Earth Building ─ History, Science and Conservation

This book covers various types of earth construction including adobe, cob and rammed earth. It presents a wide-ranging review of the history of earth building, tracing the development of earthen construction techniques from antiquity to the present day, and showing the development of the techniques with both time and geography. The behaviour of earth building materials is explained using, for the first time, principles from soil mechanics. There is a detailed discussion of strategies for the analysis and conservation of earth buildings to enable engineers, conservation professionals and architects to understand and preserve earth buildings better in the future. Richly illustrated with photographs and diagrams, this book provides an invaluable tool for the conservation of earth buildings.

Paul Jaquin Structural Engineer, international design consultancy

Charles Augarde Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering, Durham University, UK