Projects

DTI Partners in Innovation

‘Developing Rammed Earth Walling for UK Housing Construction’

This project was designed to examine all aspects of designing and building with rammed earth in the U.K. Teaming up with Peter Walker at Bath University Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering meant access to the latest research from the academic world on earth construction. We brought a dynamic approach to project construction.

The project was funded for 30 months. In the first year we published a major review and integrated an ‘on site’ project to the research program. This involved taking 16 tonnes of site building material to Bath for extensive testing. The images attached show a 350mm2 column, 2.8m high which was load tested and failed after 10.2 tonnes of load was applied.

Doing these larger scale trials helps engineers and others to understand the material better, while the whole study will integrate the concerns of funders, insurers and local authorities. The steering committee included engineers from Bureau Happold and Ove Arup, architects from Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners and Fielden Clegg, The Ecological Building Society and Bristol City Council.

In 2005 we published Rammed Earth Design and Construction Guidelines, P.Walker & R.Keable et al, which is available from BREbookshop.com