Louisiana Bousillage: The Migration and Evolution of a French Building Technique in North America

Bousillage is a tempered earthen wall infill employed in a distinct number of French Colonial, Creole and Acadian timber-frame buildings of North America. Born of Native American and French construction traditions and used continuously in Louisiana through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, bousillage is a notable example of an earthen building technique in the United States. Many similar wall infill methods have been used for brief periods throughout the country, but none so prolifically and for so long. Despite this fact, scant scholarly attention has been devoted to bousillage and its origins, development and material properties have been widely misinterpreted. Through intensive field study of extant structures, archival research, interviews with contemporary bousillage practitioners and petrographic analysis, the authors have dispelled some common misconceptions about bousillage. This paper illuminates the full extent of bousillage's use in North America and the manner in which it was made in Louisiana.