ArchDaily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide https://www.archdaily.com/ Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://assets.adsttc.com/doodles/archdaily-logo-feedly.svg 026CB6 https://www.archdaily.com/1040348/elevating-earth-reviving-and-advancing-an-indigenous-building-material Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000 Mohieldin Gamal https://www.archdaily.com/1040348/elevating-earth-reviving-and-advancing-an-indigenous-building-material Twenty meters tall and four thousand years old, the Western Deffufa towers over the adjacent date orchards and ancient city remains in the desert. It is a former religious and administrative building near the modern-day Sudanese town of Kerma. Its significance is not only in its age and size, but also in that it is one of the oldest mud brick buildings in the world. And as the nearby mud brick houses also attest, earth is a material of continuous use from ancient times to the present. Yet, conversations around contemporary building systems have largely ignored this essential material. Some architects on the continent of Africa, however, are changing that.

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