Modern and historic earth buildings: Observations of the 4th September 2010 Darfield earthquake, Morris, Walker, and Drumsteen, 2011 Popular

Survey of seismic damage to New Zealand earth buildings. Ten modern style houses using rammed earth, adobe, pressed earth brick, and poured earth technologies were surveyed in October 2010 following the Darfield earthquake. A further survey identified shaking damage to pressed earth brick houses which require better detailing. Four unreinforced historic, or reconstructed, cob and sod cottages and three historic cob houses were investigated. Two cottages with earth walls from the 1860’s were the most severely damaged, reconstruction needs to preserve the original material components.