Earthbag Construction

Earthbag construction is an inexpensive method to create structures which are both strong and can be quickly built. It is a natural building technique that evolved from historic military bunker construction techniques and temporary flood-control dike building methods. The technique requires very basic construction materials: sturdy sacks, filled with inorganic material usually available on site. Standard earthbag fill material has internal stability. Either moist subsoil that contains enough clay to become cohesive when tamped, or an angular gravel or crushed volcanic rock is used. (Sandbag structures with sand fills are an alternate technology and require very different construction details). Walls are gradually built up by laying the bags in courses — forming a staggered pattern similar to bricklaying.

The walls can be curved or straight, domed with earth or topped with conventional roofs. Curved walls provide good lateral stability, forming round rooms and/ or domed ceilings like an igloo. Buildings with straight walls longer than 5 m (16.4 ft) in length need either intersecting walls or bracing buttresses or piers added. International standards exist for bracing wall size and spacing for earthen construction in different types of seismic risk areas, most notably the performance-based standards of New Zealand recommended by the ASTM International in their Standard Guide for Design of Earthen Wall Building Systems E2392 / E2392M – 10e1). Until more complete structural testing is available to correlate earthbag bracing need and performance to adobe, cement-stabilized buttresses and mortar anchors to hold barbed wire at stress points can be used for public buildings in high seismic risk areas.

To improve both friction between each row of bags and finished wall tensile strength barbed wire is often placed between the courses. Twine is also sometimes wrapped around the bags to tie one course to the next, serving to hold the in-progress structure together and add strength. Rebar can easily be hammered into walls to strengthen corners and opening edges and provide more resistance against overturning. The structure is typically finished with plaster, stucco or adobe both to shed water and to prevent any degradation from solar radiation. This construction technique can be used for emergency shelters, temporary or permanent housing and barns. It is frequently chosen for many small-to-medium-sized institutional structures in the developing world.