BROOKINGS – Steve Burroughs, a rammed-earth architecture specialist, will deliver two public lectures on the sustainable building material. Burroughs will discuss the history, methods and benefits of rammed-earth construction.
The South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum will host a lecture at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Design Center in Sioux Falls will host a lecture April 26 at 5:30 p.m. Both lectures are free and open to the public.
Burroughs is a professor from University of Canberra, Australia. He has been building rammed-earth structures in Australia and Africa for more than 40 years. He specializes in building sustainable structures in remote areas for indigenous populations as well as commercial buildings.
Burroughs will assess the H.H. DeLong Rammed Earth Building on South Dakota State University campus for the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum. A grant from the National Trust for Historic Places partially funded this assessment. He originally visited the campus 24 years ago to study this building.
Henry H. DeLong and Ralph Patty, professors in South Dakota State’s agricultural engineering department, built the building in the 1920s and 1930s as part of their research on how to make buildings for livestock using materials easily available for farmers. The H.H. DeLong Rammed Earth Building and the two decorative garden walls that remain are on the National Registry for Historic Places.
For more information about rammed-earth construction at South Dakota State University, visit www.agmuseum.com/collections. For more information about Steve Burroughs, visit https://www.drsteveburroughs.com.au.
