Introduction

A significant portion of the world’s population has historically lived and still lives in earth-based dwellings. Earth construction provides several advantages over other traditional construction methods (e.g., fired masonry and wood construction), as it is affordable and locally appropriate, energy and humidity efficient, and environmentally friendly. The need for affordable and sustainable alternatives to traditional housing construction is clear: by the end of this century, due to the expected increase in the world’s population and improvement of living conditions, two billion new homes will be needed to meet the future housing demand. Earth construction dates back over 9000 years ago, with examples found all over the world. However, traditionally-built earth structures (i.e., non-engineered cob, rammed earth, or adobe construction) are generally inherently brittle and not capable of resisting extreme loads from natural hazards such as earthquakes and strong winds. Therefore, they are inadequate for mainstream modern construction. In the last few decades, significant research has been devoted to develop engineered earth blocks as a more affordable and ecologically friendly alternative to other masonry elements. Our research focuses on developing earthen construction and particularly compressed and stabilized earth block (CSEB) construction for affordable, equitable, resilient, and sustainable housing.  

Research Topics

• Feasibility Study of Compressed and Stabilized Earth Blocks (CSEBs)
• Experimental Investigation of CSEBs
• Numerical Modeling of CSEB Masonry
• Wildfire Performance of CSEB Systems

Presentations

• “Earth construction: An ancient solution to a present-day problem for a sustainable future.” Invited Seminar, Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics (SESM) Seminar - Fall 2019, University of California Davis, October 3, 2019, Davis, CA (USA).
• “Earth block construction: a sustainable housing solution for the wildland-urban interface (WUI).” Invited Speaker, 2020 Wildfire Induced Air Pollution Mitigation & Assessment Symposium, March 23, 2020, University of California Davis, Davis, CA (USA) - (virtual event).
• “Earth construction: An ancient solution for a sustainable future.” Guest Lecture, ECI 3 - Civil Infrastructure & Society, Fall 2020, University of California Davis, November 12, 2020, Davis, CA (USA) - (virtual event).
• “Affordable and sustainable compressed and stabilized earth block (CSEB) construction.” Invited Seminar, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering Seminar - Fall 2020, Rice University, November 13, 2020, Houston, TX (USA) - (virtual event).

*Photo Credit: Sharon Davis Design