UnivEARTHal project 2026: sharing the Earth: yesterday's knowledge, today's practice

General presentation

On March 09, 2026, Grappin building, the  first university network dedicated to earth construction, entitled UnivEARTHal, will held the round table “Sharing earth: yesterday's knowledge and today's practices”, in conjunction with the Agiles Argiles exhibition, available by the end of February and through March in the gallery of the same building.

This project was awarded a grant from the EDUC network to organize scientific events, enabling the development of partnerships on a European scale around scientific and technological projects, and generate preliminary results on common research and innovation topics.
 
 

Presentation of the project

In the face of contemporary environmental challenges and the imperatives of ecological transitions, traditional constructive knowledge is emerging as an essential resource for imagining sustainable futures. While bio- and geosourced materials are enjoying a revival of interest for their environmental, social and heritage qualities, the knowledge associated with them is still scattered and too often fragmented between disciplines (architecture, geography, anthropology, archaeology, etc.) and circles (academics, building professionals, public institutions).

The round table “Sharing earth: yesterday's knowledge and today's practices” is part of this reflection and accompanies the launch of the international and interdisciplinary network UnivEARTHal, the first university network dedicated to earth construction. The network aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, craftsmen and institutions to form a living laboratory, where experimentation, fieldwork and theoretical analysis reinforce each other. It aims to decompartmentalize approaches from architecture, archaeology, geography, anthropology and heritage sciences, to foster the emergence of collaborative dynamics on a national and international scale.

This event is open to the public thanks to the support of the SAPS label - Science for and with society - and will bring together architects, archaeologists, historians, geographers and experts from French and foreign institutions. It will offer a dialogue between ancient building traditions, contemporary practices and future perspectives, with the aim of questioning the place of raw earth know-how in today's ecological mutations. By articulating past and present, theory and practice, this meeting aims to contribute to the recognition, transmission and reinvention of this knowledge, essential to the ecological transition.

 

Project Leaders

Emmanuel Baudouin (Dr.), Senior lecturer in prehistory at the University of Paris Nanterre, ebaudouin@parisnanterre.fr
Paul Bacoup (Dr.), UCLouvain, paul.bacoup@gmail.com
Ghislaine Glasson-Deschaumes, Director of the MSH Mondes, gglasson-des@parisnanterre.fr
Maria Maddalena Achenza, Professor of Architecture at the University of Cagliari (Italy), maddalena.achenza@unica.it