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A hundred years ago, nobody would have designed a building made of glass. Now skyscrapers all over the world boast glass walls.

People now trust glass to be strong and durable. So why, when rammed earth buildings have stood the test of time for centuries, is this building material still not trusted and used by most architects, engineers and builders?

Daniela Ciancio and Chris Beckett, in the School of Civil and Resource Engineering, are hoping to turn the tide for rammed earth at their international conference in just over 12 months' time. They believe it will be the first science-based rammed earth conference in the world.

"There have always been lots of workshops to teach earthen construction techniques," said Dr Beckett. "But they have not included the science behind them."

The International Conference on Rammed Earth Construction (ICREC 2015) will be held at UWA and Margaret River in February 2015.

"Rammed earth is a sustainable, environmentally friendly yet robust material that has a significant potential to replace or complement current high energy construction materials such as fired bricks and concrete," Dr Beckett said.

"The thickness of rammed earth walls (a by-product of the construction technique, not, as some people believe, due to a weakness in the material) also boasts significantly lower running costs for heating and cooling than buildings made of other materials."

Dr Ciancio said many people had the wrong idea about rammed earth.  "They think it will get washed away in the rain," she said.

"We want to bring scientists and practitioners together at the conference to share problems and solutions.

"One of the big problems is standards.  There are no building standards for rammed earth so local councils are scared to approve of rammed earth constructions.  We are addressing this in our current ARC linkage grant and are about to apply for an Australian Standard.

"There is also a ‘star rating process' which is a rating from the Building Code of Australia (BCA). You need six stars out of ten - earned with the assessment of a building's energy consumption - to be allowed to build a house.

"Against all evidence, according to the BCA, rammed earth is not energy efficient!"

Dr Ciancio said she and Dr Beckett were hoping for another ARC linkage grant to work on this anomaly and, meanwhile, it would be discussed at the conference.

Dr Beckett's background is in unsaturated soil mechanics. "I have applied that knowledge to rammed earth and we want to pass that on to the industry.  People have been applying concrete principles to rammed earth without understanding the mechanics of it.  With that understanding will come improved confidence," he said.

Dr Ciancio's expertise in structures, paired with Dr Beckett's in geotechnics is what makes their research unique and valuable.

A two-day workshop in Perth, for practitioners, will be followed by a two-day conference in Margaret River, for academics, to disseminate rammed earth research.

Speakers from Australia and the UK will join others from China and California, who will look at how rammed earth performs in these very different regions.

"Construction and energy use are topics of concern for many areas so we hope to have a good cross-disciplinary representation at the conference," Dr Beckett said.

The submission of abstracts is now open and will close on 10 February 2014. For more information, to register or to submit an abstract, go to www.ecm.uea.edu.au/icrec2015