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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION THE exhaustion of the first edition
of this book, within so short a time of its publication, makes it
difficult to add much new matter for the reissue now called for,
or, in the light of subsequent research and experience, to revise
what had already been written. Any book that seemed to show a way
of meeting the present building difficulties, however partially,
was fairly assured of a welcome, but the somewhat unforeseen demand
for my small contribution to the great volume of literature on
cottage-building is, I think, to be attributed chiefly to its
description of Pise- building. Of the very large number of letters
that reach me from readers of the book, quite ninety-nine out of
every hundred are concerned with Pise. The other methods of
building have their advocates and exponents, but it is clearly Pise
that has caught the attention of the public as well as of the Press
both at home and abroad, and it is to this method of construction
that I have chiefly devoted my attention since the writing of the
book as it first appeared. In our English climate Pise-building is
a summer craft, and the small-scale experiments of one person
through a single summer cannot in the nature of things add very
greatly to the sum of our knowledge of what is possible with Pise
and of what is not. Most of the new data have come through the
building of Mr. Stracheys demonstration house, an account of which
is included in the present volume. At the time of writing, various
tests are being carried out with the help of the National Physical
Laboratory but the results, though exceedingly encouraging, are not
yet ready for publication. 1 The fact that Pise- building is
essentially aDry-earth method makes necessary the creation of
artificial summer conditions under which the experiments may be
conducted 1 Certain of these have since been issued and will be
found in Ap pendix IV. at the end of the book. 484387 Preface to
Second Edition during the past winter. As a result of these
researches, a considerable mass of useful data has become available
for the opening of the present building season. 1 Much helpful
information is also likely to come to us from the Colonies,
particularly from Rhodesia and British East Africa, where there is
great activity in Pise-building, and where there is no close season
such as our winter us here. imposes upon It is instructive also to
note that great interest in Pise- building has been aroused in
Canada and in Scandinavia, the two countries that we were wont to
associate particularly with timber-building. From both I have
received a number of letters complaining of the lumber shortage,
and discussing the advantages of Pise as compared with their
traditional wood-construction. If these great timber countries are
themselves feeling the pinch, the advocates of wooden houses for
England may find that they are not merely barking up the wrong
tree, but up a tree that is not even there. The timber famine is, -
in any case, a calamity to anyone dependent on building, that is to
everyone, for even a Pise house must still have a roof and floors
and joinery. But to invoke the timber house as our salvation under
existing conditions seems to be singularly perverse and
unhelpful...
This study, first published in 1919 then substantially revised
in 1947, was based on experiments undertaken by the author into the
use of pise de terre and other earth-based materials. It was
written at a time when traditional building resources such as brick
and timber were in short supply, and there was a need to consider
the potential for using alternative materials in construction.
Whilst earth building has not developed significantly in the UK,
the sustainable architecture movement has helped to stimulate an
interest in constructing new earthen buildings. This, coupled with
an increasing awareness of the importance of conserving and
maintaining our existing stock of earth structures, allows this
book to serve as both a historical document and a source of advice
and guidance.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION THE exhaustion of the first edition
of this book, within so short a time of its publication, makes it
difficult to add much new matter for the reissue now called for,
or, in the light of subsequent research and experience, to revise
what had already been written. Any book that seemed to show a way
of meeting the present building difficulties, however partially,
was fairly assured of a welcome, but the somewhat unforeseen demand
for my small contribution to the great volume of literature on
cottage-building is, I think, to be attributed chiefly to its
description of Pise- building. Of the very large number of letters
that reach me from readers of the book, quite ninety-nine out of
every hundred are concerned with Pise. The other methods of
building have their advocates and exponents, but it is clearly Pise
that has caught the attention of the public as well as of the Press
both at home and abroad, and it is to this method of construction
that I have chiefly devoted my attention since the writing of the
book as it first appeared. In our English climate Pise-building is
a summer craft, and the small-scale experiments of one person
through a single summer cannot in the nature of things add very
greatly to the sum of our knowledge of what is possible with Pise
and of what is not. Most of the new data have come through the
building of Mr. Stracheys demonstration house, an account of which
is included in the present volume. At the time of writing, various
tests are being carried out with the help of the National Physical
Laboratory but the results, though exceedingly encouraging, are not
yet ready for publication. 1 The fact that Pise- building is
essentially aDry-earth method makes necessary the creation of
artificial summer conditions under which the experiments may be
conducted 1 Certain of these have since been issued and will be
found in Ap pendix IV. at the end of the book. 484387 Preface to
Second Edition during the past winter. As a result of these
researches, a considerable mass of useful data has become available
for the opening of the present building season. 1 Much helpful
information is also likely to come to us from the Colonies,
particularly from Rhodesia and British East Africa, where there is
great activity in Pise-building, and where there is no close season
such as our winter us here. imposes upon It is instructive also to
note that great interest in Pise- building has been aroused in
Canada and in Scandinavia, the two countries that we were wont to
associate particularly with timber-building. From both I have
received a number of letters complaining of the lumber shortage,
and discussing the advantages of Pise as compared with their
traditional wood-construction. If these great timber countries are
themselves feeling the pinch, the advocates of wooden houses for
England may find that they are not merely barking up the wrong
tree, but up a tree that is not even there. The timber famine is, -
in any case, a calamity to anyone dependent on building, that is to
everyone, for even a Pise house must still have a roof and floors
and joinery. But to invoke the timber house as our salvation under
existing conditions seems to be singularly perverse and
unhelpful...
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