THE "EARTHMASONRY" PROJECT

"ENTERPRISES/0618/0007”

The project aims to develop an environmentally friendly earth masonry system that will be composed of Compressed Earth Blocks (CEBs), which will be fabricated using locally sourced materials. It is anticipated that the research conducted will promote (i) the use of sustainable building methods and (ii) the exploitation of local natural resources for the production of construction materials. Experimental and computational research will be carried out. The primary objectives will be to: (i) facilitate the production and use of CEBs, (ii) demonstrate the feasibility and technical quality of the proposed solution, (iii) develop a background that can be commercially exploited by project partners (SMEs) for substantially improving their products/services and (iv) promote the use of environmentally friendly earthen materials in the building sector, setting the path for further research. To achieve the above goals, an integrated approach will be adopted. This includes the analysis of the current state-of-the-art, the characterization of local soils and of existing CEBs, the mix design and testing of new CEB compositions, the production of optimized prototype CEBs and the testing of masonry elements constructed using the proposed units. The experimental data obtained will be utilized for the implementation of computational analysis involving the use of advanced numerical techniques and of calculation methods to evaluate the performance of the system when this is incorporated in masonry structures. The findings of the research program will be used for the development of a technical guide on CEBs that will act as a basis for the production of masonry units and will assist in offering high quality services on earthen architecture. It is thus anticipated that the project’s outcomes will become an essential tool for all practitioners (architects, engineers, contractors etc.) active in the building sector.