Pisé: Cointeraux's treatise and school of earth building
Pisé: tratado y escuela de construcción en tierra de Cointeraux
- Date
- 1790 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- François Cointeraux
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Cointeraux systematised and spread pisé, the building of rammed-earth walls in formwork lifts, through printed booklets and a rural architecture school in Paris, with a practical guide for farmers and architects. His manuals were translated into several languages.
He did not invent the technique: pisé was practised since antiquity around Lyon and the Mediterranean; his contribution was systematisation, dissemination and a school.
What it led to
- earth-building manuals that reached Germany, Britain and the United States
- promotion of pisé as a cheap alternative in timber-poor areas
- basis of modern earth construction