Earth Building: Back to the Future - EARTHA Annual Conference 2026
About this Event
Join EARTHA and our guest speakers at the 2026 Annual Conference to explore the immediacy, suitability and sustainability of earth building within past, present and future development.
Earth construction has been embedded within our built environment and culture for hundreds of years, allowing for quality and economically sound means of providing domestic dwellings and civic buildings. With the unique qualities earthen materials possess, these historic buildings still stand strong.
By examining the past uses of earth materials we look to push forward and embrace the inclusion and necessity of more naturally constructed, low impact building development, and to choose a more conscientiously minded way of living for all.
This is a CPD accredited event.
Please visit EARTHA for more information on our non-profit organisation and details on becoming a member.
https://theforumnorwich.co.uk/whats-on/earth-building-back-to-the-future
FRAN BRADSHAW
Building sufficiency: where natural materials and ‘alternative technologies’ meet.
Natural materials perform in much more sophisticated ways than we realise. How do we best build and especially retrofit to use them to the full?
Fran Bradshaw was a partner at Anne Thorne Architects, a practice focussed on community engagement and ecological building. Experience and research from ‘Retrofit for the Future’ projects, and low energy strawbale construction, inform a natural materials approach to low energy retrofit.
JENNE PAPE
Mud and Stud – Lincolnshire’s indigenous vernacular building technique
Lincolnshire has a long tradition of building in earth but, as with many things, the county does it a bit differently. Mud and stud is a hybrid technique, combining earth and timber to create buildings which have responded to their environment for more than half a millennium, and which have the potential to inform building methods into the future too. This talk will explore the technique, place it in its historical and geographical context, and take a peek at how it might inform building in Lincolnshire – and perhaps beyond? – in a changing world.
Jenne is a buildings archaeologist, specialising in vernacular buildings. After serving in the RAF she returned to academic study, completing a PGC in landscape and buildings archaeology, and later an MA by Research, specialising in mud and stud buildings. She now works for Lincolnshire County Council as their Mud and Stud Buildings Project Officer.
NICKOLAY SHAHPAZOV
TOWARDS REGENERATIVE DESIGN
EARTH, THE ONLY TRULY LOCAL CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL
Nickolay will outline the key principles of regenerative design and explain how earth plays a pivotal role in the process of decarbonization of the construction industry. Load bearing earth buildings can last longer than 700 years and be more than 25 meters high. At an age where sand and gravel resource depletion put ever greater pressure on dwindling supply chains, we need to reimagine excavation soils as building material rather than waste. Earth’s thermal mass and hygroscopic property offer superior internal building fabric which can lower significantly energy demands, improve humidity levels and thermal comfort. The combination of locally obtained earth with natural fibers such as straw and hemp shive, present one of the most sustainable solutions we have got.
Nikolay is a sustainability advocate focusing on the implementation of regenerative building materials and systems. He pioneered the use of earth blocks made from site-excavated subsoil on large-scale projects. Nikolay is part of DSDHA’s sustainability and material innovation groups. He studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London, graduating in 2007, winning the Alex Stanhope Forbes Prize.
LESLIE CORNELL
Building with Earth
Leslie will be looking at what cob is and how cob is made and the potentials gained as a natural building material within historic and modern buildings. Leslie will explain the means and techniques used, soil analysis & testing, CEB manufacturing, CEB point of use, earth block cavity walling, taking manufacturing to soil source and discussing the range of compressed earth products available.
Leslie Cornell is an accomplished practitioner in all aspects of cob in construction. Dedicated from 1997, Leslie has an accomplished and reputable historic conservation business based in Cornwall, The Cob Specialist. Since 2020 to present, Leslie is Director and Founder of Earth Blocks Ltd, and is the UK’s only manufacturers and suppliers of CEB’s, cob blocks, cob bricks, premixed cob, clay soils, bespoke earthen products and earth block making machines.
Colin Williams, Built of Earth, Rachel Furze, Rachel Furze Design, Matthew Williams, Create Design Ltd
Earth Block Detailing: (A Guide to Building Regulation Compliance)
This three-member research team have been successful in obtaining research funding for the production of pre-calculated, standardised details for earth block construction, giving detailed guidance on methods of meeting Building Regulations standards in terms of both the structural and thermal aspects of design.
The intention is to remove some of the uncertainty and cost associated with the design of earth buildings. Currently, there is no design code for earth block walling and very little authoritative guidance. Designers must provide individual solutions for every thermal and structural problem for each project. This can be very costly, involving original research, sometimes involving laboratory testing, the cost of which, for a single-story house, can be prohibitive. The project should be complete by mid-2028 when the results will be published under the title: Earth Block Detailing (A Guide to Building Regulation Compliance)
The research team will comprise: Colin Williams MPhil, C.BuildE, FCABE, Accredited Energy Assessor, Director of Built of Earth, Rachel Furze, MA, Passive House Designer, Director of Rachel Furze Design, and Matthew Williams, BA(Hons), DipArch, MA ARB RIBA, Director of Create Design Ltd.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 30.00 to GBP 75.00
