Rammed Earth Spain

Spain rammed earth is a long association, at least as far back as the Moorish invasion in the 8th century. This article won't focus on the great rammed earth sites of Granada or Cordoba except to say there has been an unbroken tradition with the technology in Spain at least since the 9th century.

This article will discuss the newer domestic and industrial building heritage and particularly in northern Spain in the Palencia region. How far the technology spreads across Spain is not clear, but certainly there is a lot of it.

One of the things about Spanish rammed earth is that it is well mixed with adobe, normally with rammed earth below to at least the 1st storey, and the upper floor built in adobe. In fact rammed earth is mixed with burnt brick, stone and plaster, a seamless synthesis of a family of building materials used for practicality and utility.

One of the perhaps unexpected consequences of using and combining all these materials is that often the rammed earth elements are not seen and can be hard to detect. Some stylistic elements help to show when rammed earth is the dominant structural element but like traditional English rammed earth some knowledge of the styles and history of building in the region is needed.

Brick and plaster are often used as facings for rammed earth. Often brick is laid into the walls or faced with brick in regular rectangular frames, where earth can be seen in the frame or may be plastered over in the brick frame. However when rammed earth and adobe are used together often just plaster is used, blurring the line between the two technologies.

Continuing with this tradition the Amayuelas bioclimatic earthen housing project, selected in the 2002 Best Practices for the
Improvement of the Urban Environment Context mixes a lot of different technologies.

Typically houses are rammed earth on the ground floor, adobe above, with wooden floors and roof structure. They are also lime plastered. The whole site is clustered together giving outside spaces which are communal and intimate.

As well as winning prizes and making homes the project launched a resurgence in earth building knowledge, businesses and business. It's well worth a visit, in a region which is also home to Estepa Association, a fantastic earth building group involved in training, new build and conservation of the existing cultural heritage.

Possibly the most amazing structures common across the Palencia region are the rammed earth pigeonaires, or dovecots. These extraordinary structures push rammed earth to some amazing limits, typically building two or three layers of walls one inside the next to increase the internal surface area of the building. These then have hundreds of individual niches cut into them to house the pigeons or doves.

Pigeonaires are square, polygonal or circular, stretching formwork technology further for buildings for birds than for humans. They often have complex roofs which capture rainwater for the birds to drink, and have their own associated wells, probably a source for the wall building materials as the were dug out.

Architectural forms for people continue to be quite traditional, square buildings of two storeys remain the norm. The exciting shapes of the pigeonaires have not so far inspired experimentation in buildings for people, but their existance is a

Whatever the future for earth building in Palencia it is clear they have a massive cultural heritage, under attack as in so many places by ignorance and the threat that cement plaster and other modern finishes can bring to buildings which have stood for hundreds of years. Well worth a look.