Category: Architectural Models

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Studio Moffitt: Proto-architectural Regenerative Models

Proto-architectural Regenerative Material Models
Reimagining Architecture Through Earth, Fiber, and Recipe-Based Making

Completed during a Visiting Research Fellowship at University of Edinburgh (2024–2025), Proto-architectural Regenerative Material Models explores a speculative territory between architecture and sculpture. These works resist conventional expectations of scale, program, and durability, instead positioning themselves as material inquiries, asking not what buildings are, but what they could become.

Freed from structural obligation and weathering performance, the objects foreground a central question: what if regenerative materials were recombined in new ways? Each piece operates as a tactile hypothesis, testing the expressive and constructive potential of earth-based systems when paired with other natural materials such as hempcrete, timber, and thatch.

The models are constructed using traditional recipes derived from vernacular earth and fiber building practices. Materials are hand-mixed and compacted into custom wooden formwork, emphasizing labor, tactility, and process over industrial precision. Across the series, assemblies include combinations such as clay-rich mass earth with straw, engineered soil composites, and hybrid systems integrating hempcrete within timber frames.

Built from modest, heterogeneous, and locally sourced materials, the work repositions natural construction systems as both viable and desirable. In doing so, it challenges the dominance of high-carbon, industrialized materials that rely on globalized supply chains, proposing instead a materially circular and sensorially rich alternative.

Archi-fringe Reciprocities Exhibition
George Brown & Sons Engineering, Edinburgh, 2025

Expanding on the research, the Archi-fringe Reciprocities Exhibition frames earth construction through the lens of culinary practice. Here, building becomes analogous to cooking: a process of combining ingredients, adjusting mixtures, and refining techniques.

The exhibition presents four proto-architectural models alongside their corresponding “recipes,” detailing ingredient ratios and preparation methods for mass earth, light earth, and rammed earth systems. Rather than isolating final objects, the exhibition foregrounds process—displaying formwork, templates, tamping tools, and even drop cloths repurposed as tapestries. A continuous “how-to” video further demystifies the act of making.

Installed within a former steelworks along Edinburgh’s canal, the exhibition integrates seamlessly into its industrial context. Notably, when two models were damaged in transit, they were simply reconstituted on site—crushed, rehydrated, and re-tamped—demonstrating the inherently circular lifecycle of earth materials.

Woolly Walls, Forgotten Fleece
A Scottish Touring Exhibition (2025–2027)

The research continues through Woolly Walls, Forgotten Fleece, a traveling exhibition that revisits Scotland’s largely forgotten tradition of fiber-reinforced earth construction. These architectural-sculptural objects are composed of earth, clay, stone dust, hemp shiv, and sheep’s wool—reinterpreting the historic mudwall or cob technique.

In this contemporary adaptation, carded wool fleece functions as a stabilizing agent, introducing tensile strength while producing a distinctive soft, tactile surface. The resulting textures invite touch, challenging the visual dominance of architectural representation and reintroducing haptic engagement as a core spatial quality.

Each piece is fabricated through an intensive manual process: freshly shorn wool is washed, carded, and combined with earth-based mixtures before being tamped into custom formwork. The exhibition presents a range of “recipes,” each generating variations in color, density, and texture, accompanied by collaged material studies.

While not scaled building models in a conventional sense, the works suggest alternative futures for construction—ones grounded in locality, circularity, and material intelligence. As the exhibition travels across Scotland—from Langholm to Dundee, Dumfries to Thurso—it reactivates regional craft knowledge while proposing new directions for regenerative design.

Funding & Research Context

This body of work is supported by the SSHRC Innovative Initiative Grant: Earthworks: Architecture’s Regenerative Material Models. Development of the earth–wool mixtures was conducted during an open residency at Cove Park in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

Source:

1.Proto-architectural Regenerative Models — **Studio Moffitt**

2.Archifringe — **Studio Moffitt**

3.Woolly Walls — **Studio Moffitt**

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Zumthor’s Chapel Reimagined: Rammed Earth and Light

A project by Marcos Vargas, Lourdes Aguayo Francia, Vicente Angel Saavedra

Peter Zumthor's Bruder Klaus Field Chapel Through the Lens of Aldo Amoretti - Image 13 of 13
Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel

The Bruder Klaus Chapel by Peter Zumthor, known for its use of concrete and its spiritual significance, inspired this project, which reimagines the chapel using rammed earth in hopes of offering a new perspective on the chapel’s form and spiritual significance. Through this material change, we emphasized the tactile and temporal qualities of the earth while maintaining the original architectural intent. Earth’s natural properties and historical significance in architecture highlight both the processes and challenges of working with rammed earth, from material sourcing to final assembly.

Recreation Section Front Elevation Model Photo

To embody the spiritual and material significance of the original chapel, our team chose to recreate the oculus section. Selecting this feature was crucial for exploring how architectural practices and traditions can express a spiritual narrative.

Recreation Section Side Elevation Model Photo

The dirt used in the project was collected from the back of Wurster Hall. Unfortunately, due to rain, the dirt was wet and could not be sifted through conventional means. As a result, the material was sifted by hand to remove larger particles and debris. Once prepared, the dirt was compacted into a mold designed to shape the wall’s mass.

The oculus element was formed using wooden dowels arranged around a clay cone. The dowels were secured inside a 3D-printed mold, which acted as a guide for stacking and compacting the rammed earth in layers. As the construction progressed, the 3D-printed mold was incrementally removed, and the clay cone was dug out to create the final oculus shape.

Initially, it was intended to burn the dowels to leave a charred imprint on the rammed earth, but the wet soil caused the dowels to detach. To address this, the dowels were coated in chalk prior, which created a residue resembling ash and transferred a faint wood grain texture on some areas of the rammed earth.

Recreation Section Detail Model Photo

Resources:

https://www.archdaily.com/798340/peter-zumthors-bruder-klaus-field-chapel-through-the-lens-of-aldo-amoretti

 

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Observatory in the desert…in Wurster Hall

The observatory in the desert was a project brought on by the Contemporary Architects Association that sought to revive tradition of clay and mud construction in the Esfahan Village in Iran with a beautiful communal piece. This work is described thoroughly in the following post. What is there not to love about this project? In this work of art, meticulously arranged mud bricks and rammed earth walls make a seamless experience.

Our group, Eryn King, Lucy Knopf and Camilla Faustinelli were blown away by this project when it was presented by one of the students in the class Earthen Material Practices in Contemporary Art and Architecture . We just had to recreate it.

The final pushed groups to build a model at 1/2” = 1’  scale, focusing on a specific building technique with earth we had studied.

Our group decided to focus on the mud brick.

For such an endeavor, we decided to change the design a bit. Because we weren’t going to focus on rammed earth walls, we made all of the construction  using mud bricks even if the interior circle is supposed to be a rammed earth wall in the actual project.

Construction process:

  1. Collecting the mud : Mud for the bricks was collected in the San Pablo coastline area, as well as a backyard in Elmwood, Berkeley.
  2. Making the bricks: Mud was pressed into silicone molds, then left to dry in the sun for several days.
  3. Building: With a concrete base, we stacked the bricks in a 45 degree angle on the outside, and not angled on the inside to act as the rammed earth wall on the actual project. This is where texture and consistency of our collected dry mud came to play, making some pieces more fragile than others.

Building this observatory was a meticulous project, but it’s incredible how making something makes you understand why it’s so special. What a beautiful project. Our group hopes to one day see the project in person.

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The Pottery Dome

As architecture students, we (Sascha Fawaz and Pedram Modaresi) built a dome structure/prototype merging pottery vessels with clay construction. Inspired by the Reviving Al Nazlah Center (Oriental Group Architects and Hamdy El-Setouhy) in Egypt, our installation transforms clay pots into architectural elements.

Our project focused on using pots as modular units for construction, integrating them into both the facade and roof.  Domes and curved surfaces formed the core of our design, emphasizing spans and spaces that feel timeless yet innovative.

We were fascinated by the dialogue between ancient techniques and modern design sensibilities in the precedent project, reflecting a deep respect for craftsmanship while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with humble materials like clay and pottery. It not only bridges the gap between past and present but also exemplifies the potential for sustainability, cultural revival, and community empowerment through architecture.

Reference images from the Al Nazlah Center by Hamdy El-Setouhy

We layered clay and pottery in sequential phases. Our initial dome structure  received embedded pots, adhesive coating with strong glue, and curing time.

 

We added a second clay layer to strengthen the form, followed by targeted drilling to reveal the pots from the interior of the dome . We filled joints with a second layer of clay for more stability and sanded the surface for a refined finish.

The completed dome sits on a brick foundation, raising it above ground level. Our project demonstrates the potential of traditional materials in contemporary architecture, combining ancient pottery techniques with modern structural approaches.

Proposal dome model. Scale: 1/4″=1′ 

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A ‘Model City’

drdharchitects’ proposal for the Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism Architecture seeks to address the individual and collective lives of the inhabitants, and future inhabitants, of the World’s big cities. This seems of particular relevance given the extraordinary and rapid growth of Chinese cities like Shenzhen, as the country goes through a dramatic process of urbanisation. With the help of local school children from Shenzhen they proposed the creation of a miniature city, made of clay.

They wanted to engage local school children in imagining their own city. The process started by asking them to think about their home, through building a collection of miniature clay houses. drdharchitects asked them a series of questions such as where an entrance or window might be; how these played a part in defining the overall appearance of their buildings and how it might speak to its neighbours.

It concluded by asking them to consider the individual house as part of the collective city, how it might be laid out, its patterns and the relationships between things.