EBUK 2nd Conference and AGM 18th January 2010. After last years poor turn out it was a relief to turn up to a meeting full of interested members at the ARUP offices in Fitzroy street, London. After a morning session hammering out our future role and the election of a new chair, we set about the afternoon conference replenished with a fabulous light lunch laid on by ARUP’s own caterers.
My slightly apologetic talk on rammed earth used in a landscape project in Bath went down well but my own feeling was of unease in using cement to stabilise the earth walls when the consensus seemed to be don’t use cement if you want to call the material sustainable. Learning is a process and we don’t have the benefit of hindsight when making decisions on site when faced with increasing budget and time considerations. The use of cement in external unprotected environments is widespread in the US and Australia but research here in the UK is directed at making the material cement free to lower the carbon load. Research departments in several universities have tested Lime, Alginates and Silicates to stabilise the compacted subsoil to varying degrees of success. Left to itself in unstabilised form, rammed earth is great for buildings with a roof but external weathered walls need some kind of stabliser to keep them from breaking down. I will keep my blog posted with news of developments in this area as the landscape sector could have a large part to play in promoting the material nationally and making earth building a sustainable practice externally. For more information go to www.EBUK.uk.com and www.spacemagicgarden.co.uk
wall showing strata from layers compacted together
