deux procédures d’essais performantiels ont été proposées afin de tenir compte de la variabilité naturelle des terres dans le contexte réglementaire actuel. La construction en terre jouera un rôle important dans la construction durable du 21ème siècle si les acteurs du secteur adoptent des procédés de construction capables de répondre à la demande sociale, avec un faible impact environnemental et à un coût abordable. L'étude du patrimoine en terre a démontré la capacité des anciens bâtisseurs à innover afin de se conformer aux variations de la demande sociale et aux développements techniques. La construction en terre bénéficie d'un passé ancien et riche et il convient de tirer profit de ce retour d’expérience. L'analyse du patrimoine en terre et la redécouverte des techniques de construction vernaculaire est une source d'inspiration précieuse pour la construction contemporaine. La valorisation des connaissances vernaculaires permettra d’économiser du temps, de l'énergie et d'éviter de répéter les erreurs passées. L'avenir de la construction de la terre doit s’inscrire dans la continuité de la construction en terre vernaculaire

On the influence of narrative in the perception of raw earth construction

International audienceRaw earth has fundamental environmental values, including low embodied energy, reduced greenhouse emissions, andendless reuse. These benefits are driving the growing interest in earth-based construction projects and research (Moreland Charef, 2019).Moreover, raw earth as a material has numerous technical advantages, which can contribute to the quality of life ofpeople living in and using raw earth buildings. To date, its hygrothermal advantages are probably those which have beenmost widely investigated (McGregor et al., 2016). However, raw earth has other strong points, less well known, whichcan also contribute to quality of life in a building, and which deserve more detailed attention. Such is the case regardingacoustic performance. A good acoustic comfort and quality is frequently attributed to earth architectures, but theseassertions are usually not supported by facts nor data (Degrave-Lemeurs, Glé and Hellouin de Menibus, 2018).Nevertheless, its contribution is not limited to the physical field. The sensory domain in the questioning and design oflived space is also essential for placing people at the heart of the process (Audas, 2008). In order to treat the issuesconnected with both physical and sense-related factors, this study will take an approach based on architecturalambiances (Dubois, 2012), and more specifically, sound ambiances.Studying raw earth's role in a specific environment, that of primary schools, allows a rich and complimentary analysisof both physical and perceptual factors. This choice of environment enables physical factors determining raw earth'spotential impact on architectural acoustics to be studied in a place where successful sound ambiance management is offundamental importance to quality of use. Regarding research into perceptual factors, the school environment allowsaccess to a wide range of users: adults and children of different ages and different socio-cultural profiles.The current work being carried out has highlighted the possible influence of construction history on the ambiancesperceived by the future users of a building and it is this evidence that we want to share here. In contrast to conventionalbuilding sites using conventional materials, earth construction sites can offer greater involvement and participation forfuture users, non-professionals, and the general public. In countries such as France, it is common to use this possibilityto organize workshops or training sessions for professionals or volunteers, supervised by earthen craftsmen in order tolower the expenses of building and to create a synergy of exchange and a diffusion of knowledge (BRUDED, 2019).Consequently and as a result of the observations made on the study sites, when users are given the opportunity tobecome active participants in the construction of buildings which will become their homes or workplaces, theirperceptions of the ambiances of those buildings are likely to be influenced by their experiences of the constructionprocess. Other factors, such as knowing the particular narrative of the building’s construction or the use of ecologicalmaterials including raw earth, can also influence the end user’s perception. However, in the case of raw earth acontroversy arises, as its ancient character often gives it an archaic and negative image that is not always out-weighedby its benefits as an ecological material

On the influence of narrative in the perception of raw earth construction

This monograph documents the 15th European Architectural Envisioning Association Conference, entitled ‘Envisioning Architectural Narratives’, hosted (virtually) by the Department of Architecture and 3D Design, School of Arts and Humanities, The University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom, from the 1st to the 3rd of September 2021. The event has continued the mission of the European Architectural Envisioning Association, namely, to create a valuable opportunity for communication and exchange of ideas and experiences in teaching, research and practice, with a particular focus, for this 15th edition, on envisioning the multiple and multifaceted relationships and applications between architecture and narrative. By considering the importance of narrative in humankind’s history, the theme has invited participants to reflect upon three main topics: narrative and analysis, narrative and design, and narrative and representation. This publication presents the papers accepted after two double-blind peer review processes. Each submission was assessed by three reviewers from the EAEA15 International Scientific Review committee, which is constituted by scholars from 12 countries. The authors of the accepted papers are from 20 different countries worldwide.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Measuring the water absorption of recycled aggregates, what is the best practice for concrete production?

In this paper, we compare different methods for determining the water absorption of recycled aggregates (RAs) and, highlighting advantages and critical points, attempt to suggest alternatives for a better way to measure it. Water absorption (WA) capacity has two purposes: (a) measuring the interconnected porosity, which is useful for mechanical concrete analysis and durability issues, and (b) allowing adjustment of the amount of water used in concrete production. Our analysis shows that vacuum during soaking is recommended for the RAs' interconnected porosity determination. This approach enables shorter testing time (from ~24 h to }1 h) and increases the accuracy of the measurement. The saturated surface dry (SSD) state determination can also be fastened using centrifuge, air flow drum, laser scattering, and microwave drying evaporometry, without significant differences. The use of these techniques is still restricted due to such factors as commercial availability, geometric limitations of the sample containers, and difficulty in controlling the temperature and the relative humidity. For concrete production, WA kinetics during the first 30 min is fundamental. Accuracy of the results is arguable regarding the practical issues, for example, vibration or trapped air bubble. Mathematical artefacts can overcome those problems but need to be calibrated with experimental data determined by standard tests over time. Because the WA kinetics probably changes when RAs are in contact with cement paste, a method to understand and quantify this phenomenon is still a research demand

Towards an easy decision tool to assess soil suitability for earth building

In the European Union, most of the wastes from the building sector are composed of earths. Earth construction may be an interesting outlet for the re-use of these wastes, while meeting the challenge of circular economy: in particular, it involves low-embodied energy processes and earth material can be reused for building by end-of-life. Nonetheless, the identification of suitable earths for construction remains an issue. To overcome this problem, an option may be to analyse earth building heritage, which is at least one-century old in Europe: indeed, earth employed in these buildings can be regarded as 'timetested', and thus suitable for construction. In this paper, more than 20 different earths collected inrammed earth heritage building in France are presented. The results are confronted both to literature and to several classifications employed in soil sciences. A classification system based on granularity and clay activity will be relevant to address the convenience of earth for building purpose