Can earthen architectural heritage save us?

Abstract

Contemporary architecture seems to turn its back on the past in terms of the raw materials taken from the environment, their transformation into building components and the way they are assembled to create buildings. The global challenge of preserving the environment forces us to rethink the way we produce architecture today. Within this challenge, the past shows us possible ways to fill the gap between tradition and modernity. However, we need to understand what motivates people to abandon ancestral materials and knowledge for materials that they cannot manufacture or use themselves. Is this transformation to industrial materials and forms irreversible? Is there nothing we can learn from our rich past? How can we revive endogenous knowledge to produce environmentally wise architecture? These are the questions that the authors, who have been working on the revival of earthen heritage for over 20 years, wish to answer.