Application of Traditional Local Materials and Suitable Technology in the Modern Low-Carbon Buildings: A Case Study of Rammed Earth Building

Abstract

It has been the consensus shared by every member of the society that we should protect the earth, benefit the future generations and take the road of sustainable development which is natural-based and coordinated with environment carrying capacity. Currently, no one can doubt the importance of low carbon living and low carbon architecture. Numerous new materials and high technologies have been used in the country all over the world in the course of low carbon architecture’s development, some of which has had a favorable result, such as London zero carbon emissions pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. But China still is a developing country, for various reasons, it is premature to widely promote the expensive high-tech low-carbon buildings, and especially in the vast rural areas, the traditional local materials and suitable technology still could have general applicability. This paper takes the rammed earth building as example, by introducing the history of rammed earth building, the application status and some of the latest instances, and summarizes several advantages of rammed earth building: the first is that easy manufacturing processing could reduce the energy consumption; the second is that local materials could lower transportation costs; the third is that the clay materials with good thermal performance such as heat insulation and moisture property could ensure comfortable indoor environment, the last is that long service life and easy reclamation could recycle building materials. Then the author looks forward to the future development trends of rammed earth buildings, explores the new construction practices of rammed earth buildings. Finally this paper concludes that traditional local materials and suitable technology would play an important role in the modern low-carbon architecture.