Earth, a Sustainable Building Material for Realization of Low-Income Housing in Developing Nation: A Nigerian Case

Abstract

Living in earth shelters has been a part of human history. The relationships between man and earth shelter dwellings began with the utilization of caves and overtime evolving technologies led to the construction of customized earth dwellings. Today earth shelter construction is a rare practice. The progress of earth as a modern building element was slowed down drastically by architects, engineers and the public who believe earth is unconventional, boring and unaesthetic. Technique of earth sheltering is still not popular as the society remains unaware of the process and benefits of earth building. This paper discussed the potentials of earth as a still relevant building material in development of low-income housing in developing nations. The paper recommended the use of earth either as adobe (mud bricks) pise (rammed earth) cob (compressed earth), as a major walling material in housing development. In all, the paper investigated earth popularity from Adam as building material and it’s still relevance in realizing affordable low income housing in developing nations.