Building walls with earth

With scientifically improvised technology, mud buildings can be made to last for centuries, contrary to common belief. By architect Sathya Prakash Varanashi

It is a curious phenomenon – we all live in a planet called Earth, walk upon it, build shelters with it, and eat from it, yet we are on our way to destroy it As such, re-connecting with the Earth appears to be among the major solutions to the climate crisis. Given this, in the construction sector, we need to return to Earth, in all its terms and versions like soil, mud, terracotta, clay, silt, gravel, sand or stone.

Let us ask ourselves a simple multiple-choice question. Among all existing structures in the world, what could be the most commonly found wall material? Choice of answers – stone, mud, burnt bricks, wood. Anyone with common sense may answer it as ‘it could be mud’. Besides being the most common and most historic, mud walls have much to tell about how we lived in the past, for they sheltered the history of human civilisations. Incidentally, mud walls have a future too, in these days of climate change and ecological challenges.

The construction industry today is being blamed for one-third of GHG (Green House Gas) emissions, hence is at a crossroads. To mitigate this crisis, there is an urgent need to minimise manufactured materials and promote natural materials. The least we can do is to attempt a synthesis of traditional construction systems and modern creativity.

This is where mud architecture comes in handy. The methods of improvising traditional systems has re-validated the use of mud, to claim a pole position towards sustainable architecture.

No modern material replacing mud is yet to equal all the qualities of mud walls. It has the lowest cost in most regions; lowest embodied energy; highest insulation from heat gain; option of using mud plastering; possibility of coating wide range of natural colours; option for bamboo or steel reinforcement; and can be used for all parts of the buildings right from foundation to roof. With scientifically improvised technology today, mud buildings can be made to last for centuries. Unfortunately, too many myths have been spread about mud, including it cracks, taking time to build, difficult to repair, monotonous and such others, as if modern construction methods are devoid of all these. This myth has come to stay, despite the fact that the way traditional mud houses lasted for centuries modern ones may not, which everyone is aware of.

So, the hesitation to build an earthy building appears to come more from fear and apprehension, than from knowledge and experience. Fortunately, mud walls are making a big return in modern architecture, though it is limited to certain regions only.

The technology of rammed earth walls has now been researched into fairly deeply and proven by various institutions such as Mrinmayee, Auroville Earth Institute, and Hunnarshala Foundation, besides many individual consultants. It is time to consider building walls with earth seriously, to save ourselves.

(varanashi@gmail.com)