One of the most endangered groups in the Historical Building Fund of the Czech Republic: unique technologies of earth buildings using piece building materials (mud lumps) and ways to save them.

Description in English
The main objective of the presented project is to create a comprehensive tool to save endangered historic earth buildings and their structural design. This proposed procedure will contribute to the deepening of interdisciplinary research and to the possibilities of using obsolete and unique building technologies. The project will develop existing knowledge about the number, location, construction method, material composition and physical properties of these earth buildings, which will be published and prepared for use in repairs and reconstructions. The emphasis will be placed on the practical mastery of archaic design principles, which would be otherwise lost. Earthen buildings is one of the most endangered groups in the Historical Building Fund and is preserved only in fragments. Preservation of material and cultural phenomena (mud lumps in the shape of an equilateral triangle) is of transnational importance, as these building blocks have no equivalent in Europe. The project will produce a map of heritage and significant historic earth buildings, that will combine database information from several sources with newly documented buildings. A multidisciplinary approach to the researched issues will be applied. As part of the project, an invasive survey method will be developed for historic earth buildings in the final phase of their life cycle, which will be used to provide detailed technical documentation. This will also be a means of reusing obsolete archaic or rudimentary earth building techniques that have been forgotten. This step is of immense cognitive and pragmatic-application significance for the presentation of vernacular architecture. The knowledge and proven methodologies will be used primarily in the construction of transferred objects in open-air museums and could also be applicable in the field of heritage buildings preservation. Selected buildings will be made available online to the general public in the form of so-called "virtual twin".

Keywords
Architektura; země; hlína; ultramarín; oživení zapomenutých technik; mapa; kulturní dědictví

Key words in English
Architecture, earth, clay, mud lumps, ultramarin, reviving of forgotten techniques, survey, map, heritage, preserve, Czech Republic, load bearing structures, invasive methods, non-invasive methods, CR