I Traced Rammed Earth Back to Africa—Here's What I Found

In my quest to understand where the word and the building technique called Rammed Earth originated, I made some very fascinating discoveries. I was initially drawn to this topic because, as a prospective homeowner, I have been searching for more sustainable, green building techniques to help me cope with the heat in the area where I bought land on the Kenyan coast, which tends to be very hot and humid. In addition to that, I also wanted to build like my African ancestors, where I take into account the culture, the spirituality, and the environment into account, so I started to look into the origins of the word and the technique Rammed Earth, and this is the documentation of a step by step process of how this led me to Africa and I discovered two distinct rammed earth methods. One in North Africa called Tabiyya and one in West Africa called Atakpame. I have shared my mind map below detailing how I arrived at this conclusion. RESOURCES 👉🏾 Mind Map: https://www.figma.com/board/Jw19sknYm... 👉🏾S.W Johnson Book on Rammed Earth: https://www.google.com/books/edition/... 👉🏾A chronological description of the spatial development of rammed earth techniques:https://www.researchgate.net/publicat... 👉🏾François Cointereaux's École d'Architecture Rurale (1790-91) and its Influence in Europe and the Colonies: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40033820 👉🏾World Monument Fund Video:    • Discover Koutammakou, Land of the Batammariba   👉🏾The MET video:    • Sikien of Koutammakou, Republic of Benin a...   📂AFRICAN TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE ARCHIVE https://africantraditionalarchitectur... You can now explore and upload your photos, videos, and documents to African Traditional Architecture. We are building a comprehensive database of Indigenous African architecture from pre-colonial Africa to date, and you have a chance to contribute to this greatness. Our goal is to preserve the knowledge, and inspire future generations to build and live sustainably. LETS CONNECT 👉🏾EMAIL: [email protected] 👉🏾WEBSITE: https://africantraditionalarchitectur... 👉🏾INSTRAGRAM:   / seenewafrica   👉🏾LINKEDIN:   / african-traditional-architecture   👉🏾FACEBOOK:   / africanmudarchitecture   #TheVillage #architecture #africanarchitecture #africantraditionalarchitecture