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New introduction to the 1999 edition of

Building in Cob, Pise and Stabilized Earth

Clough Williams-Ellis

With an introduction by Gordon T Pearson

Any student of British earthen buildings will soon become familiar with the name Sir Clough Williams-Ellis. In 1913 he planned to write a book on the results of his experiments with pisé. He had constructed a fruit house, a hospital extension and a wagon house, all to his satisfaction and considered that this method of construction was ideally suited to rural areas of Britain. World War I intervened and his writing was delayed. It was not until 1916 that he read the Cyclopaedia or Universal Directory of Arts, Sciences and Literature published by Abraham, Rees in 1819, that he realised that pisé was a common form of construction in the chalk areas of southern England. After the signing of armistice in 1918, the need for his book was urgent and Cottage Building in Cob, Pisé, Chalk and Clay was published the following year.

The aftermath of the First World War left the United Kingdom short of one million homes. Coal, lime and cement were difficult to obtain and with a maximum possible annual output of only four billion bricks (i.e. one seventh of pre-war annual production), the need for an alternative form of construction was urgent. Sir Clough Williams-Ellis acknowledged that most post-war houses would be of brick but he considered that ‘so far as rural housing is concerned the solution must be sought through the use of natural materials already existing on the site, materials that can be worked straight into the fabric of the building, without any elaborate or costly conversion, and that by local labour’.

At this time, each town had its own bye-laws to which all new building had to comply within its administrative area. Outside this area in the rural countryside, there were no restrictions. Hence the reason for Sir Clough Williams-Ellis’s hypothesis.

His call for earthen building did not fall on deaf ears. His experiments with pisé had been widely reported in The Spectator magazine and had generated considerable interest, as the correspondence columns confirm. Lutyens and Gimson were designing buildings of earth and other books were to follow. The Department of Scientific and Agricultural Research published Experimental Cottages: A Report on the Work of the Department at Amesbury, Wiltshire by W. Jaggard in 1921, and Building in Cob and Pisé de Terre in 1922.

Following the Second World War, the United Kingdom found itself in the same economic situation as it had done after the First World War. The need to rebuild was urgent and Sir Clough Williams-Ellis decided to re-write his book, to expand on it in the light of recently acquired knowledge, to reflect upon his early experiments and to seek the assistance of two further authors. John and Elizabeth Eastwick-Field, both architects, collaborated with Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and Building in Cob, Pisé and Stabilized Earth was published in 1947.

The new edition, of which this is a facsimile, was increased from 125 to 164 pages. New chapters were added on adobe, stabilized earth, design, foreign practices and protective coverings.

Upon reading the book again, its relevance to the late twentieth century soon becomes apparent. Emphasis has changed from experimenting with earth construction to conserving the national earthen heritage, to which I made my contribution in 1992 with the publication of Conservation of Clay and Chalk Buildings (Donhead).

In the United Kingdom, there has been a reluctant response for calls to build with earth. The few examples of the last few years have concentrated on boundary walls, small extensions, bus and playground shelters, mainly in the West County. A few houses are planned, subject to compliance with the building regulations, but earth building has not been developed in the United Kingdom as it has in other countries. In Australia, the USA, Austria, France, Romania, India, Morocco and Peru, structures as diverse as conference centres, hotels, hospitals, sports centres, libraries, schools and airport terminals in addition to houses have been constructed. Some rise to five storeys and are constructed mainly of pisé de terre or adobe, sometimes in stabilized earth. In Switzerland, a Swiss Standard Specification has been produced for buildings of pisé construction.

In the preface, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis comments that ‘it [pisé] has yet to prove itself in the fields of national housing and of competitive commercial building schemes on a large scale’. It is sad to think that eighty years after its publication, only now is the United Kingdom beginning to develop unburnt earth as a modern building material, many years behind its counterparts. The recent creation of a Centre for Earthen Architecture at the University of Plymouth has acted as a catalyst together with high profile conferences and publicity by groups such as ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and United Kingdom government agencies. The rapid rise in the ‘green’ or sustainable architecture movement has also helped to stimulate interest in constructing new earthen buildings and it is to be hoped that this interest will be maintained and developed to encourage this country to return to its architectural roots.

Gordon T. Pearson
Stockbridge, Hampshire, June 1999 

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