earthen construction

'I said to myself, dirt doesn't burn': The people rebuilding their
homes with earth

These people are rebuilding homes lost to wildfires in the western US
- only this time they are using a material that they hope won't burn.
...
...
Earthen homes have a deep history throughout the world, from pit cave
dwellings in northern China to the mud homes of Sana'a, Yemen.
Indigenous communities in the south-western US states of Colorado and
New Mexico used adobe, or "mud brick" in Spanish, to build earthen
homes for thousands of years, using their thick walls to keep homes
cool during hot summers and retain the sun's heat during cold winters.

While earthen construction has been largely neglected by US builders
for decades, the material has an increasingly relevant use in modern
times. As climate change increases the risk of wildfires through the
western US, homeowners like Glover are beginning to turn to it for a
new reason: as a strategy to protect themselves from fire.

Their intuition is backed up by early research, which has found
earthen homes could show extraordinary promise in resisting wildfires
- and could even strengthen after exposure.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241018-fire-proof-houses-and-the-people-rebuilding-their-homes-using-earth