International Journal of Science, Environment ISSN 2278-3687 (O)

and Technology, Vol. 4, No 1, 2015, 646 – 660 2277-663X (P)

BUILDING WITH EARTH IN NIGERIA: A REVIEW OF THE PAST

AND PRESENT EFFORTS TO ENHANCE FUTURE HOUSING
DEVELOPMENTS
Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)
Department of Architecture, Yaba College of Technology, Yaba
E-mail: oshikeee@[Link]

Abstract: This paper discusses the use of unfired earth for wall construction. A thorough
review of literature covering the use of indigenous building materials, especially building
with earth was carried out. It was observed that earth has been in use as a wall building
material for centuries, in many ways, around the world and particularly in all parts of Nigeria
for residential house construction. Then, the practice provided effectively adequate housing
stock for the society. However, the drift to cement based construction lead to unaffordable
and unsustainable housing presently, resulting in acute housing shortage. Three new earth
building techniques: the compressed stabilized earth blocks, the interlocking compressed
earth blocks and the rammed were showcased for governments, corporate organizations and
private developers to employ in house building. It concluded that these new earth building
materials and methods are adequate and could sufficiently augment the conventional cement
based and other construction efforts.
Keywords: earth, wall, construction, indigenous building materials, housing.

INTRODUCTION

The problems (shortage, low quality, high cost, etc) of housing, though global are more
predominant in developing countries. According to United Nation’s estimates (2005) about
1.3 billion urban residents live in inadequate housing. Nigeria, for instance, is faced with the
both quantitative (short supply) and qualitative (low quality) problems (Federal Office of
Statistics., 1997; Olatubara, 2008; Mabogunje 2003).
The World Bank (1998) estimates that Nigeria requires 720,000 housing units to be built
annually for the next 20 years in order to be able to close the housing deficit of about 17
million units that would cost about N35 trillion. It is therefore necessary to employ all
possible measures, including the improvement of traditional/indigenous building materials,
construction methods and technologies to ameliorate the situation. In many parts of the
world, including developed nations, building with earth is being revived due to rising energy
costs that impact strongly on building materials such as cement and fired bricks.
Received Jan 29, 2015 * Published June 2, 2015 * [Link]
647 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

This paper sets out to review published research works to find out how the various ways
earth-wall has been utilised in house building to date. It will also discuss why the usage is
declining despite its numerous advantages and the continued call from all facets of the society
for its application. Finally, attempt will be made to introduce another attractive and modern
method of earth wall construction, the rammed earth, to facilitate is acceptability in the
Nigerian building environment.
A vast literature search was conducted through the internet and relevant researches selected.
For obvious reasons, a larger percentage of the publications consulted are research works of
Nigerian housing experts and the remaining from other parts of the world including Australia,
Europe, United States of America and Asia.
In this paper, 'earth' is used to mean any form of soil used for wall construction and 'earth-
wall' is any type of wall structure built of this material, stabilised or unstabilised, or modified
in any way by the addition or subtraction of other suitable materials. It is the unfired
soil/earth.
BUILDING WITH EARTH BRIEF HISTORY
Since man started the act of shelter construction, advancing from tree top and cave dwellings,
earth has been the dominant wall constructing material among timber and bamboo. Dethier
(1981) estimates indicate that over 30% of the world population lives in earth built structures.
According to Walker and McGregor, (1996), earth is the most basic, and the most ubiquitous,
building material known to man. It has been used for thousands of years by civilizations all
over the world. Pollock (1999), noted that the use of earth as a building material dates back to
at least the Ubaid Period in ancient Mesopotamia (5000 – 4000 B.C.). Earth walled buildings
are as old many settlements in Africa and other lands. The prestigious structures-residences,
tombs and pyramids, of ancient Egypt were all built with unbaked earth. According to
Pumpelly, (1908) Mud brick (adobe) houses were built in Turkestan, Russia before 6000 BC.
Earth has been used differently in many cultures for several purposes, ranging from simple
residential to religious and industrial buildings. The major techniques generally employed
include Adobe (mud brick), Cob, Pressed earth brick. Others are Wattle and daub, Rammed
earth and Poured earth. Any other method is a variant of any of the above. Several examples
of earth walled buildings abound. Many mosques were built with earth in Africa. For
example the Djenne’s Mosque in Mali , north Africa (Plate 1) below, is considered to be the
largest building constructed with mud brick in the world. The Great Wall of China, built
some 4000 years ago was originally built partly of rammed earth. Near the city of Lyon, there
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 648

are several buildings that are more than 300 years old and are still inhabited. Also Houben
and Guillaud (1989) listed the following settlements that are entirely constructed of earth:
Catal Hunyuk in Turkey; Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan; Akhlet-Aton in Egypt and
Babylon in Iraq.

Plate 1: Djenne’s Mosque, Mali-Largest Building Constructed of Mud Brick in the World
Source: The Islamic Times: Way To Go Mali

LITERATURE REVIEW
The large number of research works and publications show the urgency and the need the
engage other options in attempts to solving the seemingly unsumantable housing problems of
the world especially the developing countries like Nigeria. Many of the research results
support the use different ingegenous building materials (IBM) and methods. A trend which
hitherto, is yet to manifest in reality as projects involving the use of materials like earth are
still rare. The table below shows some of the relevant published research works.
649 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

TABLE 1: SCHOLARLY ARTICLES ADVOCATING FOR THE USE OF INDIGENOUS

BUILDING MATERIALS FOR MODERN HOUSING
No. Author(s) Research/Paper title Date Remarks
1. Ekong E. Daniel, Akpanim Sustainable Development And 2014
N. Ekpe and Samuel Utilization of the Red/Brown Earth
Okurebia, (Laterite) in
South-Eastern Nigeria
2. By Adogbo, K.J and Kolo, Stabilized Earth Housing Delivery 2013
B.A. through the Public-Private
Partnership: Panacea to Inadequate
Housing Provision for the Low-
Income in Nigerian Cities
3. Kadiri, Kabir O. Earth Construction Technology as a 2012
Facilitator of Mass Housing in
Nigeria
4. Nwoke, O.A and Local Bamboo and Earth Construction 2011
Ugwuishiwu ,B .O Potentials for Provision of Affordable
Structures in Nigeria
5. Mohammad Sharif Zami & Contemporary Earth Construction In 2009
Dr. Angela Lee Urban Housing – Stabilised Or
Unstabilised?

6. B. Baiche, M. Osmani, K. Attitudes towards earth construction in 2008

Hadjri and C. Chifunda the developing world: a case study
from Zambia
7. By Adogbo, K.J and Kolo, The Perceptions on the Use of 2007
B.A. Indigenous Building Materials by
Professionals in the Nigerian Building
Industry

8. Lorenzo Fontana Moulding Earth Outline: Typology, 2005

Technology and Morphology of Earth
Building
9. Oloruntoba Kayode and Local Building Materials: 2003
Ayodele E. Olusegun a Tool Towards Effective
Low-Income Housing in Nigeria
10. Anil Agarwal Mud, Mud: the Potential of Based 1981
Materials for Third World Housing

BUILDING WITH EARTH IN NIGERIA

Prior to foreign incursion into the west coast of Africa, earth was the predominant building
material in the sub region. It was used effectively in the various climatic zones, the
application method depends on the type of soil, technical knowhow and tools as well as local
traditions and customs of the community (Adam and Agib, 2001). Basic farming implements,
procured within, were mostly the building equipment. The houses built then provided
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 650

adequate shelter for the occupants and there were no cases of housing shortage. But the
modern era labelled such methods and houses 'primitive' and discontinued their production
and usage, opting for the modern sand-cement based ones. However, a lot of these ancient
buildings, with little or no modifications abound in the core traditional settlements within the
large urban areas till date. Bere in Ibadan, Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State
and Mushin in Mushin Local Government Area, Lagos State are good examples. Building
construction metamorphosed rapidly through the ages from traditional to modern types as
shown in table 1 below.
TABLE 2: REGIONAL EARTH-WALL USAGE TYPOLOGY IN NIGERIA
No. Walling technique Region predominantly used Remarks
1. Torchis (Wattle & dub) Middle Belt, Southern and Eastern
Nigeria
2. Adobe (earth brick) Western Nigeria

3. Adobe (tubali) Northern Nigeria

4. Cob (direct layering) Western Nigeria

5. Compressed Earth Blocks All regions The most varied and

(CSB) acceptable modern
method

Earth Structures in Western Nigeria

Two methods are generally used in Yoruba land: Adobe(earth blocks) and Cob (direct
layering).These methods are used to construct traditional domestic buildings of earth walls of
varying thicknesses, bamboo rafters or other termite-resistant timber with thatched or
corrugated iron(when available), and room sizes based on a standard module of 10 feet
(Osasona, 2007). Initially, the sun dried earth blocks were laid with mixed soft soil joints, but
later when cement became available was changed to sand cement mortar. The later type of
houses were easly rendered too with same material, giving the impression of modern sand-
cement block walled houses. These are shown in plate 3 below.
Cob (direct layering). The earth to be used is pre moulded into balls and are allowed to
mature for a few days and set in place over a foundation of stone rubbles and soil, in
estimated layers. Otherequipment, apart from bare hands and wooden batten, are rarely used.
This makes the walls uneven and irregular in both thickness and shape. About four or five
layers make up the complete wall height. The colour of each layer may vary as they are made
651 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

differently from various soils and time intervals. In urban areas, most walls are finished with
sand cement plastering. Plate 2 below shows a wall made by this method.

Plate 2: Adobe blocks coursed with soil and sand cement mortar joints.
Source: [Link]

Plate 3: Cob wall/Direct layering wall construction partly rendered

Source: [Link] .com
Earth Structures in Eastern Nigeria
The most common type of earth wall construction here is the wattle and daub which
comprises the use of timber or bamboo columns spaced at about 300mm intervals along all
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 652

external walls and internal partitions. Slats, called wattles, comprising pieces of bamboo
stems or tiny but long tree stems are tied horizontally to the earlier installed columns to make
up an open formwork to receive the worked soft earth balls- the daub. It is either left that way
or additional earth placed to cover the structural framework of bamboo stems and slats. See
plate 6 below. The major setback of this system is that the wooden structural frameworks are
prone to insect / rot attacks and eventual failure. However, the structure could also be rebuilt
with same earth, but with new wattle set up.

Plate 4: Wattle and Daub earth wall technique.

Source: [Link] .com
Earth Structures in Northern Nigeria
The dominant wall construction in this region is also adobe, that is, sun dried earth bricks.
However, it is shaped differently; elongated and most times bare hand shaped. It is called
'tubali'. Much more soil mortar is rquired for the jointing. Roofs vary, ranging from domelike
structures to flat earth finished top. Sometimes thatch is applied. Floor plans are either
rectangular or circular in shape.
653 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

Plate 5: Adobe(Tubali) used in Northern Nigeria

Source: [Link]

SOURCES OF EARTH FOR BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Table 3, below shows that earth is one of the indigenous building material that is available in
all the states, including the federal capital territory, over the country. Almost all category of
available earth in and around the site could be harnessed for wall construction. It could be
advantageously sourced from one or more of the following locations:
1. Project site. Excavated subsoil from foundations, basements and septic tank/soak away
pits provide a reasonable amount of earth material for wall construction.
1. Excavated subsoil, that is, wastes from other construction sites like road works nearby
makes available free or cheap earth for building.
1. Designated local quarries. Commercial sale point where earth/laterite for construction
works could be bought and transported to site with lorries.
2. Demolition sites. Earth from disused old earth walled buildings is a good sourced of
earth for wall construction.
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 654

Table 3: Availability of Raw (Indigenous Building) Materials in Nigeria

Type of Material States predominately found
Granite Plateau, Ondo, Ado Ekiti, Bauchi, Abia and Ebonyi
Limestone Anambra, Cross Rivers, Benue, Imo, Edo and Delta
Marble Kwara, Edo, Delta Benue, Plateau and Kaduna
Laterite/Earth All States
Clay Cross Rivers, Ondo, Oyo, Sokoto, Gombe, Kano, Niger, Imo and
Anambra
Natural fibre All States
Bamboo Eastern Nigeria
Timber Eastern and Western Nigeria
(Source: Kogbe, 1989; Okereke 2003)

EFFORTS TOWARDS REVAMPING THE USE OF EARTH FOR WALL

Several Nigerian governments in many instances have made policies and programmes geared
towards the utilisation of earth and earthen products to facilitate the provision of good and
affordable housing for the average citizen. The main objective of establishing the seven clay
industries, like the clay industry at Oregun, Ikeja, accross the country in the1970s was to
provide a cheaper alternative to the sand-cement blocks. This did not yield positive result as
the fired clay products are even more expensive and more complicated to build. Further to the
promotion for the use of earth technology for building construction, the Center for Earth
Construction Technology (CECTech) by the National Commission for of Museums and
Monuments and the French Embassy in Lagos was established to facilitate the production of
earth based materials for walling and flooring (Lamort 1993). Other establishments for the
promotion of the use of indigenous building materials are the Raw Materials Institute and the
Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) which initiated the use of local
raw materials in the construction of roofing sheets in Nigeria.
However, governments in Nigeria are yet to truly demonstrate these arrangements as there are
non of their housing estates that are built using at least improved indigenous materials and
methods. As Turner (1977) observed that government activities in housing hamper the use of
local resources where they continue to build and manage houses, which have repeated the
same mistakes by setting material standards, and building codes, which are ill suited and far
too expensive for the poor majority.
655 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

NEW EARTH WALL BUILDINGS FOR HOUSING

Building walls with earth is actively being revived all over the world. Remarkable progress
has been made in many countries, notably New Zealand, Australia, India, New Mexico,
United States of America etc. New Zealand has developed and published standards guiding
the erection of earth buildings. There now exist a movement for 'New earth building' in most
parts of the world. Nigeria is yet to experience this wave of events in the construction
industry therein. For now, elsewhere, adobe blocks are mostly employed in the construction
of these earth buildings, but here in Nigeria the compressed earth blocks and compressed
interlocking earth blocks are common. Another popular new earth method not used in Nigeria
is the rammed earth. The introduction of this method into the Nigerian building environment
is very crucial to engender the ever sought acceptability of earth wall by housing consumers.
The three methods enumerated above will be further discussed to foster construction of new
earth buildings.
COMPRESSED STABILISED INTERLOCKING EARTH BLOCKS
Unfired solid interlocking laterite / clay (Hydraform blocks) is a form of stabilized building
blocks for construction (Oti et al, 2009). This is one of the few earth material that is
beginning to gain ground in the Nigerian construction milieu. It is a more advanced type of
compressed earth blocks and it is capable of being laid without mortar or any other jointing
material. Its minor setback is that it can only be produced by a specialised machine, which
may not be advantageously acquired by an individual builder for a single project. However,
the production of the interlocking blocks and the assemblage requires little skill which can be
acquired within a short period of training. One of its advantages as asserted by (Joseph, 2010)
is that it can significantly reduce the energy use and also cut down carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions and minimize generated wastes. Another advantage that the use of interlocking
blocks offers is the high speed of erection, compared to other building methods (Adedeji,
2011). Additional finishes such as rendering or plastering and painting applied to sand-
cement block walls may not be necessary that is more cost savings. It is beautiful and
attractive. Plate 2 below shows at typical building constructed with interlocking blocks.
Interlocking blocks was used to build the houses in Obasanjo low-cost housing estate, Ado-
Ekiti.
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 656

PLATE 6: A Building made of Compressed Interlocking Earth Blocks and Concrete

Source: Taiwo and Adegboye, 2013
COMPRESSED STABILISED EARTH BLOCKS (CSEB)
The compressed stabilized earth blocks are produced like the compressed interlocking earth
blocks. However, the laying procedure is different, with the addition of mortar for jointing.
This is the most widely used modern earth walling method in Nigeria and many other
countries around the world to provide low cost housing. For example, 2,698 low cost
housing units were built in a year time, in 39 villages in India in 2005. The use of compressed
stabilized earth blocks proves advantageous in many ways. It is beautiful and can meet any
modern standard for house construction. Another advantage is the reduction in cost as it is
cheaper than the conventional sand cement made block wall by as much as 20-70% in most
construction projects (Adam and Ajib, 2001). CSEB could also be made through 'self help',
that is doing it yourself, gathering materials around at little or no costs (Adam and Ajib,
2001). Plate 7 below shows a building constructed with compressed stabilized earth blocks.
657 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

PLATE 7: A Building made of Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks

Source: Adam and Agib, 2001

RAMMED EARTH BUILDING

Though not known or used in Nigeria, the rammed earth technique is not new as Handbuch
der Lehmbaukunst cited in (Gilly,1787), long ago described the rammed earth technique as
the most advantageous earth construction method. It is a method of unfired earth construction
where a mixture of suitable earth and 5% cement (as stabiliser) at optimum moisture for
maximum dry density compaction is poured into formwork, set up on site. The earth is then
rammed or compacted either manually with suitable rammers or pneumatic or electric
compressors. Rammed earth is commonly used in all style of buildings ranging from small
residential buildings to largest mansions. The finished is close to fair-face concrete and could
be in a variety of colours. Notable examples include the church at Margaret River, Western
Australia and
 Building with Earth in Nigeria: A Review of the Past and Present ..... 658

PLATE 8: A Building made of Compressed Stabilized Earth Blocks

Source: Stehpen Dobson,2000

PLATE 9: Rammed Earth Residential Building

Source: [Link] .com

CONCLUSIONS
When earth was the dominant walling material, there was limited housing shortage because
consumers could easily build their houses according to their capability. Till date earth
659 Emmanuel E. Oshike (MNIA)

buildings are still relegated to the background, when used at all it is usually in remote areas
that are unnoticeable. Introduction of new, through research on earth as a building material,
but accessible construction methods is vital for high output but cheaper requirements to
positively compete effectively with the counterpart materials. Where machines are necessary,
it should be simplified as much as possible for ease of access. Such machines should also be
procured in large quantities for public use by the government, either on rental or hire
purchase basis. New sets of building artisans, who in turn will be training others, should also
be trained to facilitate the execution of building projects with earth. The curriculum of
building professionals in the schools should also entail earth construction materials and
methods. Pilot projects at open locations in both new and old residential areas should be put
in place to showcase the possibilities of modern earth structures, like rammed earth or
interlocking blocks.
For new earth buildings to be successful, all types and methods must be seen by consumers as
good or even superior to other methods. Already, the environmental benefits of earth
buildings over the conventional buildings are a major advantage as the world is going green.
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