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STORY: As the search for survivors continues in Morocco, experts are warning that the traditional building materials used in the High Atlas mountains may reduce the chances of finding survivors.

“We never lose hope and we never give up,” says Antonio Nogales, President of the NGO Firefighters United Without Borders.

But he says life gaps – pockets of air for survivors to breathe – are unlikely to form with this type of housing.

The homes are sometimes hundreds of years old and are often built by the families themselves, without an architect’s help.

Materials include mud brick, stone, and rough wood.

Colin Taylor is an emeritus professor of earthquake engineering at the University of Bristol.

"The problem with rubble and mud brick materials for the older houses, the whole material is so brittle." /// "You’ve basically got a pile of rocks and mud dust and that just congeals together, even though it's dry, it really won't leave many pockets that you could survive in, any air pockets that you could breathe through. You’re being buried underground, if you like, by all this material falling around you, sort of packing itself around you, so it's certainly not a very conducive situation for survival."

Experts say even concrete homes often lack anti-seismic design…

Something that will have to be top of mind as the country looks to rebuild.

"The big government decision is really around making sure you use modern construction forms in any rebuilding. Rebuilding in this mud brick form is just going to create the next disaster in 20 or 30 years time, but that is a significant economic challenge."