Earthbag Building - The Tools, Tricks, and Techniques

Building with earthbags is gutsy. Gutsy because only the brave take up a construction method so different from the conventional. Gutsy because people build homes with this technique when they’ve just learned it. Gutsy because the materials are basic, elemental, primal. And gutsy, indeed, because this construction system resembles, in form and assembly, nothing other than our own intestines!

A shovel, bags, a little barbed wire and the earth beneath are all that are needed to build with earthbags. The method offers more structural integrity than adobe, more plasticity than rammed earth, and more speed in construction than cob. Although earthbag is new compared to these ancient building methods, it offers superior economy and durability in domed and vaulted assemblies. Earthbag construction offers broad possibility for ultra-low-cost, low-impact housing, especially in regions where timber, grasses, cement, and fuel are scarce. Earthbag domes also provide unparalleled safety in wooded areas prone to wildfires, as fire will more easily pass over any structures without a roof or eaves to ignite. Earthbag building has been chosen, too, for sites exposed to hurricanes and other extreme weather. Solid as the earth itself, it holds great thermal mass and cannot rot or be eaten by insects.

Publication Details

• Published: 2004
• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• ISBN-10: 0-86571-507-6