What is Building with Earth?

 

 

 

Building with EARTH provides environmentally friendly, affordable and quake-resistant housing to rural villagers in China. 

Wu Zhi Qiao has been working in Macha village partnering with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of P.R.C, and Professor Mujun from Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture (BUCEA) to establish showcase and training compound of rammed earth building since 2010, with the support of Chan Cheung Mun Chung Charitable Fund, Swire Properties Limited and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, to support students and professors to do research, experiments, technical advancement, prototype building, demonstration and publication. This project received world renowned awards from UNESCO and World Habitat Awards in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

It embeds academics within communities to share learning on traditional building methods. These are then adapted so that local craftspeople and masons can work throughout surrounding areas building new homes and benefitting financially. Villagers are invited to take part in the construction of demonstration buildings, with training provided to the local craftspeople. It challenges current building methods - cement and brick designs. In China which are bad for the environment, expensive for rural villagers and less resilient to earthquakes.

The project illustrates an affordable and sustainable way of rural construction using locally available resources that also offers an improvement to traditional building practices. Upgrades focus on earth material science, modifying shuttering systems and ramming tools to compress earth to build walls, alongside adapting traditional structure and construction methods to improve earthquake resistance and increase heat efficiency.

Beneficiaries of the new homes are mostly from poor rural villages and those living in dilapidated houses which have an urgent need for rebuilding, including communities in the village of Macha and in neighboring villages in Huining County, Gansu Province.