The Windhover Contemplative Center is a one-story, 4,000-square-foot spiritual refuge on the Stanford University campus. It was designed by the architecture firm Aidlin Darling Design and named after a series of paintings by artist Nathan Oliveira.
About the Architect
Aidlin Darling Design is an architecture firm based in San Francisco, California, founded in 1998. It was established by two partners, Joshua Aidlin and David Darling.
They earned their Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the University of Cincinnati, where they met as students. Their collaboration began with woodworking and furniture-making projects, which later developed into their architectural practice.
They see design as a multisensory experience, where the way something feels, smells, and sounds is as important as how it looks.
About the Architecture
The building is situated beside a natural oak grove. Visitors enter through a long private garden, where a bamboo grove at the entrance separates the building from the outside world.
The building primarily uses rammed earth, stained oak wood, glass, and water elements to create a sensory and contemplative atmosphere. Inside the center, thick rammed earth walls and dark wood surfaces create a strong contrast with the light-filled eastern wall.
Water and landscape elements are integrated throughout the project: fountains within the interior and courtyards create a calm atmosphere, while a quiet reflecting pool and garden on the south side mirror the surrounding trees.
The outdoor meditation spaces blend seamlessly with the daily use of the center, reinforcing the connection between nature, art, and contemplation. The courtyards and the expansive glass curtain wall on the east allow visitors to view the paintings without entering the building, creating a peaceful place for the Stanford community both day and night.
About the Material
The rammed earth walls, ranging from 18 inches to 2 feet thick, were hand-tamped pneumatically in 6–8 inch lifts. The pressure was carefully controlled to create a variegated texture that reflects the construction process.
The soil beneath the building initially produced a rich brown color, similar to the sandstone buildings of Stanford’s original campus. While beautiful, the pure site soil proved too dominant for the artwork. Ultimately, a five-part blend was developed, with 20% of the material sourced directly from the site. The remaining ingredients included coarse sand, “birdseye” gravel, powdered rhyolite, decomposed granite, and Portland cement.
Oliveria’s Windhover Dyptich, 36 feet long and six feet high, hangs on 234,000 pounds of rammed earth-a wall twenty feet tall by sixty feet long. A wall this tall requires two form set-ups. With a stacked form you need to give careful consideration to the location of the stack point. Notice the cold joint runs right through the center of the painting.
DUST: Tucson Mountain Retreat
The project was designed by DUST (Design, Undertaking, Space, Territory), led by architects Cade Hayes and Jesús Robles. Completed in 2012 in the Tucson Mountains, Arizona, the approximately 2,300-square-foot residence reflects the studio’s commitment to material authenticity and desert-responsive architecture.
The Tucson Mountain Retreat is located along more than 900 feet of shared boundary with Saguaro National Park, embedded within the rugged and ecologically sensitive Sonoran Desert. Surrounded by dense stands of towering saguaro cacti, the site conveys a profound sense of stillness and geological permanence. The architecture responds not as an object placed upon the land, but as a form shaped by its climate, light, and topography.
Conceived as an experiential rammed earth residence, the project approaches the desert landscape with restraint and reciprocity. The muted tones and layered texture of rammed earth define a restrained program that opens generously toward the horizon. Circulation sequences deliberately extend outdoors, folding landscape into daily life. Shifting desert light, filtered views, and seasonal changes become active participants in the spatial experience.
The clients—a physician from San Diego and his wife—sought both reconnection to the desert landscape and a space that supports music as an integral part of daily life. The program includes living spaces, bedrooms, and a dedicated music studio. A clear separation strategy organizes these functions to enhance site integration while ensuring acoustic isolation between the studio and private areas.
The structural system integrates load-bearing rammed earth walls with concrete and steel elements, while large operable glazing systems frame expansive views of Saguaro National Park and facilitate cross-ventilation.
Arrival is marked by a sequence of fractal concrete cubes that offer an open-ended path toward two separate entries: midway up the ascent, a narrow slit marks the bedroom entry, while a dark square void defines the main entry.
Rammed earth walls traverse the plan, dividing it into three primary zones while providing thermal mass and acoustic buffering. The central living space, open to both north and south, acts as the core of the house and as a transitional buffer between the music studio to the west and the sleeping quarters to the east.
Material and sensory engagement are central to the design. Spanish cedar introduces warmth and scent in the bedrooms, while charred wood surfaces in the bathroom core evoke the cracked textures of a drought-stricken desert floor.
Each programmatic component is accessed via exterior passages, encouraging repeated engagement with the landscape.
Above, a spiral stair leads to a roof deck oriented toward expansive desert views and night skies.
When large sliding glass panels retract, the house dissolves into a shaded, ramada-like pavilion, animated by wind, scent, and the changing desert light.
Lara Fuster Prieto: Earth House
Architects: Lara Fuster Prieto
Location: Boadilla de Rioseco, Spain
Year: 2022
Area: 142 m² (1,500 sqft)
Construction: Local Adobe
Earth House, designed by Lara Fuster Prieto, is located in the small town of Boadilla de Rioseco in rural Spain. The project explores how traditional building methods can still work for contemporary life. The house is designed as a permanent residence and focuses on sustainability, energy efficiency, and thermal comfort, while keeping its environmental impact low.
The building has a simple rectangular shape made up of four parallel bays running east to west, which helps maximize sunlight throughout the day. The north façade faces the street and has smaller, unevenly placed windows, similar to traditional houses in the area. On the south side, the house opens up with large windows that act as solar collectors during the winter months. In the summer, wooden shutters and a pergola covered with deciduous vines provide shade and help prevent overheating naturally.
The structure is built using load-bearing adobe walls made from locally produced bricks measuring 33 × 15 × 10 cm, sourced within 40 kilometers of the site. These walls are insulated on the exterior with cork panels, creating an external insulation system that greatly improves energy performance. The gable roof is made from a wooden sandwich panel with cork insulation and finished with reused curved clay tiles, allowing the house to blend in with the surrounding village buildings. Instead of cement, lime mortar mixed with straw is used for the exterior plaster. This material is breathable, helps regulate moisture, and is more sustainable over time. Wooden doors and windows further reduce the home’s carbon footprint, while roll-up shutters act as passive sun protection.
Inside the house, the partitions are lightweight and built with exposed wooden slats, recycled cotton insulation, and medium-density wood boards. To bring in more natural light and create a sense of openness, the upper portions of these walls include polycarbonate panels. Some of the adobe walls are left exposed, highlighting the material and giving the interior a warm, earthy feel.
Thanks to the thermal mass of the adobe, the house maintains stable indoor temperatures between 22 and 24°C during the summer, even when outdoor temperatures reach over 40°C. Because of this passive performance, the house does not require any active cooling systems and achieves an A-rated energy classification. In the winter, underfloor heating is used, inspired by the traditional “glorias” heating system found in the region.
In summary, the Earth House project focuses on reducing environmental impact while using local, traditional materials to stay connected to its cultural context.
Fuster Prieto, Lara. Earth House by Lara Fuster Prieto: A Sustainable Adobe Home in Rural Spain. UNI.xyz, 2 Apr. 2025, www.uni.xyz/journals/earth-house-by-lara-fuster-prieto-a-sust.
Fuster Prieto, Lara, and Milena Villalba. Casa de Tierra / Earth House Project Details. Divisare, 2023, www.divisare.com/projects/480657-lara-fuster-prieto-milena-villalba-casa-de-tierra
Donald Judd and Adobe
Donald Clarence Judd (1928–1994) was an American artist best known for his role in the development of Minimalism. His work has had lasting influence on art, architecture, and design.
Judd was born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. He studied philosophy and art history at Columbia University and later painting at the Art Students League in New York. He worked as a painter until the early 1960s, when he began producing three-dimensional works that challenged conventional definitions of sculpture. These works emphasized repetition, clarity, and structural logic rather than representation.
By the early 1970s Judd had become dissatisfied with the temporary nature of gallery exhibitions. He believed art needed a permanent and carefully defined setting. In 1971 he moved to Marfa, Texas, where he began purchasing buildings and land in order to establish long-term installations under his own direction.
In Marfa, adobe was part of the existing building environment. Rather than bringing industrial construction methods from New York, Judd worked with local builders, reused salvaged adobe bricks, and sometimes produced bricks on site.
For Judd, permanence was not only about duration but about spatial stability. Works were meant to remain in fixed positions, in spaces with consistent proportions and light. Adobe, as a load-bearing and materially durable construction system, allowed the architecture itself to remain stable over time. The walls were not temporary partitions but structural enclosures, creating fixed spatial conditions for installation.
One of the clearest examples of this approach is La Mansana de Chinati, commonly known as “The Block,” located in downtown Marfa. Judd began to install work in the east building of the Block in 1973. Instead of demolishing the three existing buildings, he altered them to suit the purposes of living and working. He constructed a 9-foot adobe wall on the south side of the property using existing adobe bricks from the former Toltec Motel and Virginia Hotel.
Between 1973 and 1979 the remainder of the exterior wall enclosing the property was constructed, totaling 1,441 feet and approximately 30,000 bricks. Within this perimeter, a second U-shaped wall further articulated the courtyard. Together, these walls establish a sequence of outdoor rooms and reshape the relationship between street and interior space. Openings are carefully proportioned, and the thickness of the walls creates deep recesses and strong shadow lines.
© 2024 Judd Foundation / JASPER, Tokyo E5493
The Block accommodates residence, studio space, a library, and open courtyard areas. Domestic life and artistic production are not separated but integrated within a continuous spatial framework. Adobe functions simultaneously as structure, boundary, and climatic mediator in the desert environment. The geometry remains restrained—rectilinear volumes, planar walls, orthogonal alignments—yet the earthen material introduces weight and physical presence distinct from Judd’s earlier industrial works.
Another important project is the adaptation of what is now called the Chamberlain Building in central Marfa. Here Judd transformed former warehouse structures to house the permanent installation of works by John Chamberlain. Although the existing buildings were not constructed entirely of adobe, Judd introduced adobe elements to clarify enclosure and spatial hierarchy, including the construction of a new west-end wall. Roofs were rebuilt, skylights installed, and openings adjusted to refine the quality and distribution of light.
Across his projects in Marfa, adobe was used as a structural and spatial material rather than as decorative reference. It serves as a means of achieving permanence and spatial definition. Its thickness reinforces enclosure; its method of construction shows labor and process; its mass anchors the buildings to the desert landscape. These interventions create measured and continuous spatial fields in which art, habitation, and landscape coexist.
Toronjos House
Casa Toronjos | Houses
Architect: PPAA
Location: Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico, Mexico
Year: 2024
Area: 312 m² (3358 ft²)
Construction: Adobe
PPAA (Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados) founded in 2018 by Pablo Pérez Palacios. (Mexico City, 1980)
Pablo is an architect from the Universidad Iberoamericana from Mexico City and the Polytechnic University from Catalonia, Barcelona. He has a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design by the Columbia University in New York.
“… architecture of ideas and not form.” Their studio focuses on simple, clear ideas shaped by context, using void as an active space, developing concepts through drawing, and allowing time to test and strengthen the connection between architecture and place.
Toronjos house is a single-story vacation home designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings. Conceptually, it is an extension of the landscape, prioritizing a minimal footprint and a fully sustainable design.
The house acts as a sanctuary for contemplation where nature is centered. Staggered walls and large openings create protection while framing views and letting the landscape pass through the space. This allows natural light and ventilation while maintaining a close and continuous relationship with the outdoors.
The design centers on relaxation and enjoyment. Semi-outoor social spaces and hammock areas encourage pause and connection with nature. The goal of Toronjos is to experience and preserve the natural landscape.
The project was constructed by adobe and wooden beams, which were left exposed to add warmth. The floor was handcrafted with adobe produced on-site, and the walls are finished with an adobe plaster that harmonizes with the surrounding color palette.
Not only using local labor and materials, the commitment of sustainability is embodied in every aspects: it collects rainwater and supports the site’s ecosystem, turns the house into a sustainable system.
The modulation follows the maximum 3-meter span allowed for mud brick construction without steel reinforcement. The adobe is produced on site, minimizing transport and supporting a local micro-economy through local materials and labor. Toronjos house responds directly to its site and conditions.
Toronjos is, essentially, architecture that doesn’t dominate. It blends seamlessly with the landscape, enhancing it and becoming a natural extension of it. The building doesn’t seek to stand out, but rather to disappear among the vegetation, water, and earth, embodying a way of living in harmony with the environment.
Toronjos | PPAA https://www.ppaa.mx/en/ongoing-en/toronjos-2/
Casa Toronjos ArchDaily https://www.archdaily.mx/mx/1036313/casa-toronjos-ppaa
Le Corbusier: Les Maisons Murondins
Les Maisons Murondins is a series of conceptual earthen refugee housing projects proposed by eminent architect Le Corbusier in collaboration with his partner Pierre Jeanneret during the mid-20th century.[1] In the wake of Germany’s invasion of France and Belgium in May of 1940, France was partitioned into three zones: a military zone in the north occupied by Nazi forces, an Italian colony in the East, and the collaborationist Vichy government in the South.[2] This process saw millions displaced as a result of the German invasion, and forced many refugees into abject conditions bereft of housing or sufficient infrastructure.
Respondent to the devastation of the Second World War, Corbusier and Jeanneret began working on a proposal for refugee housing known as Murondins— a combination of the French words for wall (mur) and logs (rondins). Murondins prioritized earth and wood materials and construction techniques, owing to their accessibility and exceptional performance. Earth and logs did not require advanced industrial infrastructure in order to manufacture and assemble, meaning residents were equipped to construct Murondins themselves.[3] Furthermore, walls could either be constructed out of rammed earth, or blocks of earth combined with lime depending on the circumstances. In essence, Murondins sought to use whatever materials were readily accessible, and designed to be built quickly, without special expertise.
This idea did not only operate materially through the use of earth and wood construction, but also formally through the use of long, rectangular walls, and an offset gabled roof— forms that ensured stability, and that those without technical knowledge or experience in construction could produce them. The internal structure of Murondins was proposed to be entirely constructed out of earth, arranged in L-shaped formations to ensure structural stability.
As for the roofs, they were to be made out of logs and waterproofed using sod, plaster, and tar paper. For purposes of ventilation, roofs were also offset, with one side of the gable taller than the other, to accommodate for daylighting and passive ventilation.[4] With this Murondin system, a range of buildings accommodating whatever programs were necessary for life could be constructed for refugees, by refugees using natural and readily available materials. Although this proposal never made it to fruition, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jenneret’s Murondins continues to serve as an instrumental historical proposal for accessible, communal earthen construction.
Sources:
[1] McLeod, Mary, “To Make Something out of Nothing: Le Corbusier’s Proposal for Refugee Housing” in The Journal of Architecture, 421–47, 2018.
[2] Hart, B.L, “Battle of France,” in Encyclopedia Britannica, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-France-World-War-II.
[3] McLeod, Mary, “To Make Something out of Nothing: Le Corbusier’s Proposal for Refugee Housing” in The Journal of Architecture, 421–47, 2018.
[4] Mary McLeod, On the Maisons Murondins, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt94ZA8TkVw.
Quincho Bernarda Community Center
The Quincho Bernarda Community Center in Taray, Peru, is a 140m² collective space for residents that completes the KUSKA, a set of habitable structures situated in the South American Andean landscape. Designed in 2025 by Taller MACAA and led by architect and photographer Rafael Ortiz Santos, the Cusco-based practice focuses on residential and public architecture rooted in local context. The firm values the preservation of Andean cultural heritage by honoring traditional adobe construction techniques while regenerating existing buildings through sustainable materials and contemporary methods.
The Quincho Bernarda Community Center is part of the firm’s broader regeneration of KUSKA, which also includes the La Cabaña Feliciana and Hogar Florencia, two additional adobe structures that contribute to the revitalization of the village. Through these projects, the firm demonstrates a commitment to community-centered design, material continuity, and the long-term resilience of rural Andean settlements.
The term “Quincho” originates from an Argentine tradition describing a dedicated space in the home for gathering, eating, and socializing. This project reimagines that tradition through the spatial framework of a basilica, detached from its religious meaning and adapted into a shared domestic environment organized around a central nave, a kitchen, and two outdoor dining terraces.
Across the center, locally sourced red adobe remains the primary material exposed as both structure and surface, expressing its mass, texture, and construction logic. Traditional load-bearing methods are combined with a contemporary spatial approach that highlights the material’s thermal, tactile, and structural strengths, resulting in an environment that feels both solid and inviting.
The project is arranged around a single main volume covered by a pitched tile roof. A ridge beam, supported by adobe walls and two eucalyptus columns, is positioned off the central axis of the hall, shifting the structural balance of the roof. This displacement creates a clear internal hierarchy while maintaining a free, continuous plan within the structure.
The main hall accommodates a lounge, a long communal table, and a bar that connects directly to the kitchen through both a pass-through opening and a door, while a small stage sits slightly below the primary floor level. Stone steps positioned between the hall and stage double as casual seating, allowing the space to shift easily between everyday use and cultural or community.
The use of arches replaced conventional lintels to span openings, improving structural performance under seismic conditions, while allowing for more continuous, open interiors. Within the kitchen, the thickness of the adobe walls is used to carve out built-in niches that seamlessly accommodate storage, and the use of curved walls not only introduces a sculptural presence but also shapes movement and reinforces the space’s sense of enclosure and cohesion.
The center establishes a strong connection to the Andean terrain, with terraces that extend the interior outward into the landscape. These outdoor platforms are carefully oriented to receive the morning sun, allowing the spaces to warm gradually throughout the day and creating an inviting setting for early gatherings and shared meals. The northwest terrace, partially sheltered and shaped by the natural slope, frames views toward the Andes, reinforcing the building’s relationship to its surrounding geography.
On the western elevation, panels of stained glass are embedded within the facade to catch the fading light of the afternoon. As the sun sets, these panes diffuse and refract its rays, casting saturated tones across the interior surfaces and enriching the atmosphere with warm blue and yellow colors that compliment the red adobe. Beyond their visual effect, the filtered light works in tandem with the adobe’s thermal mass, allowing the thick walls to absorb and slowly release heat accumulated throughout the day.
Ultimately, the Quincho Bernarda Community Center positions locally sourced construction not merely as a matter of economy or sustainability, but by reframing material as a mediator between interior and landscape, dissolving rigid boundaries and allowing climate, topography, and collective life to shape space. In doing so, it suggests that vernacular techniques are not nostalgic gestures, but active cultural frameworks capable of generating contemporary architecture grounded in place, memory, and communal identity.
Compiled by Fernanda Loyola Cardoso
Citations:
ArchDaily. “Quincho Bernarda Community Center / Taller MACAA (Misión de Arquitectura, Construcción y Arte en los Andes).” ArchDaily, January 5, 2026. https://www.archdaily.com/1037047/quincho-bernarda-community-center-taller-macaa-mision-de-arquitectura-construccion-y-arte-en-los-andes.
ArchDaily. “Feliciana Cabin / Taller MACAA.” ArchDaily, April 27, 2023. https://www.archdaily.com/1000057/feliciana-cabin-taller-macaa.
ArchDaily. “Hogar Florencia / Taller MACAA (Misión de Arquitectura, Construcción y Arte en los Andes).” ArchDaily en Español, May 15, 2025. https://www.archdaily.cl/cl/1030130/hogar-florencia-taller-macaa.
1 Year in Argentina. “Quincho.” 1 Year in Argentina (blog), April 6, 2014. https://1yearinargentina.com/tag/quincho/.
Umweltbildungszentrum: Rammed Earth as a Framework for Environmental Education
Augsburg
The Umweltbildungszentrum (UBZ) in Augsburg, Germany, is a single-story, rammed earth (Stampflehm) building that realizes sustainable development at multiple scales. The UBZ was designed by the Munich-based firm Hess / Talhof / Kusmierz Architects, led by Thomas Hess and Johannes Talhof. The firm values architecture as an artistic statement that serves as an unmatched expression of aspects of the world which cannot be captured, quantified, or defined. Guided by this conceptual outlook, they believe architecture creates new apertures for understanding. Their work spans a wide range of context-driven projects rooted in community, education, and civic life.
Completed in 2023, the UBZ demonstrates the firm’s commitment to contextually informed practice. This environmental education center for sustainable development serves as a meeting and learning place on the grounds of the Augsburg Botanical Garden. Situated at the transition between city and landscape, it bridges nature and urban life, embodying its role as a landmark of sustainable development.
Augsburg Site Plan
Augsburg Building Plan
Through workshops, seminars, interactive exhibits, field trips, and community events, the UBZ offers people of all ages opportunities to learn about biodiversity, sustainability practices, and environmental stewardship.
Augsburg Seminar Room
The building’s rammed-earth walls are made from locally sourced material, significantly reducing its embodied carbon footprint. Cast and tamped on site, they showcase a labor-intensive craft process with a low environmental footprint (Fachforum Umweltbildungszentrum).
Augsburg Model
Augsburg Construction Process
Paired with the rammed-earth walls, wooden ceilings and a timber exterior façade establish a rich two-tone material contrast. A 90 kWp rooftop photovoltaic array further supports the building’s on-site renewable energy strategy (Lifeguide Augsburg).
Augsburg Entrance
The UBZ is organized around a roughly square plan, yet upon entry the space is shaped by its organically flowing rammed-earth walls that express the project’s commitment to natural form and sustainability.
Augsburg Interior
Augsburg Interior
Within its approximately 10,700 ft² footprint, the building includes a central foyer and flexible exhibition space, two combinable seminar rooms, a teaching kitchen, offices, a workshop, and storage rooms.
Augsburg Office Space
An additional 32,300 ft² of landscaped outdoor space extends the learning environment beyond the building, reinforcing its educational mission (Das Raumprogramm UBZ).
Augsburg – Transition from Botanical Garden
Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture
Against the backdrop of a global energy crisis, a widespread movement embracing the use of raw earth materials for building construction emerged in the 1970s. A new book, Solar Adobe: Energy, Ecology, and Earthen Architecture by Albert Narath , examines this new wave of architectural experimentation taking place in the United States, detailing how an ancient tradition became a point of convergence for issues of environmentalism, architecture, technology, and Indigenous resistance.
Utilized for centuries by the Pueblo people of the American Southwest and by Spanish colonialists, adobe construction found renewed interest as various groups contended with the troubled legacies of modern architecture and an increasingly urgent need for sustainable design practices. In this period of critical experimentation, design networks that included architects, historians, counterculture communities, government weapons labs, and Indigenous activists all looked to adobe as a means to address pressing environmental and political issues.
Albert Narath charts the unique capacities of adobe construction across a wide range of contexts, consistently troubling simple distinctions between traditional and modern technologies, high design and vernacular architecture. Drawing insightful parallels between architecture, environmentalism, and movements for Indigenous sovereignty, Solar Adobe stresses the importance of considering the history of the built environment in conjunction with architecture’s larger impact on the natural world.
The Politics of Adobe Architecture
The Metropolis Magazine article, “The Politics of Adobe Architecture“, discusses recent scholarship on earth architecture in America that highlights larger issues concerning power, extraction, and Indigenous resistance to the settler state and capitalism.