Resumo

ROTONDARO, Rodolfo. Contemporary earthen architecture: trends and challenges. Apuntes [online]. 2007, vol.20, n.2, pp.342-353. ISSN 1657-9763.

This article reflects on the principal tendencies in earthen architecture during the last decades and the actual challenges in this field at a global scale. Projects from several cultural and geographical contexts were selected, emphasizing on Latin America, in order to identify different ways of constructing and producing buildings of earth. Several opinions on the reach of earth as a building material, its manifestations in social housing and its links to the theory of sustainability are considered. Important advances are found in the fields of housing, public buildings, recommendations for construction in seismic regions, bioclimatic architecture, tourism infrastructure initiatives and technological innovation focused on the study of materials and their behavior in construction systems. As future research subjects are recommended: normalization of construction with earth towards the industrialization of systems and processes; the technological innovation oriented at improving existing dwellings in seismic regions; education at all levels; and the creation of alternative models of do-it-yourself building in social housing.

Palavras-chave : Earthen architecture; contemporary; trends; hábitat; sustainability.

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