Exemplo_Maison Pour Tous_onSITE architecture_Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes_França

 
Photos © Eduard Hueber / archphoto

Maison Pour Tous_onSITE architecture_Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes_França

The Maison Pour Tous (“House for All”) is community center in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France which was designed and built by the first-year masters studio “designbuildLAB” of the “Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Grenoble” (National Architecture School in Grenoble) with the support of the LabEx AE&CC (Laboratory of Excellence, Architecture Environment & Constructive Cultures).

For centuries the inhabitants of this region have found that their soil was perfectly adapted to rammed-earth construction. Their earth vernacular ultimately led to the (re)invention of contemporary concrete. After more than 100 years of ubiquitous concrete production, the Maison Pour Tous reintroduces and reinvents the inherent sustainability of locally sourced, simply prepared earth for a contemporary application.

The project is a group of three buildings: a multipurpose hall, technical space and storage, that are collected in a sensory landscape. To the North, an expansive mineral plaza accommodates large, busy outdoor events. To the East, a raised plinth prospects over football matches. To the South, earth excavated for the buildings foundations is mounded to generate terraced seating and meandering paths. Nestled among the buildings, a west facing patio with a single bench and deciduous tree offers a quite space to enjoy the setting sun.

Within the earth walls of the hall, an open plan, modulable storage and rolling bars invite a range of uses. A baffled spruce ceiling dampens audible reverberation during large gatherings. Large roof overhangs scribed to the path of the sun passively warm or shade the hall. Punched openings with glazed, larch frame accordion doors link its space to each of the surrounding landscape atmospheres.

Photo © Ludmilla Cerveny

Photo © Ludmilla Cerveny

Photo © designbuildLAB

Photo © Eduard Hueber / archphoto

Exemplo_Morocco Pavilion Expo 2020_Dubai_OUALALOU+CHOI

Morocco Pavilion Expo 2020_Dubai_OUALALOU+CHOI

Webinaire_Construire en terre en commande publique_Pôle culturel de l'Aria à Cornebarrieu

25 février 2022_Webinaire_Construire en terre en commande publique_Pôle culturel de l'Aria à Cornebarrieu en BTC (Atelier Philippe Madec)

Dans le cadre du cycle de webinaires organisé par Les Grands Ateliers et EnvirobatBDM, ce troisième webinaire permet de découvrir la technique de la brique de terre comprimée, au travers de l'exemple du pôle culturel de l'Aria, en Haute-Garonne. Les intervenants sont Philippe Madec (Atelier Philippe Madec & associés) et Etienne Gay (brique Technic Concept)

Exemplo_Windhover Contemplative Center_Stanford_USA

Windhover Contemplative Center_Stanford_USA

The Windhover Contemplative Center is a spiritual retreat on the Stanford campus to promote and inspire personal renewal. Using Nathan Oliveira's Windhover paintings as a vehicle, the chapel-like center provides a refuge from the intensity of daily life and a space for quiet reflection.

The extended progression to the sanctuary’s entry allows visitors to shed the outside world before entering. Within, the space opens to the oak glade beyond while louvered skylights wash the paintings with natural light, unifying art, architecture and landscape.

Rammed earth walls, wood surfaces, and water heighten the visitor's sensory experience acoustically, tactilely, olfactorily, and visually.

The Center was designed by Aidlin Darling Design in collaboration with Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture.

Video_Observation Tower Negenoord_De Gouden Liniaal Architecten_Belgium

Short film about the Observation Tower Negenoord, seen from the perspective of different characters, made by Lotte Knaepen and Marco Levantacti

Exemplo_The Great Wall of Western Australia_Australia

The Great Wall of WA, also known as The Musterers’ Quarters is located on a remote cattle station in North Western Australia, in a rugged, sunburnt landscape that created an unusual and testing set of design parameters to encapsulate in this unique project to provide accommodation for workers during cattle mustering periods. The client required twelve compact and functional units, maintenance free and energy efficient both when in use and vacant.

A sand dune arches around the back of the existing cattle station homestead and the Musterers’ Quarters have been buried beneath it and faced with a continuous rammed earth wall cutting a saw tooth face, they follow the crest of the dune and fan out toward the view of ghost gums scattered on the river banks. 

The design represents a new approach to the scorched remote North Western Australian architecture, moving away from the sun baked, thin corrugated metal shelters to naturally cooled earth architecture and the aerial view of this landscape and the zigzagging wall is reminiscent of traditional aboriginal paintings. 

On the highest point a Chapel dominates the Musterers’ quarters; a multipurpose room imbibed of the sacred aura of the place, from the original indigenous carertakers of the site to the headstones marking the graves of the first settlers at the bottom of the hill. The same room is also a meeting point, a meditation place and a contemplative look out. 

The Chapel is a simple oval rammed earth construction with skewed conical Cor-Ten steel roof that provides protection from the scorching sun. The cone apex, truncated at an oculus, provides a solar meridian on the floor. 

A gold anodised aluminium ceiling and a sacred verse inscribed on the ring beam of the roof are subtle spiritual components that do not attempt to rival the intrinsic spirituality of the landscape.

(Text and images from terra-award.org)

The longest rammed earth wall in Australia and - probably - the southern hemisphere, has been selected as a finalist in the (Australian Institute of Architects) Western Australia architecture awards, and Terra-award laureate on Collective Housing category.

At 230 metres long, the rammed earth wall meanders along the edge of a sand dune and encloses twelve earth covered residences, created to provide short-term accommodation for a cattle station during mustering season. With their 450mm thick rammed earth facade and the sand dune to their rear and forming their roofs, the residences have the best thermal mass available, making them naturally cool in the subtropical climate.

The rammed earth wall (construction) is composed of the iron rich, sandy clay that is a dominant feature of the site, gravel obtained from the adjacent river and (bonded with) water from the local bore (hole).

The design of the accommodation represents a new approach to remote North Western Australia architecture, moving away from the sun baked, thin corrugated metal shelters to naturally cooled architectural earth formations.

The Great Wall of Western Australia
Client: Jaxon
Architects: Luigi Rosselli
Builder: Jaxon Construction
Earthen company: Murchison Stabilized Earth Pty Ltd
Area : 230 m²
Photographs credits :Edward Birch
Environmental Consultant : Floyd Energy
Structural Consultant : Pritchard Francis
Project Architects : Kristina Sahlestrom, Edward Birch, David Mitchell
Interior Designer : Sarah Foletta
Location: Pilbara, Western Australia, Oceania

Casa com contrafortes_taipa e alvenaria_OAPIX

Casa com contrafortes (taipa e alvenaria), Corte da Velha, Mértola 1955 (c) Ordem dos Arquitectos 

OAPIX

Exemplo_École des Collines_Miribel_Drôme_France

École des Collines_Miribel_Drôme_France

Exemplo_Observation Tower Negenoord_Belgium

Observation Tower Negenoord_Belgium_De Gouden Liniaal Architecten

Mother Nature has reclaimed Negenoord, a former gravel extraction area (about 150ha) in Maasvalley Riverpark, a 2,500-hectare nature reserve straddling on both sides of the Belgium-Netherlands border, which is formed by the Maas river. The redevelopment gives space for the river creating a flooding area. To help visitors fully experience the revitalized area, De Gouden Liniaal Architecten designed a small observation tower that blends into the landscape with its rammed earth walls. Built of locally excavated materials, the Observation Tower Negenoord is the first public earthen building in the Benelux region.

The 46-square-meter Observation tower is located on a small hill in the heart of the former gravel mine, Negenoord. Although the tower features a sandblasted concrete core, it is clad in external walls built of locally sourced ochre-colored earth, clay, and gravel created with rammed earth building techniques and stabilized with mortar made of volcanic rock. Over time, the external walls will slowly erode away to reveal the gravel aggregate; the gravel content is also visible in the sandblasted concrete core.

“To guarantee the quality of the construction, the design team was supported by an international team of experts: Cratterre/ Vessières&Cie/ BC Studies,” wrote the architects. “The earth-consultants analyzed different local materials, tried different mixes and evaluated them on compression force, abrasion, color and appearance. The chosen mix consisted of 20% gravel, 40% ochre-colored earth, and 40% clay, stabilized with Trasslime, a mixture of hydrated lime or marsh lime and ground trass. Trass rock is formed on the earth's crust by volcanic eruptions or meteorite impacts. Together with lime and water, trass lime forms a natural ecological binder..

Through its materialization, the building tells us about the location it’s built. and becomes strongly anchored in its environment.”

Roughly triangular in plan, the observation tower features three staircases with landings that offer different views of the landscape. The rammed earth construction took seven weeks to complete, with around 20 m3 of rammed eart done every week, working from staircase to staircase, to arrive at 11 meters high.

The rammed earth building technique is thousands of years old and can be found in the whole world. Soil-damp earth gets poured in layers of 15cm into a formwork and is compressed mechanically to 12cm. The correct mixture of sand, clay and gravel makes it suitable for building load-bearing walls.

The tower is the first public earthen building in the Benelux region. the standardization of the building technique is still under development. For the moment, there are no standards yet and that makes it difficult to describe the technique for use in a public project.

During construction, workers were trained in mixing, maintaining right humidity in the mix, building formwork, ramming and removing formwork. Every week, field testing of humidity, and laboratory testing of compression force on specimens were done to monitor the quality.

Architects: De Gouden Liniaal Architecten

Area : 46 m²
Year : 2016
Photographs credits: Filip Dujardin
Structural Engineer: UTIL Struktuurstudies
Rammed Earth Consultant : Craterre / Vessière&Cie / BC Studies
Architects In Charge : Jan Thys, Kristof Benaets, Frank Vanden Ecker, Raf Snoekx
Rammed Earth Consultant : Craterre / Vessière&Cie / BC Studies
City: Dilsen-Stokkem
Country: Belgium

Exemplo_Le Domaine de la Terre_Villefontaine_Isère_França

O 'Domaine de la Terre' em Villefontaine, Isère, é um conjunto urbano construído em 1985 em França, e é composto por 45% de casas de adobe, 45% de blocos de taipa e 10% de terra palha.