Earthen buildings in Ireland

Even though Irish meteorological conditions are adverse for the development of earthen constructions, earth has been used as a construction material in Ireland for more than 4000 years. The objective of this paper is to present a summarized and concise picture of the present situation of the remaining earthen buildings in the country, identify their main characteristics, the values that make such buildings important, evaluate their vulnerability as vernacular architectural style and therefore, understand and better approach any future intervention on such kinds of structures. In particular, the paper highlights the lack of a detailed description of traditional construction techniques and of recommended procedures for the conservation of existing earthen structures. The paper identifies the pertinent Irish texts and suggests how recent research on the mechanical properties of cob and state-of-the-art numerical analysis techniques and constitutive models can be used to assess the strength and stability of existing historic structures.