The Renaissance of Earthen Building Techniques

France has a long tradition of building with earth and from the 16th to 19th century saw the emergence of a wide variety of building techniques.  In addition to rammed earth, there are examples of cob, adobe brick, and compressed earth blocks, as well as the various hybrid construction methods used for half-timbered buildings.

The reason why there is such a large number of rammed earth buildings in France, especially in the Rhône-Alpes region, is the consistency of the soil, which is an ideal mix for the pisé technique. The diversity of France’s earthen building tradition is evident in townhouses and mansions as well as in the functional buildings found in rural areas.

Paradoxically, the earthen buildings of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are well-known in Europe, whereas the history of the rammed earth structures that local people built for themselves in Western countries like Spain and France remains largely unknown. Yet such buildings are widespread both in colder, damper northern latitudes and in the warmer, dryer regions of the south.

In France, where earthen building culture accounts for 15 percent of the rural building tradition (and in the Rhône-Alpes region as much as 40 percent), historical rammed earth buildings have been preserved in the countryside around Lyon, Reims, Grenoble, Toulouse, Rennes, Avignon, Chartres, and other cities. Occasionally they can be found in city centers, too—especially in Lyon, which has many rammed earth buildings that are still inhabited today.