EARTHEN CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH

We are a multi-disciplinary group interested in the use of earth for building, ancient and modern.
School of Engineering and Dept of Archaeology , Durham University
earthen.construction@dur.ac.uk

home | rammed earth | historic rammed earth | past projects | current projects | PhD opportunities | links| publications | visitors |

Current people

charles augarde Charles Augarde, School of Engineering email

chrisgerrard Chris Gerrard, Dept of Archaeology email

This page provides links to information on the aspects of earthen construction research active at Durham University NEWS 3 June 2009: Press release on origins of strength in rammed earth widely covered in UK media and worldwide: BBC Online Telegraph http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3141856&c=0 http://www.greenbang.com/ancient-buildings-yield-modern-eco-friendly-secrets/
Rammed earth Rammed earth describes both a construction method and a material, used by man for thousands of years. Modern rammed earth is receiving much interest due to its inherent sustainability. At Durham we are interested in the old and the new stuff (the latter usually, but not always, being stabilised).
Historic Rammed Earth We are interested in appropriate methods of conserving rammed earth in old structures. To do this requires a deeper understanding of the original construction technique, the history of the structure, what repairs have been carried out, as well as an engineering understanding of the material.
Past projects If you would like details of any of these projects please contact us MSc Students 2004 Cindy McChlery, Study of RE buildings at Ambel, Aragon, Spain looking particularly at the repairs carried out there over time MEng Students 2004 Paul Jaquin , Modelling rammed earth : where it all began. Paul went to Spain to look at RE buildings and did some laboratory and computer modelling. This work led him to do his PhD at Durham (completed in 2008) 2006 Tom Horncastle , Rammed earth materials : Use of BOS as stabiliser for RE 2007 Tom Howard , Jointing in rammed earth : use of geogrids for interlayer strengthening in RE; basic strength of layers in shear 2008 Steven Perkins , Water movements in rammed earth 2008 Chris Beckett, Cracking in rammed earth . Now doing a PhD at Durham, in rammed earth. PhD students 2005 - 2008 Paul Jaquin: Full details are at Paul's webpages. 2008 - 2011 Chris Beckett: Just started
Current Projects Current PhD student Chris Beckett - Chris started his PhD in October 2008 which will be concermed with characterisation of rammed earth and possibly other compacted earth building materials. At present he is carrying out feasibility experiments in the geotechnical lab at Durham.
PhD opportunities Funding for PhD studies is always very difficult to obtain (full details for Durham are here) so if you can provide any funding from another source that is helpful. Here are some suggested PhD project titles. Modern rammed earth makes considerable use of additives and stabilisers. What are the ingredients/additions to earthen buildings materials of the past? The PhD would make use of documentary evidence, oral history, compositional analysis, published secondary literature. Have we a historical map of earthen construction in the UK? Some studies exist but are not comprehensive. These could be brought together into a coherent whole. A title might be ‘Innovation and tradition in building design. The use of earthen construction techniques in the UK’. What is the true source of strength in earthen construction materials such as adobe and cob? With this knowledge, could these materials be modernised to become sustainable replacements for cement-based products? Tradition and chronology of earthen construction in Iberia. Take 2 or 3 regions, look at well-dated buildings, use compositional analysis of fabric. (29.05.09) Paul Jaquin has an EngD opportunity in innovative concepts for seismically resistant mud brick construction at UCL, details are here
Links Paul Jaquin's pages on Historic Rammed Earth, research carried out while he was a PhD student at Durham 2004-2008, and more Peter Walker, Bath University Matthew Hall, Nottingham University CRATerre, Grenoble The German Association for Building with Earth - Dachverband Lehm Earth Building UK http://www.eartharchitecture.org/
Publications (please contact if you would like copies of these papers) Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E., Gallipoli, D., Toll, D.G. 2009. The strength of unstabilised rammed earth materials. Geotechnique. 59, No. 5, 487–490 [doi: 10.1680/geot.2007.00129]. pdf. Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E., Legrand, L. 2008. Unsaturated characteristics of rammed earth materials in Toll et al. (Eds), Unsaturated Soils. Advances in Geo-Engineering, Proceedings of the 1st European Conference, E-UNSAT 2008, Durham, United Kingdom, 2-4 July 2008, Taylor and Francis, London, 417-422. Jaquin P.A. 2008. PhD Thesis, Durham University. Details here. Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E., Gerrard, C.M. 2008. A chronological description of the spatial development of rammed earth techniques, International Journal of Architectural Heritage: Conservation, Analysis, and Restoration, 2(4):377-400. doi: 10.1080/15583050801958826. Preprint available Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E., Gerrard, C.M. 2007. Historic rammed earth structures in Spain: construction techniques and a preliminary classification. In: B.V. Venkatarama Reddy & M. Mani eds. International Symposium on Earthen Structures, 22-24 August 2007, Bangalore, India. Bangalore: Interline Publishing, pp. 327-333. ISBN 81-72960514. Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E. and Gerrard, C.M. 2006. Analysis of historic rammed earth construction. In Lourenco et al. eds. Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions , Nov 6-8, New Delhi, India. Delhi: Macmillian India Ltd. Vol.2, 1091-1098. ISBN 1403-93156-9. Paper as pdf (1077K) Jaquin, P.A., Augarde, C.E. and Gerrard, C.M. 2004. Analysis of Tapial structures for modern use and conservation in Modena et al. (eds) Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: Possibilities of numerical and experimental techniques, Proc. Symposium on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions, Padua, November. Taylor and Francis:London, Vol. 2, 1315-1321. ISBN 04 1536 379 9 Paper as pdf (473k)
Visitors Jacinto Canivell, Universidad de Sevilla, Feb. - May 2009

All images copyright web authors. 03:05:2009