YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — To tackle a national shortage of 2.5 million homes, builders in Yaoundé are turning to stabilised earth bricks as an economical, climate-resilient alternative to standard concrete blocks.
The project turns local earth into masonry material by compressing it and binding it with cement to improve moisture resistance. Creative use of hollow and interlocking shapes also reduces handling and installation difficulties. Besides its economic value, masonry also suits the region’s climatic conditions.
“Earth is available almost everywhere. Why build with earth? Because earth provides better thermal comfort, and in Africa, given the heat, it is a material that can improve thermal comfort in homes,” said Andrien Tsague, developer at Village de la Terre.
The goal is to provide professional training to the construction workers and manufacturers locally, making sure that the standards of production are raised while lowering the cost of development for low-income families.
According to Achille Noupeou, a developer at ASSOAL, the financial impact is substantial: “Given the housing shortage in Cameroon, we felt that returning to earth as a building material was one of the solutions to reducing construction costs… We found that a house with three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom, covering 80 square metres, would cost around $20,530. We tested the use of stabilised earth bricks, and the cost ranged between $11,133 and $11,976.”
With official data indicating only 40% of Cameroonian households live in adequate conditions, earth bricks present a sustainable path forward.
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