Rammed earth sites

During the course of my PhD, and following the research, I have visited a number of historic rammed earth sites around the world. Details of these sites can be found on the specific pages below:

Northern Spain

In October 2004 and November 2006 I visited northern Spain. In the area around Zaragoza, there are a range of historic rammed earth buildings, dating from the Muslim period of Spanish history and later monumental Christian buildings.

Structural problems in historic rammed earth

Southern Spain

In January 2006 I toured the historic rammed earth buildings of southern Spain. Here the famous monumental architecture such as the Alhambra is surrounded by thousands of vernacular rammed earth sites. The constant warring between Muslim and Christian forces in the early Medieval period led to the construction of hundreds of rammed earth fortifications, leaving a rich history of sites to study.

10th century rammed earth castle in southern Spain

Northern India

A short field trip to northern India was undertaken prior to a conference in the region in late October and early November 2006. A number of historic sites were visited, of which three rammed earth ones are described here.

Rammed earth crack repair in northern India

Morocco

In March 2008 I visited Morocco, to learn earth building and plastering skills from Manfred Fahnert of Lehm Express. Each year Manfred takes professionals and students from around the world to Kasbah Caid Ali to restore parts of the Kasbah and to learn more about earth building.

Rammed earth Kasbah, Asslim, Morocco

Nepal

During May 2008 I travelled to Mustang and the Annapurna region of Nepal. Here, rammed earth is a traditional technique, found in many historic monastaries. I met rammed earth builders

A new rammed earth hotel under construction in Kagbeni, Nepal

Germany

In October 2008 I attended the Lehm 2008 conference in Koblenz, Germany. This was a fantastic conference and we got to see many interesting rammed earth buildings in Western Germany.

Haus Rath, the tallest rammed earth building in Germany