The Case Study of the Earth-Built Walls in the CIAC, an Educational Institution in Fortaleza-CE, Brazil

Abstract

The CIAC (Integrated Center for Community Action, translated from Portuguese) is an educational center designed mainly to promote early childhood education at a desely populated area in the city of Fortaleza-CE, Brazil. The well-documented use of sustainable tecnologies in the construction of the CIAC, in particular the use of different earthen construction techniques to build non-load-bearing walls, is the subject of this article. The material use and embodied emissions of unfinished walls built using<br> raw earth in rammed earthbags, adobe, and taipa de mão (wattle and daub) were calculated and compared. This study showcases the use of earthen construction techniques in a densely populated urban area and the benefits of the reuse of excavated materials to reduce embodied emissions in earthen construction.