Course (certified) on Tech Diplomacy

Context: Some of the oldest buildings on the planet are made of earth and the population living in buildings made of raw earth is estimated at several billions. Today most people using raw earth to build home are in developing countries while home builders of developed countries have moved from traditional earth construction techniques to “modern” techniques using generally cement based materials.
Nowadays, in the face of global climate change, raw earth is again considered to be a valuable interesting building material in developed countries1 mainly because earth extraction is essentially free of CO2 and the raw earth is easy to recycle. The revival of raw earth as a raw material for construction is accompanied by a research and development effort to develop materials with optimized properties for their implementation and use.
Work: During the week students will address issues related to the production of building materials, their properties in use, their durability and their environmental impact by combining bibliographic, theoretical, numerical and experimental research to develop and implement materials that meet the requirements of a specification.