Why We Should Be Building with Dirt

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My dad was a reseacher for structural engineering and always complained about how versatile standard bricks are, but also how difficult to calculate its properties are and that that is one of the reasons steel and concrete and sand-lime bricks dominate modern architecture, because they have clearly defined properties.

My first house ever was built with dirt. I lived there for awhile with my husband until the house was destroyed by a creeper. We simply patched it up with more dirt. We have since moved onto other materials such as deepslate and spruce, but we will never forget our first home. It may have just been a simple dirt house, but it housed us, our beds, furnaces, crafting table, chests, and most of all--our first memories living together as a couple.

My parents bought a earth home kit from a popular science magazine in the late 80s. When I was a kid we would sled off the roof. It wasn't made with bricks it was a kit that you nailed together using pre- fabbed arched panels that were then covered in a waterproof coating. Once the arch was together a crane put the dirt on the top. Their house is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

There are temples in Japan that were built entirely of wood, which have stood their ground through hundreds of years. This includes many years of weather catastrophes. Certain sections are obviously replaced over the years, but they use no metal (screws, nails) in the construction (other than tools to carve/cut wood and joints).

Back in the 1960s, once land was opened for private home ownership in my hometown, the most expensive private home built at the time was a hacienda-style home made with true adobe and full timber beams. The basic ingredients may have been inexpensive, but the labor intensity and scale are what made it so expensive.

I love modern cob buildings, they have a texture and life that my standard house totally lacks

My father had a clay building company, which sadly wasn't sustainable enough to live of of. But he lives in and renovated a beautiful 150+ years old traditional european timber truss house (known in germany as "Fachwerkhaus") Which uses solid oak beams and clay as the primary materials. He is a big advocate for clay and earth material in modern architecture.

This is a brilliant concept in the appropriate region. I'm from Arizona where adobe and rammed earth is used but the addition of concrete for stability makes sense. Also love the raised roof to allow for airflow. Sorely needed in hot climates.

I mean, concrete is sand, gravel and cement. So it sounds like there's a spectrum of cement-aggregate mixtures where those earth bricks are on the very low-cement end of the spectrum.

I learned in my history classes that mud buildings fail above a certain latitude/moisture level. And north of that line, wood was always abondent. That's probably why its not more widespread

We need a whole series on dirt building! I want to create a whole sustainable village using organic materials.

I briefly stayed with a family in a small Kenyan village that had a clay home the father built himself. I got super envious when he talked about his ability to add rooms and move walls when his family’s needs changed.

When I first moved to New Mexico, fifty some years ago, most people I knew lived in real adobe houses. Now, frame stucco houses built to look like traditional adobe houses dominate because real adobe houses are generally too expensive for people to afford - due to their construction being much more labor intensive.

In Iceland the prime reason to abandon Torfhús (Peat Houses) was cleanliness, rodents and pests. The secondary reason is that they require more maintenance from the home owner e.g. mowingt the roof than modern housing. Finally they were abandoned because it was cheaper to build modern cement houses and the material (sand etc) was and still is very commonly available. My great-great-grandfather was the first person in his village back in 1900 to get a Norwegian package wooden house. It was cleaner, less infested, safer and easier to maintain that traditional peat houses. My great-grandparents were less likely to get diseases than their poorer and less fortunate neighbors living in peat houses. The house he imported is still there, the peat houses are all gone and the neighborhood has about 80% cement houses built in the style of a wooden house and 15% cement houses built in a modern style and 5% old wooden houses. Perhaps there is an opportunity to use peat in modern buildings. So far, it hasn't really been done, no matter how nice and traditional (traditional is very popular in iceland since the banking crash in 2008) the preseved houses you might find in museums. To the best of my knowledge the peat wouldn't be a subtantial part of any such building since it would require a modern foundation (no more dirt floors), be light and open for the daylight hours in the common areas (meaning glass and steel and cement for sunlight). Adding a grass ramp coving the main direction of wind where you might have bedroom and storage areas in the house directly under the peat might make sense. Iceland also has virtually limitless warm water for house heating combined with mild winters (+5 C) and mild summers (+15 C) so saving money by using peat isn't really a priority .

Much appreciation for referencing the source material in the video with links in the description!

I love the idea of using natural products from the Earth whenever possible. I love the young man's designs and so happy to see him helping others. Thank you for sharing.

Building with dirt is fun. It's a bundant and you can make a lot of crazy structures with it. From a house, to a bridge, yiu can even use it to safeguard against zombies. It's a really underrated block, and I think it should be used a lot more.

One might note that every example in the video comes from a very dry part of the world where protection from rain and snow isn't a priority.

As a Mason, I like the Hempcrete bricks that have come about recently. Very good stuff, and hemp is just a wonderful product.