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Harrington Hybrid Homes

Earth building

Friday, November 03, 2006
Earth is an ancient building material that is still used in many different ways with
about half the world’s population still living in earth buildings.
But earth building is not a phenomenon only of the Third World. In France, about
15% of the population live in earth walled houses. In some regions of Australia over
20% of the houses are built with walls of unfired earth.

In western countries, thousands of luxury earth homes have been built in the last
few decades, which demonstrate the many qualities of this natural building material,
and give the lie to any association with poverty and inferiority.

In New Zealand, early European settlers applied traditional English techniques of
earth construction - using predominantly wattle-and-daub in the South Island and
rammed earth in the North Island. Pompallier House at Russell is a well-known
example of rammed earth construction, which has stood the test of earthquake,
storms, and time.

Earth Building in New Zealand has undergone a revival in interest and this interest
is reflected in the number of earth buildings that have been erected in the last two
decades. There are currently some 600 earth buildings in New Zealand, including a
number in Waitakere City.
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