Going Green with Compressed Earth Blocks

The Cleveland County Habitat for Humanity and The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture are partnering on a project to design, test and document a house constructed primarily of Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) that meets CCHFH's goal to provide simple, decent, healthy, and affordable housing that is certifiably sustainable and universally assessable.


We will test this project by rigorously comparing this house to an adjacent one of similar size and build, built to CCHFH's current high standard of conventional framing technology.

What is a Compressed Earth Block?

A compressed earth block or CEB is a type of manufactured construction material formed in a mechanical press that forms an appropriate mix of dirt, non-expansive clay, and an aggregate into a compressed block. CEB blocks are installed onto the wall by hand a slurry made of a soupy version of the same dirt/clay mix, without aggregate, is spread or brushed very thinly between the blocks for bonding. 

Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_earth_block

Below are some pictures of the OU Architecture students building some CEBs!