Development of Earth Occupation Standards within the UK

There has been an increasing societal and academic interest in earth as a construction material. Driven by environmental impacts and perceived ease of working with the material, many individuals are using earth within their projects. This is paralleled by an increase in academic research broadly divided into two themes; earths structural properties and using the material to improve indoor air quality through clays moisture buffering characteristics. While academic interest has increased the understanding, development and use of the materials, adoption has been limited within Europe. Barriers to adoption that the material must overcome include certification and standards and an important component of standards is the development of a nationally recognised vocation training scheme that can be adopted by a large variety of practitioners.

This paper evaluates the current state of the practice with respect to earthen construction materials in response to UKs national earth construction organization (EBUKI) involvement in the European ECVET ‘Pirate’ Project. Focus is on the development of new training standards for building with earth in Europe and uses UK as a case study for the national implementation of the standard. This is achieved through a retrospective review of the route to impact for vocational standards.

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EBUKI and the University of Bath presented this research - view or download the slides from this presentation here. (14MB)