Some observations about the paper 'Earth construction: Lessons from the past for future eco-efficient construction' by F. Pacheco-Torgal and S. Jalali

摘要

As the starting point of this discussion, we would like to congratulate the authors for this interesting review [1 ], which defends the use of earth as a building material. Indeed, while this is one of the oldest building materials in the world, it is also one of the less studied by the scientific community, and thus, one of the less understood. However, as stated by the two authors of this review, the number of scientific studies on this subject has increased dramatically in recent years. There searches on earth as a building material are mainly motivated by the growing demand of masons and construction companies for scientific data and evidence to evaluate and improve the wealth, the hygrothermal comfort and the seismic resistance of earth construction.