Sustainability and performance of earth covered buildings

Construction of energy efficient housing is the primary goal of all developed nation at the moment due to climate change and increase in green house gas emission. A number of initiatives are being introduced by amending building construction regulation in Australia to achieve this. To obtain high energy efficiency rating in residential housing most of the Australian Building Regulatory Organisations has introduced mandatory inclusion of solar energy systems and design with energy efficient material. In this paper performance and benefits of earth covered building in comparison with traditional construction methods is discussed. Results from this study has shown that buildings with earth covered roof is much more effective at keeping a building at a comfortable internal temperature in the hotter days compared to buildings with concrete tile and corrugated iron roof.