Traditional Materials Optimized for the 21st Century

The rapid pace of development and economic forces have resulted in theever increasing complexity of construction, with most building componentsbeing manufactured out of materials and minerals coming from places locatedthousands of miles from the sites where they are installed. In hisarticle, Global in a Not-so-Global World, Mark Jarzombek writes that “Buildingsof even humble proportions are today a composite of materials fromprobably a dozen or more different countries. In that sense, buildings are farmore foundational as a map of global realities…than even a shoe.”1Growth in countries such as China threatens to erase rich traditions of buildingwith local materials. Traditional methods of construction in developing nationsare being replaced by practices that are cheaper and faster, while the benefitsof building with native, natural materials are being overlooked, or forgotten.Against this backdrop, a small but growing movement of architects around theworld are critically re-examining context in terms of locally accessible buildingmaterials, available human resources, and construction methods native tothe areas where they work. Contemporary methods of analysis and computersimulation, material testing, and collaborative on-site training are being strategicallyutilized to provide these architects with a greater understanding ofmaterials that were previously so unpredictable. Reestablishment of culturalconnections to local materials, collaboration and knowledge transfer, alternativeconstruction methods, and even new building products are being realizedby stimulating the evolution of traditional building techniques.This paper will present global case studies featuring work from architectscreated by optimizing “traditional” building materials, such as earth, straw,stone, or wood. The construction methods employed are similar to thosethat have been used for centuries. Of particular interest are what historianWolfgang Ullrich refers to as Archaismen, or Archaisms, which he definesas “The reference back to what has been forgotten and supposedly out-ofdate…A culture that threatens to lose itself in sophistication sporadically requirescalibration and to re-establish the roots of its origins and principles.Archaisms are forward looking, as they can open up new perspectives.”2 Inthese contemporary projects using traditional materials and methods, tiesto the past are not made through formal or sentimental composition, butrather through the building process itself: through the interface between thearchitect, the material and the technique. Traditional construction methodsare updated and optimized, and natural materials are being combined withindustrial products, to create composite systems, which offer advantagesover all steel and concrete systems. Local materials have lower embodiedenergy, create healthier environments, and the resulting buildings typicallyperform better than those made solely from industrially produced materials.These projects propose an innovative way forward at a time when people inthe poorest countries are paying the highest price for global warming.Notes1. Jarzombek M., and Hwangbo A.B. 2011. “Global in a not-so-globalworld”. Journal of Architectural Education. 64 (2): 59-65.2. Ullrich, Wolfgang. 2008. “Vom Ursprung der Fulle und Vielfalt”. Werk,Bauen + Wohnen. (3).

Volume Editors
Martha Thorne & Xavier Costa

ISBN
978-0-935502-83-1