Eco-friendly mud houses make comeback in Hungary

Master builder Gaspar (left) shows the making of bricks of a mud-brick house in Acs, northwestern Hungary. Photos: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP

They were long derided as old-fashioned symbols of grinding poverty, but mud and straw houses are making a comeback in Hungary as a low-cost, eco-friendly alternative to concrete.

Master builder Janos Gaspar, who renovates earth houses, is worked off his feet.