Unfired clay masonry is the most frequently used construction type for residential buildings worldwide, but the long tradition of building with unfired clay masonry in Germany came to an end with the onset of industrialization.
The research project EGsL “Unfired clay masonry: design and construction principles for a widespread use in residential building taking into account climatic conditions in temperate zones with Germany as example location” is devoted to the preparation of basic principles based on the current state of knowledge about unfired clay as a building material in order to filter out design and construction principles for residential buildings of modern unfired clay masonry. It is assumed that unfired clay has a much better performance capability than is currently expected from the material.
The greatest suspicion about the structural safety of unfired clay buildings is based on the water susceptibility of unfired clay, since unfired clay loses its strength under the action of water. In order to improve confidence in the structural stability of residential buildings of unfired clay masonry, a display at the trade fair BAU 2017 showed the basis for an example application of important constructional joints of a theoretical building of unfired clay masonry.
As a follow-up to this, the EGsL research project now intends to demonstrate the fire protection behaviour of unfired clay internal walls in order to ensure the structural stability of unfired clay buildings. The article reports on a first fire test on non-loadbearing clay masonry walls and describes an example application of non-loadbearing clay walls in the new Zinzendorf Gymnasium in Herrnhut.