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Since the early 1950s, much attention has been focussed on the importance of access to housing for low-income populations, notably by undertaking research into building materials and techniques which aim to make the best possible use of local resources, both material and cultural. In 1976, the Human Settlements conference in Vancouver gave new impetus to this approach, condemning the transposition of Western building techniques for low-cost housing, and recommending the design of technologies suited to climatic, social and cultural contexts, the gradual reduction of imports of products and services linked to construction, and the drawing up of norms and regulations which covered the basic needs of end-users whilst taking account of their economic possibilities.
In December 1988, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed their "Global Strategy for Housing to the year 2000". The target - guaranteed access to decent and durable housing for all by the year 2000, by relying on a vast formal and informal private sector (a sector far more efficient in producing housing), in other words by taking account of the often ignored wealth of existing human resources, now recognised beyond doubt, particularly with regard to social dynamics and building cultures.
This book is the fruit of the work of a team whose objectives are totally consistent with this approach. It is intended to be a means towards this end, a tool to arouse, stimulate, and consolidate confidence in current and future applications. It should be read as the state of the art of current, technical know-how, acquired thanks to the efforts of many, often pioneering, practitioners working towards this goal.
The work attempts mainly to illustrate both general means of production and actual physical techniques, as well as their economic implications. It aims more to be an aid to decision-making than to provide an answer to problems; problems which will necessarily have more than one possible solution and which require an understanding of the interaction between a building material and its use in construction.
CEB technology offers an alternative kind of building construction: accessible, high quality and over the last fifty years increasingly sanctioned from a scientific, technical, social and cultural point of view. The Compressed Earth Block is one of those rare "modern materials" which has sufficient production flexibility to enable it to be integrated into both formal and informal sectors of activity, from "cottage" industry to full-scale industrial plants.
This book has been made possible thanks to the active collaboration which our team has developed over the past few years with GATE-GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) in the field of the dissemination of suitable building materials and techniques, through training and pilot architectural applications. Our particular thanks are due to Mrs Hannah Schreckenbach, of this same organisation, for her support with the publication of the book, as well as for her confidence in its authors. We also wish to extend our thanks to all the individuals active in the field - architects, entrepreneurs, builders, block manufacturers - whose work has given rise to built examples using compressed earth blocks, thus reinforcing confidence in the potential usefulness and quality of this technology. May their example inspire yet more practitioners to follow in their footsteps and to continue to share, as they do today, their knowledge and experience.
Francois Vitoux, teaching architect, School of Architecture of Grenoble.
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