Tag: rammed earth

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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.

 

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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/

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Saint Bartholomew’s Chapel

Saint Bartholomew’s Chapel, by Kevin deFreitas Architects, is located in the picturesque back country of northern San Diego County at the base of Mt. Palomar alongside the San Luis Rey River. A very small and intimate historic chapel was destroyed by wild fires that ravaged the reservation in late 2007 and only the original adobe bell tower survived, which became the anchor element in the redesign planning of the new church. The needs of the current congregation and community had changed quite a bit in the past 100 years. Though the fire destroyed a building that hosted many, many important events and celebrations, it also presented a “blank slate” opportunity to update the facility, primarily by doubling the seating capacity.

[ More at ArchDaily.com ]