Dear colleagues,

On behalf of the Dachverband Lehm e.V., the German Association of Earth Building, I would like to express my deep condolences to the family of Hugo Houben. What a loss – our thoughts are with you.

We had a friendly connection with Hugo for more than 25 years. Right from the beginning, he encouraged us to build up a strong earth building organisation in Germany, and we learned so much from his publications and teaching programmes. His “Traité de construction en terre” taught us about the microscopic world of clay minerals – indeed, he was originally a nuclear physician – and his body of work showed us the magical world of so many different forms and techniques of building with earth all over the world.

He will be greatly missed!

Dr. Horst Schroeder
Honorary President
Dachverband Lehm e. V.