HOUSES BUILT OF EARTH.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 10, 1 June 1920, Page 807

HOUSES BUILT OF EARTH.

The housing question has revived many suggestions for a cheap house, and architects and builders are experimenting in many lands with numerous materials, but so far the so-called "cheap" house has not materialized.

In New Zealand there are many wool sheds and smaller sheds built of clay, or earth and straw (or hay), particularly in the Marlborough district, one can see large farm residences built of rammed earth and in some cases sods of earth have been used for this purpose.

"We illustrate a large wool shed which was built in Marlborough with earth ploughed from a neighbouring field and tamped down by horses, then mixed to a thick substance with water and then used in a similar manner to concrete in layersraising the

walls each day by adding more of the substance. Hay was mixed with the mud in this case.

A recent number of the London Sphere calls attention to an old form of masonry called "pise" or "cob," the use of which in housing projects is now being considered in England and might be equally well applied to this country as an emergency substitute. The picturesque cottage in the illustration is of this construction.

Sturgis's Dictionary of Architecture and Building describes it thus: "A cheap masonry of compressed earth. The most suitable solid for the purpose is clayey, somewhat sandy loam and vegetable earth. It is mixed with straw or hay to prevent it from cracking when it dries. The wall is built in sections by means of a movable frame about three feet high and ten feet long, the two sides of which are of boards kept apart the thickness of the wall. This frame is placed on the wall and between the sides the earth is rammed or beaten in four-inch layers. When this sort of box is full it is taken apart and set up in another place some parts of France houses of two or three stories are built of 'pise.' "

The Sphere states: "The earth hardens to an astonishing extent in the process of drying off; so much so that it is sometimes difficult to bore into

it with an augur . . . The outer surface of the pise wall can be color-washed or treated in various ways. Spraying with hot liquid tar has been tried successfully. The natural wall weathers in course of time to a very attractive colour, and the outer surface itself withstands ordinary rain action and bad weather."

When properly waterproofed, there is no reason why these earthen buildings should not stand one climate as well as another. A firm of testing engineers in America is making experiments concerning the use of earth masonry of this sort, which should prove much cheaper than any other, because it can be made by common, unskilled labour, of material found in nearly every community.

Earth as a building material is, of course, no novelty, as bricks are nothing but baked earth, when the earth happens to be clay. Adobe is unbaked clay, dried in the sun. Earth, in the form of 'pise' cr 'cob,' was used long ago in Europe, and an American architect named T. C. Young believes that it may be a factor in solving the problem of inexpensive building in America. The earth is employed just as concrete is-rammed into moulds of frame and boards, which are afterward removed, leaving a hard wall. For moist climates the walls would require waterproofing, of course. Mr. Young writes the following discussion of the housing question, as it may be affected by this use of earthen construction.

"What has blocked the progress of every housing project in this country, as well as in Europe, is the hard fact that under present prices of labour and commonly used materials, it has proved impossible to build even the smallest and most modest six-room cottage for a sum which, with the cost of the necessary land, would make the total investment for a home economically possible for the ordinary work-

man or moderately salaried individual. Houses which five years age could easily be built for £BOO or £9OO, will now cost £1,600 or £I,BOO to build. A Congressional committee, reporting on the warhousing activities of the United States Housing Corporation, states: ‘Single houses in Bridgeport, Conn., cost £1450. The average for all houses was £1135. It is not stated whether these houses represent a complete house or whether such necessary items as weather-stripping, electric fixtures, sidewalks, etc., were omitted. Probably no profit for the contractor nor cost of architectural service was included in these figures. And since the time when these houses were constructed the cost of building has advanced possibly as much as 25 per cent It can readily be seen that to pay rent or to own this home the occupant should have an income of at

least £7OO per year. At 4/2 per hour and working

tiers ill this country, who built of logs ; and the early Spaniards and Indians of America's Western States, who built of unbaked clay, or adobe. There are abundant examples of these earth dwellings in America which compare favourably with the usual forms of construction for durability, looks, and comfort. The mission buildings in California are constructed of this material, as well as many dwellings still in use after more than a century of wear. In this connection, one wonders why no one thought to construct our war-cantonments and barracks of this material instead of the unsightly, uncomfortable, and costly wooden shacks universally used.

Adobe is a Spanish word from adobar (to plaster). It is nothing but air-dried brick, weatherproofed with plaster, and any traveller in Mexico or California knows that these buildings are as beautiful as any we produce in the same class.

eight hours a day for three hundred days a year, one could earn only £4BO, which is inadequate income for above basis of cost of rent.

So far as one can learn, every new housing project yet planned or constructed either in this country

or in Europe has been based on some form of tene-

ment or the traditional story-and-a-half cottage, usually containing five or six rooms and constructed

in the customary way of either brick, hollow clay tile, or wood. It would seem, therefore, if it is possible to beat the building game it will be necessary to evolve an entirely new type of house or find some cheaper material as a substitute. It might be possible to evolve the former if architects and builders could rid themselves of tradition and study the matter as though isolated in a country without the usual facilities of civilization and depend only upon their ingenuity and the materials which nature locally provides. ' ■ 1 -• !H • ’ 1 ' 7 ! In this way the Eskimo invented a cheap and comfortable dwelling built of ice; so did the early set-

Many excellent plans for small cottages of the conventional American type have been developed by the United States Shipping Board and also by private architects, but as all of these have proved too costly to build, at least from a commercial standpoint, some new type of home will have to be devised in which every superfluous square inch of area and any unnecessary feature must be eliminated. Other possible economies may yet be found in new processes or materials as substitutes for present methods. Some years ago Mr. Edison led us to hope for much from his concrete house, but so far all forms of concrete have proved as costly at least as other forms of masonry. . The "Westland Chamber of Commerce resolved, in view of the paper shortage, to invite the Government to disclose its policy regarding the establishment of paper manufacturing or to indicate what facilities would be given in the way of a subsidy and rights to enable private enterprise to take up the project on the West Coast.