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Sun-dried loam has been used for buillding since thousands of years. We can find houses made of mud bricks not onlyin Afghanistan, Syria or Africa, but also in Austria and Germany.

It is the oldest freestanding monumental mud-brick structure in the world and one of the earliest upstanding remnant of Egypt’s long and rich tradition of mud-brick construction, Measuring 67m by 57m in dimensions, with walls 5m thick at their base, the ‘Fort’ is still preserved in places to near its original height of 10m.

This picture shows a loam house built with a 3D printer\r\nA new kind of 3D-printed house is currently taking shape outside of Bologna, Italy, and its makers think it could be the future of sustainable 3D-printed architecture. Called the TECLA, the house is built from clay extruded into an elegant mound shape. It’s the work of Mario Cucinella, an architect who founded the School of Sustainability and helped develop the printer technology behind the project.

In summer 2019, some members of our group attended a seminar for loam building in an Austrian museum village. There we learned the art how to form bricks from loam with our hands.

This work is has not changed over thousands of years andis still practiced today in many parts ofthe world.

In Afghanistan many houses are built in this traditional way. Mud bricks are dried in the sun.

Building a hose with mud bricks is not only cheaper but has also ecological advantages: the material comes from nearby and needs no long transport, and no energy is needed forburiningthe bricksat high temperatures.

We were proud to learn this ancient craft which gives us understanding oft he traditional architecture in many places oft he world – in our home countries but also in the Eastern parts of Austria where we have found a new home!

Mud brick buildings can be found everywhere in Afghanistan. This is an old tower in the Qala district in Kabul.

Mud brick walls of the city fortification near the Park Palace Guest House, with remnants of the war.

The mountain village Qala-e Sabazi, in the centre of Afghanistan

Shahr-e Gholghola or Gholghola City is also called the City of Screams, the City of Woe, or the City of Sorrows. It is an archaeological site located near the town of Bamyan, Afghanistan.

In many cities in Iraq (and in its neighbouringcountries) one can find small streets like this.

This picture shows a tradiitional mud brick farm house in Syria:

Yemen is famous for its multi-storey houses bulit of mud bricks.

Deep in Yemen’s most remote valley lies the city of Shibam. The city of 2,000 inhabitants hardly seems impressive. Just a handful of high-rise residential buildings, not so different from the Soviet-style blocks found across the Arab world.\r\n\r\nYet these buildings don’t date from the 20th century, or even the late 19th century. They were built almost five centuries ago, and have remained largely unchanged since.\r\nThe city is one of the few to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its 500 houses reach an astounding 100 feet in height, almost as high as Chicago’s first skyscrapers. Perhaps most remarkable of all is the fact that the city was built using nothing but mud.

In many countries in Africa, both North and South oft he Sahara, people use sun-dried loam to build their houses.

In the dry climate of Morocco, big parts of old twnshavebeenerected using sun-dried loam briicks as buildingmaterial

In the Sahel states, most rural buildings are made from mud bricks. Here we show a Dogon village in Mali.

The Great Mosque of Bobo-Dioulasso is one of the most outstanding examples of earth architecture. It is more than 200 years old.

The Musgum people live in Cameroun and Tschad and build their traditional homes in form of bee hives.\r\nDo you see the similarity with the house in Syria?

In the Eastern parts of Austria,but also in HUngary, Roumenia and Slovenia, many farm houses are bulit with sund-dried mud bricks

While the foundations are built with stomes, the walls are mad of mus bricks. Very often,new windows and new facade plaster are hiiding the old brick walls.

Also the „cellar streets“ consist mostly of loam architecture. These houses have no inhabitants, they are just for keeping the wine production equipment and lead to large underground cellars.

The inside of a modern house built with mud bricks

A modern earth house in the United States