Being one of the first construction methods developed by humans, earth has proven its resilience and durability over time. While construction techniques have evolved and been updated over the years, there is still a long way to explore where the understanding of climate, geographic location, sustainability, structural requirements, and other factors determine its degree of application.
With low environmental impact and the ability to be used through a wide variety of techniques, such as rammed earth walls or 'tapiales,' this material offers the possibility of providing not only aesthetic but also thermal comfort, insulation, and other benefits. With the intention of discovering the different ways it has been used, we set out to select 12 projects distributed throughout Latin America, spanning Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador.
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Argentina
SUM Iscot's lung / Patio Estudio
"About bioconstruction. With the premise of using "what is available," sustainable materials were employed, readily accessible within the company. The earth is extracted from the same site that was reclaimed for the construction project. The structure of the walls is made from recycled wood obtained from the packaging of auto parts, recovered by the company itself.
Both materials make up the walls with a hybrid version of wood frame and 'quincha' – a wooden structure filled with mud and straw that provides lightness and thermal insulation. They are coated in mud with natural additives such as agave water, guano, and linseed oil.
Earth is the most abundant natural building material in most regions of the world. In industrialized countries, the excessive exploitation of natural resources together with the intensive manufacture of energy and chemical products generates great environmental pollution, damaging not only our planet but also the health of those who inhabit it.
Among the qualities of mud, we can find moisture control and heat storage that achieve thermal comfort. It is a super-insulating material that saves energy in climate control, requires no transportation, reduces environmental pollution, and is reusable. It also saves on construction costs (25% approx.) and promotes self-construction."
Learn more about this project here.
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Brazil
Discreet House / Jirau Arquitetura
"The 'tapia' figure is a curious detail, an experiment with this traditional and little-used construction technique. In the rooms, we used 'tapia pisada' as the wall and main structural element of this section of the house. In the living room, we employed 'tapia de mano,' a much more common and recurrent technique in simple houses of the hinterland. Mud is a recurring theme, whether in the two 'tapia' techniques used, in the ceramic tiles, in the industrial bricks used in the enclosures, in the cobblestones lining some floors, in the "cobogós" in the bathrooms, or in the hand-painted white bricks on the sinuous wall."
Learn more about this project here.
House in Cunha / Arquipélago Arquitetos
[...] "The party of the house comes from its implantation at the top of the hill of the landscape, seeking the best views of the entire oblique terrain and the Serra, in the background. To protect the house from the cold winds, a cut of 1 meter of earth was made in order to half-buried it, up to the height of the benches of the service areas. From this cut emerged every constructive resource for the execution of the walls of the house: the earth.
The main walls of the house are made of rammed earth ('tapia'), old technology revisited in a contemporary way: an authentic formwork system was proposed that avoided perforations with metal bars and developed a more efficient building site so that its modulated components could be disassembled and reassembled with ease.
This constructive technique provided us with interdisciplinary encounters: physics, chemistry, geology, and geography broadened our understanding of the landscape where we proposed the house."
Learn more about this project here.
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Bolivia
Tapial Experimental House / Estudio de Arquitectura y Planificación Kaiser
"The housing structure coincides with the supporting structure. The 36cm thick rammed earth walls constructed in a U-shape with two corners guarantee a strong and rigid structure. Each corner was boarded up in a single phase of work, without joints. For the formation of the floor plan, five of these U's were erected, leaving gaps between them, which allow spatial transition, cross ventilation, and natural lighting. Four free walls of rammed earth articulate and extend this compact volume, nailing it to the ground at its extreme points and defining the intermediate zones between interior and exterior."
[...] "The horizontal structure of the wall results from the very particular process of tamping the soil in layers of 5-8cm. The colour and texture of the surface result directly from the particular mix of coarse and fine soil and sand. No matter how thorough the screening process is, surprises always come to light when removing the molds.
The technology of rammed earth is laborious. Preparation, formwork assembly, plumbing, and aligning all the geometry takes longer than the ramming of the prepared earth itself. Between three workers one cubic meter of rammed earth can be built per day. The low cost of raw materials compensates for the high cost of labour and produces a very low ecological burden. Much discipline and precision in the working process are also compensated when executing the fine work. With the conditions in the humid rooms as an exception, neither plasters nor paints are required. A repair of the damaged parts is done with soil, the surface is treated with natural products such as casein and wax. Thus an abrasion-resistant surface is obtained."
Learn more about this project here.
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Chile
Panal Sustainable Regenerative Condominium / AYMA Arquitectura y Medio Ambiente LTDA.
"To ensure a minimal carbon footprint, 'quincha' was used as the construction system throughout the complex, using the earth from the excavations for insulation and plastering the units. This system, together with green roofs and a correct solar approach, guarantees greater thermal efficiency, giving the units an interior oscillation of 15 and 20°, achieving energy savings in the air conditioning of 80%."
Learn more about this project here.
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Ecuador
Garden House / Al Borde
[...] "The interior space is for cooking, eating, and sleeping; sheltering and keeping a comfortable temperature, looking at the surrounding terrain, valley, and mountain range. The same soil removed in the excavation was used for load-bearing adobe walls; they rest on a stone foundation that also works as a skirting board.
The wall built in a “C” shape let the main facade be a big glass-wood structural carpentry. The roof distributes its weight over a wooden base. The roof span is solved by two standard section beams; the section is reinforced tying up a similar piece and over them wooden staves, waterproof fabric, earth, and brick tiles, between which we expect bad weeds to grow."
Learn more about this project here.
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Paraguay
Luce and Pablo's House / Mínimo Común Arquitectura
"The project, with twists and turns since its conception, consisted of a simple volumetry, without many structural risks: an L-shaped body submerged among the vegetation. Every afternoon the western sun falls on the most closed part of the house, and in the mornings the spacious living room, kitchen, and dining room are illuminated. But the most important thing is to guarantee rest with cool bedrooms, and with the future idea of enlarging the family, comfort had to be guaranteed. The earthen walls would protect the intimate sectors and an orchard cultivated by its own owners and supported by fine metal pillars would feed little Agus.
After many mistakes we started to learn about the new technique: We made small tests until we were able to stabilize the soil that we would use, tests with specimens gave us results with a resistance similar to that of brick. The loading times allowed us to load two modules per day with a small team working manually, with dosages similar to concrete when using 10% cement in the mix. Cautiously, we gradually decreased the percentage, until we had only 5% as a stabilizer. There were options of other stabilizers with less impact but they were not easily accessible in the local market and since this was our first approach we were not willing to take more risks either. After all, there was a family waiting for their home."
[...] "As a similar act, we were ready to offer the inhabitants a house born from the traditional Guarani red soil, molded by our artisans at a reasonable cost with the technique that we call 'tierra vertida' (poured earth). We can find many examples around the world, but it was never used in Paraguay."
Learn more about this project here.
Mirikina House / José Cubilla
"The construction system is made of rammed earth or 'tapial' that rises on a raw stone platform. The House is quite austere, built with local materials and local labor. The objective was to try to achieve balance or stability in a beautiful quiet place with a lot of connection with nature."
[...] "Wide walls and precise perforations for the entry of light and ventilation, where we maintain the necessary penumbra in a humid and very hot subtropical climate. The 'tapial' is ideal for improving thermal inertia, in addition to its low construction impact."
Learn more about this project here.
Liquid Earth House / Oficina de arquitectura X
"The construction materializes in poured cement on formwork, with walls of 18cm, 15cm, and 10cm thickness. The technique of pouring the earth directly as a casting piece involves the deconstruction of its sister technique known as 'tapial' or rammed earth. While 'tapial' has interesting thermal properties, the large thicknesses with which it is built pose obstacles to its use in urban areas with limited dimensions. In a narrow lot, it would represent a fundamental loss of square meters, in addition to the excessive consumption of stabilizers such as cement and its high weight, making it an uneconomical technique in urban areas compared to other construction methods. Poured earth, by being able to execute it with reduced thicknesses, has lower material consumption, is built faster, is lighter, and takes up less space, making it a fully adaptable, ecological, economical alternative with good thermal properties for urban environments."
[...] "The house materializes as a large-scale piece of craftsmanship, where the earth directs the orchestra of space, a fluid whose morphology takes on that of its container, solidifying into perforated, smooth, slanted walls, or folds of 10cm thickness that escape into the sky. Like a jug crafted by hand, with the beauty of the earth and the scent of clay."
Learn more about this project here.
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Peru
Feliciana Cabin / Taller MACAA
"Adobe provides the building with all its thermal regulation qualities. A noble, robust, ultra-simple material (a mixture of earth, water, and straw) reveals all its richness here. Supported by stone foundations, these 40cm walls offer a beautiful height to the cabin. The roof, on the other hand, is made up of a simple structure of a ridge and eucalyptus beams, covered with carefully placed reeds and themselves covered with earth on which the tiles rest."
[...] "The use of adobe is fully experienced, so the bed, nightstands, and storage spaces in the bathroom and kitchenette are made of this material, generating in Feliciana a compact unity between the living space and the storage space." [...]
Learn more about this project here.
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Mexico
La Luciernaga House / uno más uno + Moro Taller de Arquitectura
"The way to solve the project structurally goes hand in hand with the construction system based on monolithic rammed earth load-bearing walls, 40 cm wide, which overlap the elaborate stone foundation and a wooden beam ceiling, staves, and tiles. We decided to resolve the architectural program with three segregated volumes joined by a wooden terrace and steel pile structure. The intention was for the construction to integrate into the landscape of the forest, to feel that it was born there. That it had a true language of how it was made with the hands. At the same time, it will provide visitors with the warm and natural atmosphere with which it was made, without spending large amounts of energy. That it should be practical in its conception, with visible constrictive elements, thermal qualities, and the essential color that the material with which it was made offers us.
It is a house responsible for its waste, which works with separation and filter for soapy and black water, and has a rainwater collection, a wood stove, solar panels, and gas. It is passive in its energy expenditure due to the thermal qualities with which the walls are made and the constructive knowledge of mud walls was transmitted to the people of the town who participated in the work. Thus, this small project tries to be respectful like the light of the firefly and put users in a direct relationship with their environment, and provide shelter for visitors who normally come from the city asking for calm."
Learn more about this project here.
Casa Sal / RIMA Design Group
"Our initial approach was to incorporate rammed earth construction to the most important spaces of the house and utilize a second material which is Concrete to express the other massing elements. The rammed earth walls are thermal insulating walls that also bring in warmth and humidity to the dry desert-scapes of the house. The walls contrast with the polished concrete floors, cement polished walls, and T shape poured in place concrete slab over the great room. We wanted to explore the great room as an open palapa, which you commonly find in mainland coastal architecture. The light and cross ventilation come from the clear-story windows above, and the patios are located in every axis of the house, making this a passive design flow." [...]
Learn more about this project here.
* The texts are descriptions sent by the authors of the projects.
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