The refurbishment of traditional vernacular architecture is currently of interest for the conservation of heritage, historic landscape and cultural landscape, as well as for its potential benefits in the field of environmental sustainability. The carefully selected materials and techniques used in the refurbishment of a traditional dwelling in Sesga (Valencia, Spain) maintain the local construction techniques while causing the least possible environmental impact, saving on transport and transformation and construction energy. This article uses LCA to showcase this contribution, examining three scenarios: the first option is the refurbishment of the case study using natural traditional materials and techniques; the second presents a hypothetical refurbishment using widely used industrial materials; and a third option looks at the demolition of the existing building and the addition of a new construction with widely used industrial materials. This comparison has shown where and why the first option is, broadly speaking, the most sustainable option in environmental, sociocultural and socioeconomic terms.

Purpose: This research aims to highlight the values, principles and recommendations for conservation in order to establish valid strategies for the conservation of earthen built heritage. This is done following a methodology which uses indirect (bibliography) and direct (case study) sources systematically analysed from different perspectives: the values of Earth as a material and of architectural and vernacular heritage; the heritage conservation principles found in international documents; and the analysis of over 3,000 case studies from which good practices in earthen architecture conservation are extracted.Design/methodology/approach: Earthen built architectural heritage is found widely in all parts of the world, in archaeological sites and monumental and vernacular architecture, which research centres and researchers are increasingly studying and cataloguing. However, despite its richness and historic and cultural values, as well as its many merits in environmental sustainability, sociocultural and socio-economic terms, the value of this heritage has not been fully recognized in fields with major repercussions in conservation.Findings: Finally, these data are cross-referenced to establish the broadest possible strategies to guarantee all aspects to be taken into account in the conservation of earthen built architectural heritage.Originality/value: The text provides an overview of the different methodologies in order to extract specific strategies applicable to the conservation of this heritage, both locally and globally.

Floods are natural hazards which have damaged cities and their architectural heritage over the centuries. The heritage town of Alzira (Valencia, Spain) is a major case study for the assessment of flood risk in architectural heritage. Alzira was founded by the Al-Andalus Moors on a river island within a bend of the river Júcar, which has overflowed more than 80 times during its history. The main aim of this work is to analyse the vulnerability to floods of the town’s architectural heritage, especially that of earthen architecture, a constructive tradition of which several examples can be found in the town. The proposed methodology attempts to calculate the vulnerability of the earthen architecture through the evaluation and weighting of extrinsic and intrinsic parameters. This makes it possible to identify the constructive characteristics and material weathering which worsen the behaviour of structures during floods. Maximum vulnerability values have been obtained for poorly conserved constructions without cladding. Results highlight the importance of ascertaining suitable strategies for the prevention and mitigation of risk as future lines of research. The vulnerability assessment methodology presented in this study could be applied to other case studies in other sites with architectural heritage under threat from floods.

Geographical and environmental conditions were two of the most important factors on the design and construction of traditional architecture. Traditional earthen architecture is found throughout the Iberian Peninsula in numerous constructive techniques and variants, most notably rammed-earth, adobe and half-timber. The varied morphology, climate, geology and culture of the Iberian Peninsula, together with its immediate surroundings, have a direct effect on the development and the properties of traditional architecture. Thus, the objective of this research is to establish the relationship between the geographical characteristics and the distribution of the earthen techniques. For that purpose, the authors of this text have carried out a thorough data collection throughout the whole of the Iberian Peninsula in order to identify the main characteristics of this architecture in each location and to produce maps featuring the locations for each technique. This mapping of numerous techniques has been compared with other thematic maps of the territory, establishing relationships between the different techniques and specific properties of a given area. These provide hypotheses on which factors encourage or hinder the use of earthen construction techniques. Moreover, the relationship of traditional architecture with geographical factors and its specific morphology on a given place has provided many design lessons for a sustainable architecture. Those lessons must be taken into account on rehabilitation works and new architecture.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify and characterise bioclimatic strategies of traditional earthen architecture in a specific territory, the Valencian region of La Serranía. These constructions were built in relation to their surrounding geography or climate through several mechanisms facing the action of solar radiation, water, wind, etc. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology is based on a comparative analysis of selected case studies representing the constructions and typologies of traditional earthen heritage in a territory with similar geography and climate, albeit with certain zonal limitations. Findings: The results show that these constructions built with earth offer a global solution to environmental conditioning factors of the region by a series of strategies formalised at urban, architectural and constructive level, either independently or jointly. Although climate variations affect its behaviour, traditional earthen architecture seeks compactness to reach indoor comfort. Originality/value: Traditional earthen architecture is a valuable heritage in danger which has been devaluated until several years in this remote region. Therefore, prior knowledge of its bioclimatic strategies and formal constitution is essential to establishing heritage intervention criteria and proposals adapted to its geographical, socio-cultural and socio-economic context.

Learning from the sustainability of traditional architecture, as a solution to the current ecological crisis, seems more challenging in societies where a cultural imposition has occurred. In Burkina Faso, vernacular architecture has experienced a process of transformation, still in course, relying heavily on foreign resources and losing its adaptation to environmental conditions. As in other contexts, the dynamics of transformation are being examined. Joining this line of work, this research aims to explain the causes of the current local perception of traditional building techniques in Burkina Faso in order to consider how a sustainable development of its architecture would be possible. To this end, a historical analysis is conducted by reviewing the literature, consulting historical documents and collecting data during two stays in 2018. The study shows how earth has ceased to be appreciated by progressively becoming associated with “non-definitive constructions”; this perception is due to the narratives put forward by foreign agents since the end of the 19th century. The sustainable development of architecture in Burkina Faso seems to demand a return to the use of earth, local resource par excellence, but this will only be possible if the devaluation of this building material is reversed.