Earth has been used as a building material for centuries. Today about one third of the world's population live in houses built of earth. Australia has a strong historic and contemporary involvement with earth building.

Since the end of the 19th century earth has been increasingly ousted by high energy consuming industrially produced building materials. Since the 1980s there has been a renaissance in low energy, resource conserving and environmentally sound hygienically safe building materials. Earth satisfies all these criteria and a new consciousness has arisen for the use of this building material.

The subject offered by the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, Design and Construction of Earth Buildings provides an overview of earth building through a format of lectures, field trips and workshops and is available to all undergraduate and graduate students as well as to those with a general interest in earth building. The subject does not require any prior knowledge or prerequisites.