Mud, rocks, and small plants are used as the most basic building materials, aside from…..made of flexible materials such as cloth or leather. People all over the world have used these three materials together to create homes to suit their local……conditions. In general stone and brush are used as basic…… components in these buildings, while mud is used to fill in the space between acting as a type of concrete and insulation. Some examples are the…. mostly used as permanent housing in tropical countries or as summer structures by ancient northern peoples. The amount of each material used leads to different styles of buildings. The deciding factor is usually connected with the quality of the soil being used. Larger amounts of clay usually mean using the cob/adobe style, while low clay soil is usually associated with sod building. The other main ingredients include more or less sand/gravel and straw/grasses. ……. is both an old and newer take on creating walls, once made by compacting clay soils between……. by hand, now …… and ……… compressors are used. Soil and especially clay is good ……..; it is very good at keeping temperatures at a constant level. Homes built with earth tend to be naturally cool in the summer heat and warm in cold weather. Clay holds heat or cold, releasing it over a period of time like stone. Earthen walls change temperature slowly, so artificially raising or lowering the temperature can use more resources then in say a wood built house, but the heat/coolness stays longer. Peoples building with mostly dirt and clay, such as ….., ….., and ……., resulted in homes that have been built for centuries in western and northern Europe as well as the rest of the world, and continue to be built, though on a smaller scale. Some of these buildings have remained habitable for hundreds of years.

a. structural e. adobe i. thermal mass b. wattle and daub f. sod j. mechanical pneumatic c. weather g. cob k. Rammed earth d. tents h. forms l. planks