THE POTENTIALS OF EARTH AS A SUSTAINABLE BUILDING MATERIAL

Okpala C.C and Umeora C.O

Department of Architecture,

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra

Email: coumeora@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The recent rise in energy cost spent in modern buildings accentuates the need to harness energy saving strategies of buildings, thus, the need to go back to traditional building materials-Earth. Sustaining local development means also preserving a cultural heritage of construction knowledge natural to regions. Research methodology used in this paper was descriptive analysis. This paper looked at different aspects of earth materials construction. In order to underscore the importance of earth materials, review was made identifying some of the environmental benefits associated with it. It includes earth as a renewable resource, low waste generation, low energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and indoor air quality. The  most  relevant  environmental  advantages  related  to earth  materials  are:  no  need  of  transportation; less energy intensive production process, lower  embodied  energy  and CO2  emissions and low  environmental  impact. Therefore, the use of earth materials as it happens with earth construction should be prioritized.