Rammed earth
technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls by compacting a damp mixture of sub soil
Rammed earth, also called pisé, is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method.
Pisé also refers to a material for sculptures, usually small and made in molds. It has been especially used in Central Asia and Tibetan art, and sometimes in China.
Edifices formed of rammed earth are found worldwide, in a range of environments including temperate, wet, semiarid desert, montane, and tropical regions. The availability of suitable soil and a building design appropriate for local climatic conditions are two factors that make its use favorable.
Building process
Making rammed earth involves compacting a damp mixture of subsoil that has suitable proportions of sand, gravel, clay, silt, and stabilizer if any, into a formwork (an externally supported frame or mold).
Historically, additives such as lime or animal blood were used to stabilize it.
Soil mix is poured into the formwork to a depth of 10 to 25 cm (4 to 10 in) and then compacted to approximately 50% of its original volume. The soil is compacted iteratively in batches or courses so as to gradually erect the wall up to the top of the formwork.
“Rammed earth” enters the record as technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls by compacting a damp mixture of sub soil. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Rammed, earth and technique can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rammed earth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.