I've been watching this wall come together while on our daily dog walks. The workers have been filling these bags with soil, and carefully placing them. What the heck? I've seen walls I think were made this way on highways and freeways (maybe those were just bags of concrete?), but hadn't seen a smaller scale wall up close.
These bags are called earthbags. They are used for a variety of construction projects, from retaining walls, to houses. Depending on the use, and height of the structure, the filling of the bags can vary; rocks, gravel, soil etc. In general, the structure is then coated with a think layer of a plaster-like substance to protect the earthbags from damaging ultra-violet light.
In doing a bit of research (thank you google), I found a whole building method and community, reminiscent of the earth ships of yesteryear. Earthbag construction is kind of like cob construction.
These folks in my neighborhood don't plan to coat the wall; its not that high, and while doing some retaining, isn't bearing a lot of weight.
The earth bag system, while kind of cool in the city, is a great idea for remote projects, where delivery of other building materials could be tricky and expensive. Filling earth bags with material found near or produced at a remote site, is far more sustainable than trucking materials in.
The California Institute of Earth Architecture seems to be an authority on this type of construction, and does sell materials, along with books, online classes and workshops.
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