Tag: rammed earth

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Dot.ateliers, Adjaye Associates

Osu Waterfront, Accra, Ghana

(Adjaye Associates built a new home for dot.ateliers’ community and art space in Accra)

Dot.ateliers is located on the Osu waterfront in Accra, Ghana. The building was completed in 2023. The project covers approximately 540 to 600 square meters. Amoako Boafo founded the project as an artist residency and community art space. The building supports studios, exhibitions, and public programs for contemporary art in Ghana.

David Adjaye designed the project with his practice, Adjaye Associates. David Adjaye is a Ghanaian-British architect. He was born in Tanzania and raised in the United Kingdom. He founded Adjaye Associates in 2000. The studio works internationally. The practice focuses on culture, local materials, climate response, and social impact.

      David Adjaye

(https://indonesian-recipes.com/)

Adjaye believes architecture should respond to place. He sees buildings as part of social and cultural systems. He does not treat architecture as a neutral object. He often uses local materials in his work. He always considers climate and geography during design.


Dot.ateliers reflects these values clearly. The building uses locally sourced rammed earth as its main material. The material reduces the carbon footprint. The material also connects the building to Ghana’s construction traditions. The façade uses a double-skin system. The cavity between the layers improves thermal performance. The system helps regulate heat in Accra’s hot and humid climate. The material shapes both structure and atmosphere.

South-facing windows

Adjaye Associates built a new home for dot.ateliers’ community and art space in Accra

The site strongly influences the design. The building stands near the coastline. The ocean brings strong sunlight and steady winds. The architects needed to manage heat, light, and ventilation. The surrounding neighborhood contains small residential buildings. The area does not include high-rise towers. The building keeps a modest scale in response. The building rises three stories. The building remains compact and controlled.

West Section

(https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-news/fzmgm/adjaye-associates-built-a-new-home-for-dot-ateliers-community-and-art-space-in-accra?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

The ground floor creates the main connection to the city. A perforated timber screen defines the entrance. The screen forms a transition between the street and the courtyard. The screen creates a space that feels both open and protected. The ground floor contains the café and gallery. The courtyard brings light and air into the center. This level supports public activity and circulation.

Ground Floor Gallery

Adjaye Associates built a new home for dot.ateliers’ community and art space in Accra

The upper floors contain more private spaces. The second floor holds artist studios and work areas. The atmosphere becomes quieter on this level. The top floor contains additional studios and enclosed rooms. The organization follows a clear vertical order. The building moves from public to private as one moves upward.

(Dot Ateliers / Adjaye Associates | ArchDaily)

Interior materials support this order. Exposed concrete appears in circulation areas. White plaster defines the gallery spaces. Timber adds warmth to transitional zones. Each material helps clarify function.

The Cafe

Artist’s studio

(Dot Ateliers / Adjaye Associates | ArchDaily)

The roof completes the spatial experience. The sawtooth roof introduces north-facing clerestory light. The roof allows soft and even daylight to enter the gallery. The roof reduces glare and excessive heat. The roof acts as both a formal gesture and a climate device.

Dot.ateliers shows how a small building can carry strong meaning. The project connects culture, climate, and community. The project expresses the values of Adjaye Associates through material and space. The building remains simple, grounded, and precise.

(dot.ateliers – Adjaye Associates)

 

 

 

 

Citations

1.Dot.ateliers / Adjaye Associates — Project Overview, ArchDaily. Retrieved from:
https://www.archdaily.com/1036823/dot-ateliers-adjaye-associates

2.Dot.ateliers — Project Detail, Adjaye Associates (official project page). Retrieved from:
https://www.adjaye.com/work/dot-ateliers/

3.Adjaye Associates — Studio Official Website, Adjaye Associates. Retrieved from:
https://www.adjaye.com/

4.Adjaye Associates Built a New Home for dot.ateliers Community and Art Space in Accra, WorldArchitecture.org. Retrieved from:
https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-news/fzmgm/adjaye-associates-built-a-new-home-for-dot-ateliers-community-and-art-space-in-accra

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David Easton’s Rammed Earth Works

Photo by U.S. Green Building Council

Californian David Easton (1948-2021) was a pioneer in the use of rammed earth in contemporary construction. David Easton first learned of rammed earth through a book titled “Build Your House of Earth” by G.F. Middleton. Trained as both an engineer and architect at Stanford University, Easton was surprised to learn that the “moist soil compacted directly into movable forms wielding immediately load-supporting walls,” claiming it “seemed too good to be true” [1]. 

Enamored by the little literature and research available on rammed earth, Easton set out to perfect the methods and applications of the material and founded his company, Rammed Earth Works, in 1976. In the 50 years since, Easton and Rammed Earth Works have worked on hundreds of both residential and commercial projects across the nation, cementing themselves as one of the world’s leading firms in the research and application of rammed earth construction technologies [2]. Easton’s company has also helped push the envelope to make the building codes around the nation be more accepting of rammed earth construction and developed various rammed earth technologies such as PISE (pneumatically impacted stabilized earth), Terratile, and the Easton (California) Forming System for rammed earth and cast elements [3].

 

Easton Forming System in action, photo by Cynthia Wright.

 

PISE in action, photo by David Easton.

In 1996, Easton published The Rammed Earth House, an exploration of the history and modern use of rammed earth construction with beautiful photographs taken by Cynthia Wright of both modern and historical examples [4]. Easton has since revised The Rammed Earth House, and in the years since its initial publication, it has been widely accepted as one of the most informative and influential works on rammed earth, showing an ancient building technique that is exactly suitable for today’s resource-conscious and environmentally friendly building needs.

One of David Easton’s most notable rammed earth projects is the Windhover Contemplative Center at Stanford University. This project, designed to be a spiritual refuge on the college campus, was created in collaboration with architects Aidlin Darling and Andrea Cochran, as well as artist Nathan Oliveira.  

Photo taken by Matthew Millman.

The project contains three large rammed earth walls designed to be a backdrop to Oliveria’s paintings. In the center of the largest wall, a 234,000 pound rammed earth wall 20 feet tall and 60 feet long, sits a large diptych painted by Oliveira. 

Photo taken by Matthew Millman.

The project was extremely labor extensive: each wall was built “in 42 six-inch lifts pounded to four-inch courses by eight men on rammers.”

Credit Aidlin Darling Design.
Credit Aidlin Darling Design.

Sources: 

  1.  Block, David. “Looking at the Legacy of Legendary Earth Builder David Easton: February 25, 1948 — February 12, 2021.” Medium, 6 June 2021, davidyblock.medium.com/looking-at-the-legacy-of-legendary-earth-builder-david-easton-february-25-1948-february-12-b63e8c7677be. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
  2. English, Mark, AIA. “David Easton – 45 Years of Rammed Earth.” The Architects’ Take, 16 Nov. 2018,thearchitectstake.com/interviews/david-easton-45-years-of-rammed-earth-construction/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
  3. Rammed Earth Works. “About Us.” Rammed Earth Works, www.rammedearthworks.com/about-us. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
  4. Aidlin Darling Design. “Windhover Contemplative Center.” Aidlin Darling Design, aidlindarlingdesign.com/projects/windhover-contemplative-center/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.

 

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Andy Goldsworthy

Review: In 'Leaning Into the Wind — Andy Goldsworthy,' an Artist Grapples (Again) With Time - The New York Times

The artist Andy Goldsworthy in “Leaning Into the Wind.” Credit:Thomas Riedelscheimer/Magnolia Pictures

Andy Goldsworthy is an international based artist born in England.  His art process is known for integrating and creating with the natural environment. Working as both sculptor and photographer, Goldsworthy crafts his installations out of rocks, ice, leaves, or branches, cognizant that the landscape will change, then carefully documents the ephemeral collaborations with nature through photography.

Andy Goldsworthy’s installation Tree Fall

Andy Goldsworthy, “Tree Fall“, 2013

Goldsworthy has numerous art installation and creations.  However, his art installation, Earth Wall, utilizes rammed earth and eucalyptus branches to illustrate simulated layers of earthen materials as an art form and not as a structural material.

Andy Goldsworthy with an installation in San Francisco, tentatively titled Earth Wall. Photograph by The Chronicle's Sam Whiting.Andy Goldsworthy, Earth Wall, 2014, Photograph by The Chronicle’s Sam Whiting. 

In order to construct this installation Goldsworthy and his team collected curved eucalyptus branches from San Francisco’s Presidio. Then they installed a sphere of branches onto a wall before the formwork for the rammed earth wall is installed.

Eucalyptus branches from the Presidio installed before the formwork for the rammed earth wall is installed.

After which, a shutter formwork was constructed in front of the wall. Then locally sourced Presidio earth mixed is poured into the forms, and ramming begins. Rammers carefully compact earth around the twisted ball of  Eucalyptus branches. Once poured, the formwork is removed revealing a freshly packed rammed earth wall and the center point of the ball of gnarled eucalyptus branches.

Artist Andy Goldsworthy poses with the installation before beginning to dig out the earth surrounding the encased eucalyptus wood.

Once hardened, Goldsworthy excavates the rammed earth from around the gnarled eucalyptus wood.

Artist Andy Goldsworthy excavates the rammed earth from around the gnarled eucalyptus wood.

For a more detailed visualization view this video. 

Andy Goldsworthy continues exploring the relationship between art and the natural environment. His ability to become attuned to his environment mentally, physically, and emotionally, creates a unique perspective of the human  and natural world.

“We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.”

– Andy Goldsworthy

A family walking near Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line, with a bicycle in the foreground.

Andy Goldsworthy, “Wood Line“, 2011, Photograph by  Brian Vahey.

 

References:

 

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Swoon

This Earth-inspired project by Tres Birds Workshop is a 7,000 sf private artist’s residency that uses 100% renewable resources, demonstrating fossil-free potential of the built environment. Four vertical geothermal wells were installed to transfer the Earth’s energy to the building’s heating and cooling system. A solar electric roof on the carport generates energy for interior LED lighting and electricity. To test the energy efficiency of the structure, a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) was performed, ranking it in the 74th percentile and exceeding code requirements by three times.

The structure was built using 200 tons of rammed Earth, a composite of regional dirt and pigments, compressed into 30” thick walls. This adds significant thermal mass to the building’s whole, optimal for temperature regulation. Bearing the structural load, these dense walls allow the space to exist free from obstructions, ideal for a simplified interior and exhibiting artwork.

More information at tresbirds.com/SWOON

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Ricola Herb Centre

The Ricola Herb Centre in Laufen (Basel), Switzerland was designed in 2012 by renowned architects Herzog & de Mueron with a facade constructed by master clay builder Martin Rauch, the building is a high-volume long building with flat roof and façade built using the rammed earth. Façade elements made of compacted local clay sourced from the Laufen valley will form Europe’s largest loam building by 2014. From spring 2014, Ricola’s herb processing activities will be entirely carried out at a single location. Distinctive features of the brand new production building are high energy efficiency and state-of-the-art green building principles.

The new building reveals many aspects of Ricola’s strong commitment to its production location in Switzerland and at home in Laufen. Its self-appointed high goals for ecology and sustainability are consistently pursued: Logistics efficiency and the sensible use of resources are at the forefront for this project. The new building will be completely constructed using loam sourced from the Laufen valley. Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH (LTE), a specialist company based in the Vorarlberg alpine region in Switzerland, manufactures the prefabricated façade elements. Production is housed in a temporary hall in the neighboring town of Zwingen where LTE practices a newly developed procedure. No elements are used other than natural and organic earth from Laufen.

More information at: [ www.lehmtonerde.at/en/projects/project.php?pID=87 | www.ricola.com/en-ch/Meta/Media/Press-releases/Ricola-Herb-Center ]

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THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN / rammed earth at the BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2012

There is nothing new under the sun is an installation comprised of rammed earth and created for the 2012 Venice Biennial. The installation was done within the collateral event, “Traces of Century and Future Steps”, organised and curated by artist Rene Rietmeyer (head of the Global Art Affairs Foundation) and hosted at the Palazzo Bembo just next to the Rialto bridge. The architects Estudio Altiplano, from Bogota, Colombia, were given a space at the fourth floor of a 15th century palace to install the work—a performance piece that consisted of hoisting 3.5 tons of earth into the small chamber then compacting it into a solid rammed earth object. The work engaged many participants, simultaneously a demonstration in the process of fabricating allowing a discussion to emerge about topics of tradition, contemporaneity, territory and the built environment.

The installation formally suggests to the observer how architecture depends on matter in the form of territory, energy and resources. Earth was used to demonstrate how earth is a basic building material used all over the world and that traditional building techinques necessarily depend on oral tradition or transformation of knowledge to evolve and survive. Additionally, the use of earth demonstrated the plastic notion that conjures the act of subtracting compacted earth from the ground to mold it into new shapes without interfering in its material capacities. A continued discussion surrounding the project continues at http://www.rammedweb.com/