ABSTRACT
The historic city centre of Cuenca in Ecuador is mainly built with earthen material. Although prestigious rehabilitations are undertaken on major historic buildings, common dwellings, which compose the majority of the city centre, are in poor condition and gradually abandoned. In this context, earthen conservation works are particularly difficult because of poor interest on earthen material, lack of arguments and incentives for conservation of earthen architecture, difficult materials supply and lack of technical skills on earthen architecture. A pilot project undertaken in 2015, by CRAterre has been instrumental to strengthen capacities of the municipality; bring awareness and disseminate good practices in the maintenance of private houses; to demonstrate how it is feasible and financially accessible to prevent major decay in the houses; and to train at once craftsmen’s, architects, technicians and staff from the municipality.
