新澳门六合彩内幕信息

Turning Mud Into Wildfire-Resilient Housing

Ancient Technology Could Indicate New Way Forward for Climate Adaptation

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An earth block sits next to a block of wood, with a flame of fire coming from the charred wood after being blowtorched.
An earth block, left, sits unsinged next to a burning block of wood after both were blasted by a 3,400 F blowtorch. 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Professor Michele Barbato and team are investigating the wildfire-resilient potential of compressed earth blocks as a construction material. (Karin Higgins/新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

Wildfire, in one way or another, touches nearly everyone who lives in California and, increasingly, the West. How do you make your home where disaster is a given? How do you learn to live with it?

Those questions are at the root of 鈥檚 research. He co-directs the and is a professor of structural engineering. He鈥檚 trying to find ways to build affordable homes that can withstand most of what the planet throws their way.

鈥淚 started with some colleagues looking at a new way of building,鈥 Barbato said. 鈥淲e ended up looking back at a very ancient solution 鈥 something that鈥檚 been around for more than 10,000 years.鈥

That 鈥渢echnology鈥 was mud, or rather an engineered form of it called compressed and stabilized earth blocks.

Four scientists in blue lab coats huddle together looking at compressed earth block they made.
From left, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis graduate student Nitin Kumar, undergraduate Julie Nguyen, Professor Michele Barbato and undergraduate student Thomas Tonthat look over a compressed and stabilized earth block they created in Barbato鈥檚 lab. (Karin Higgins, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis)

Barbato and colleagues have tested it against multiple hazards, including earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes. When he moved to 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis, he naturally expanded the research to wildfire. He and his lab have tested earth blocks in a furnace at nearly 2,200 F. It doesn鈥檛 burn.

Learn more about this and other 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis wildfire and smoke research in the multimedia feature story, 鈥The House That Doesn鈥檛 Burn,鈥 published today on 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Science & Climate.

Media Resources

Media Contacts:

  • Michele Barbato, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Civil and Environmental Engineering, mbarbato@ucdavis.edu
  • Kat Kerlin, 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis News and Media Relations, 530-750-9195, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu

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