including thermal properties and the use of locally excavated materials. I became intrigued with devising a low-tech, high-functioning improvement on existing earthen construction methods for use in developing countries that would create strengthened, earthquake-resistant versions of the indigenous structures.

Archeological evidence dates entire cities constructed of earth back over 10,000 years; why reinvent the wheel to help people devastated by earthquakes, when we could be rebuilding structures in earthquake-ravaged areas—or even proactively replacing threatened structures—without resorting to expensive, culturally foreign building systems? I envisioned the system providing safe, low-cost, easy-to-build disaster relief housing in earthquake zones around the world, requiring only unskilled labor and readily available (even in an earthquake) materials, sensitive and malleable to indigenous culture and aesthetics, and virtually maintenance free.

Over the next seven years, I developed a rammed earth construction method that stabilizes the walls using a post tensioning system of reinforced steel rods. A Newton Foundation grant allowed us to construct prototype walls and test them for seismic stability at the University of Wyoming Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. I applied for and received a patent on the construction method I’ve named EarthWall, and last year completed construction of my first real-world test structure, my own 3,000-square-foot-home. In addition to being seismically stable, the residence is efficient to heat and cool, with favorable acoustic properties. The coloration of the walls, which incorporate materials mined from the site, naturally mirrors the composition of the surrounding rock structure for an organic aesthetic.

We talk about doing the right thing for the earth, and it’s assumed that what benefits the planet benefits humanity. “Saving the planet” is a grand abstraction, but how does it touch humanity in a tangible way? That’s what’s exciting to me: the potential to touch people in a fundamental way. That’s why we’ve devoted so much time and resources to developing EarthWall thus far. We know that the user group exists—homeless people displaced by natural disasters who need shelter able to withstand natural calamities. In the long run we’ll need to connect with entrepreneurs, relief organizations and developers with vision who can help us create in-country demos of the system using local materials and labor, until we have a truly workable model for providing relief housing in worst-case-scenario real-world conditions.

EarthWall has great potential to impact developing countries in earthquake zones and help with disaster relief by providing safe indigenous housing. By design, EarthWall utilizes technology readily available and requires only non-skilled labor. The requirements are only Portland cement, very little steel, and a low vegetative soil. The mixture is placed using manual labor and little mechanization. I believe that this method of building will add no additional cost to a building project in a developing nation where unskilled labor is abundant. The time required to construct using this technique is relative to the amount of unskilled labor available.

Because the technology is already viable, through initial prototypes and testing under the Newton Foundation grant and my own resources, all of the prize money from this competition could go directly to implementing EarthWall. In the short term, we need to demonstrate the viability of the EarthWall process beyond the single-family-residence application I’ve constructed so far. The next logical step is to construct a low-income multi-family housing project using the technique. Currently a proposal exists for constructing low-cost housing in the South of the Sudan in the New Capital City in concert with a company with a decade-long proven track record of building infrastructure projects like roads and bridges in the region. Funds from this prize could help take the project to the next level by defraying design costs; I would serve as a liason with the developer, and the money would be used to develop plans for the project as well as erect prototype structures utilizing this building technique.

Our Wyoming architecture firm, Ward + Blake Architects, is known for innovations with materials and environmentally sustainable applications, including sod roofs utilizing recaptured storm water run-off (recent honors include a 2007 Merit Award for Affordable Housing from Residential Architect magazine). Ward + Blake principals—myself, Tom Ward, and my partner, Mitchell Blake—along with design associates Carl Detwyler and James Barlow, registered architects all, will be involved in making this project viable.

Fifty percent of the world’s population lives in earthen houses, many of them in seismically active parts of the world. EarthWall is a superior building methodology, because it will produce seismically safe structures that require less energy to build and will require less energy to maintain for the life of the structures. EarthWall construction will produce indigenous structures that won't require disproportionate amounts of resources in order to maintain viable comfortable living environments. Because, in the end, though we remain committed to treading as lightly as possible on planet, having a tangible effect on the planet's least advantaged people brings the greatest satisfaction. We're into the humanity side of it; that's the application that's most important to us.

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