GOLEHM. Back to the future with earth!

Funding
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Project Management
Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt
WIR!-alliance partners
ZRS Ingenieure GmbH, Dachverband Lehm e.V., Fachkräfte, Baustoffhersteller und Interessierte im Lehmbau
Services ZRS Ingenieure
Consultation on specialist planning for earth building, expert reports, building material testing, renovation recommendations, training concept
IMAGES
ZRSI, J. A. Blaschek & LDA, Golehm

The GOLEHM research project is a young WIR! alliance, represented by science, technology and crafts, private and public initiatives as well as industry, which is dedicated to historical solid earth building in Central Germany in order to set structurally relevant impulses for ecological earth building in the present and future. ZRS Ingenieure supports this research project, which is currently still in the concept phase, with decades of experience in the renovation of solid earth buildings in Germany and abroad, as well as with material testing expertise in the in-house laboratory in Berlin. “We feel the need to spread our knowledge in order to teach more and more skilled workers in the trades and in planning how to handle earthen building components in a practical way that is appropriate for the material, and thus also to make the extremely numerous historic solid earthen buildings in central Germany fit for the future again.

In cooperation with the Dachverband Lehm e. V. and the Halle/Saale Chamber of Skilled Crafts, an advanced module on “Rehabilitation of Historic Solid Earth Buildings” is planned, which will be accessible to graduates of the further training programme “Specialist in Earth Building” (DVL). Another goal of ZRSI as an alliance partner is to develop WTA leaflets for the renovation of historic solid earth buildings in order to noticeably reduce the still prevalent inhibitions in dealing with historic earth building components that need to be renovated in the future and thus to counteract the demolition of a building culture worth living in. The material-appropriate renovation of historic solid earth buildings does not have to be complicated or expensive per se. However, faulty renovations of the present and the past that damage the earthen substance must be pointed out and thus prevented in the future in order to make these high-quality building materials accessible again to families and people who are drawn to the countryside.

For the exchange around building and renovating with earth, the alliance has recently initiated the GOLEHM mailing list initiated by ZRSI, by means of which barrier-free access to experiences and know-how of craftsmen, building material manufacturers and interested parties in the field of earth building is now made possible.

Website: Golehm

Access to the mailing list: You can subscribe here!