Building with Compacted Earth Blocks on Kerkennah Island: A Sustainable Approach

The Compacted Earth Brick (CEB) technique proves to be adequate and profitable from an economic and ecological point of view. This study proposes a stabilization and reinforcement of CEB using local materials to build houses in Kerkenah Island (Tunisie). This will avoid the transportation of material and so reduce the cost and environmental impacts. Some houses were already built with CEB in Kerkenah but only with earth and they present large cracks. Two main issues are also challenged in this paper: the reduction of shrinkage and the improvement of mechanical performances by adding local fibers and stabilizer in CEB. The addition of 3% of natural lime to the earth allowed its stabilization and these blocks did not show large cracks after drying. In other hand combined lime and fibers induces an increase in compressive strength. This resistance increases until 51% for a reinforcement of 1% of Alfa fibers. The mechanical characteristics in compression of the material increase during the time. These recommendations will be provided to the workers in the aim to change habits.