Earthen architecture, culture of transition and self-construction

This article discourses around the potential and applicability of earthen architecture techniques, namely rammed earth, in current architectural practice, regarding its advantages and limitations. This study has as its backdrop the search for alternatives carried out by communities more and more present in Portugal, which arise in a context of disbelief from the status quo, converging to an emerging post-carbon transition culture, leveraged by a strong desire for healthy living often supported in the concepts of permaculture. It intends to discuss the possibility of implementing real construction techniques in earth within the present society, in junction with other technologies and materials, based upon practical experiments carried out, in a comparative way. This contribution seeks to promote the rehabilitation of these construction techniques in the context of environmental concerns and energy, stressing the need for solid technical support given the tendency of self-implementation of the building