Shift away from earthen homes `environmentally damaging'

Date:
August 9, 2021
Source:
University of Leeds
Summary:
Attitudes to earthen homes need to change to prevent millions of
them being replaced by buildings made from more environmentally
damaging materials, warn scientists. The researchers found that the
usual rule-of- thumb estimate for the number of people worldwide
living in earthen homes is way out of date, dropping from about
one in three people to one in every ten or 12 people.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Attitudes to earthen homes need to change to prevent millions of
them being replaced by buildings made from more environmentally-damaging materials, scientists warn. 

==========================================================================
The researchers found that the usual rule-of-thumb estimate for the
number of people worldwide living in earthen homes is way out of
date, dropping from about one in three people to one in every ten or 12 people.  Although the proportion of people living in earthen homes
has dropped sharply, it is estimated that between 650 and 700 million
still currently inhabit buildings constructed from natural materials
such as rammed earth, adobe blocks, wattle and daub, and compressed
earth blocks. The scientists describe this group as a potential "emissions time-bomb" if they were to move or "upgrade" to
brick or concrete dwellings.   The study, by scientists
at the University of Leeds and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and reported in the scientific journal Building Research and Information, argues that the move away from earthen homes is producing a switch from traditional earth construction techniques with a light environmental footprint to brick and concrete production, which generates substantially greater carbon emissions.  The researchers looked at census data and national statistics from the 26 countries where more than three-quarters of the
world's population live.  'How to build safe, affordable -- and sustainable homes' They found that as nations have become richer, a
lower proportion of the population live in earthen buildings, believed
to be partly as a result of population growth, the move to
urban areas from rural communities and prevailing
attitudes that homes made from modern materials are
more desirable. 


==========================================================================
Dr Alastair Marsh, Research Fellow in the School of Civil Engineering
at Leeds and lead author of the paper, said: "The big issue is, how can
we ensure the whole world's population is living in safe, affordable
housing in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals as soon as possible
and at the same time avoid producing excessive carbon emissions from building houses that will lead to further climate change?  "We can think of this as trying to have a balanced
diet. Just like there's fundamentally no "good foods" or "bad foods,"
there's no "good materials" or "bad materials" -- it's more a question
of getting the right balance, of not using too much material overall,
and using materials that are appropriate for different regions.

"Earth materials have excellent environmental performance but have
rapidly been falling out of favour in many parts of the world in recent decades. To challenge those negative attitudes, we need to focus on making earthen homes that are healthy, stylish and that people can really want
to live in."  Yask Kulshreshtha, PhD researcher in the Faculty of
Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Delft University of Technology and co-author in the paper, said: "Earthen homes can be made using local
soil that can be re-used multiple times.

These houses are also energy efficient as they are known to control
indoor temperature and humidity.

"With several ecological advantages, earthen homes are good
bet for reducing greenhouse gas emissions." There are health
risks with some traditional earthen homes because insects and
other organisms that transmit disease can enter through open eaves, but the risks can be reduced with low-cost
design measures. The authors say there is a budding renaissance
for modern earthen homes in some richer countries.  ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Leeds. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Alastair T. M. Marsh, Yask Kulshreshtha. The state of earthen
housing
worldwide: how development affects attitudes and adoption. Building
Research & Information, 2021; 1 DOI: 10.1080/09613218.2021.1953369 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210809144043.htm

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