Seismic resistant earthen Construction: the contemporary experience at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru

In many developing countries the most common alternative for dwelling construction is building with earth because the material is abundant and cheap. The quality of most traditional earthen construction is very low, because it is done informally, with little or no technical assistance. In seismic areas where earthen construction is common, every time an earthquake occurs, many dwellings collapse, causing considerable economic losses and tragic injuries and deaths. The professional and academic communities in some seismic countries have not remained indifferent to this important problem. Researchers at the Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) have been investigating on the construction of earthen buildings in seismic areas for about 40 years and have obtained invaluable results. This article describes the evolution of the knowledge generated at PUCP of reinforced earth, a material composed of earth and compatible reinforcements, with which it is possible to build seismic-resistant constructions.