The need for a vast quantity of new buildings to address the increase in population and living standards is opposed to the need for tackling global warming and the decline in biodiversity. To overcome this twofold challenge, there is a need to move towards a more circular economy by widely using a combination of alternative low-carbon construction materials, alternative technologies and practices. Soils or earth were widely used by builders before World War II, as a primary resource to manufacture materials and structures of vernacular architecture. Centuries of empirical practices have led to a variety of techniques to implement earth, known as rammed earth, cob and adobe masonry among others. Earth refers to local soil with a variable composition but at least containing a small percentage of clay that would simply solidify by drying without any baking. This paper discusses why and how earth naturally embeds high-tech properties for sustainable construction. Then the potential of earth to contribute to addressing the global challenge of modern architecture and the need to re-think building practices is also explored. The current obstacles against the development of earthen architecture are examined through a survey of current earth building practitioners in Western Europe. A literature review revealed that, surprisingly, only technical barriers are being addressed by the scientific community; two-thirds of the actual barriers identified by the interviewees are not within the technical field and are almost entirely neglected in the scientific literature, which may explain why earthen architecture is still a niche market despite embodying all the attributes of the best construction material to tackle the current climate and economic crisis.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of soils in delivering Nature's Contributions to People’.

需要大量新建筑来解决人口和生活水平的提高与应对全球变暖和生物多样性下降的需要相反。为了克服这一双重挑战，有必要通过广泛使用替代性低碳建筑材料、替代技术和实践的组合来迈向更加循环的经济。土壤或泥土在二战前被建筑商广泛使用，作为制造乡土建筑材料和结构的主要资源。几个世纪的经验实践导致了多种技术来实施地球，被称为夯土、玉米棒和土坯砌体等。地球是指具有可变成分但至少包含一小部分粘土的当地土壤，这些粘土可以通过干燥而简单地固化而无需任何烘烤。本文讨论了地球为何以及如何自然地嵌入高科技属性以实现可持续建筑。然后，还探讨了地球在应对现代建筑的全球挑战方面的潜力以及重新思考建筑实践的必要性。通过对西欧当前土建筑从业者的调查，研究了当前阻碍土建筑发展的障碍。一项文献回顾显示，令人惊讶的是，科学界只解决了技术障碍。

这篇文章是主题“土壤在自然对人类的贡献中的作用”的一部分。