Architecture with Earthen Building Material: An Evaluation on Contemporary Practices

Men have used earth to build their buildings since the beginning of civilization. Earth is still used as a building material in many different countries. Because it is an easily and economically available. Today's world is faced with problems such as rapid depletion of natural resources, climate change and environmental pollution.Concepts, such as "ecological architecture" and "energy architecture", come to the forefront in the solutions that are tried to be produced in architecture for the mentioned problems. In this context, the earth, which has been used since centuries and is known as "a traditional material", it is also important for contemporary architecture. The main purpose of this study is to make an assessment of contemporary architectural practices with earth in different countries of the world. In this way, it is aimed to draw attention to importance of earth as building material and to contribute to the evaluation of its potential.