Europe I remember visiting many great
buildings and beautiful landmarks but
there is one that I remember as if I was
there yesterday la la morra in Granada
Spain I was amazed with a level of
detail in the ornaments the use of light
and shadow the symmetry but years later
I discovered one thing that to me was
absolutely mind-blowing many of the
towers of la la mora were made of earth
specifically with a technique called
rammed earth now I know you’re all
familiar with buildings made of concrete
wood steel or stone but have you
experienced on earth building have you
felt the texture the smell the sound it
smells fresh like after a rainy day it
looks rough but at the same time calm
quiet natural so what is rendered here
we have a small piece of rammed earth
that we did a few weeks ago and here we
have some material to show you how it’s
done
this is a tiny version of form and one
once it’s assembled you put earth into
it after that you will compact it until
we gets hard so our cheonjae will try to
finish this small piece of a wall and
we’ll come back to them later it can be
really hard to understand the concept of
rammed earth like once we went we were
doing a workshop it was in the middle of
this square and the guy came to us and
asked are you working with concrete and
when we said
no this is rammed earth he was
completely surprised and this is the
feeling that we get in many of our
workshops people is skeptical in the
beginning and then they are surprised
with the result maybe this is because
Ram direct is a simple process it’s not
easy to understand how earth can become
so solid clay is the most important
element in the earth mixture clay acts
as a glue as it binds together stand and
stone while searching for the right
earth to build a room a rule of thumb is
needed he usually will will have to have
1/3 clay and 2/3 silt sand and stone the
more I learned sorry the more I learned
the more fascinated I became with rammed
earth so when I came to Sweden to study
my master’s degree in architecture I met
these two guys and we totally geeked out
on earth we went to we went to a
workshop in England to learn the
technique but that wasn’t enough we
wanted to learn more so we started
experimenting ourselves wandering around
the city
digging out earth like maniacs trying to
see what was in that earth trying to see
how thin could we build a wall before it
broke as we got more and more into
rammed earth people started to call us
hmm we quickly began receiving requests
from others who also wanted to learn and
that’s when earth luck was born we
started doing workshops teaching other
people teaching ourselves this has
become a driving force on our mission to
spread the love of rammed earth now
rammed earth is not a new technique it’s
thousands of years old it is believed
that even today one-third the world
population lives in earth buildings yet
nobody is talking about this anymore and
we think it’s important especially with
growing concerns about climate change
diminishing resources it’s really common
to hear about solutions like electric
cars higher efficiency renewable energy
but not when she said about building
materials 5% of the global man-made co2
emissions come from the cement
production up to 40% of solid waste
comes from the building industry as many
of the materials we use today cannot be
reused in the original forms earth
however it’s circular it can be broken
down into its original form and even be
reused this is every environment of the
Cynar stream it has so much potential
but it’s not even on the radar of
architects and builders we’re not saying
that earth will solve all of our
problems or that all buildings should be
built entirely of earth our vision is
that earth becomes a choice in the
palette of designers many people is not
even aware that there is a choice like
my parents for example they retired
about two years ago they wanted to move
to the south of Mexico and build the
house so they trusted in me as an
architect and as you may imagine I
designed the whole thing out of Earth so
when I came with my first sketches and
ideas excitement and show them that the
drawings
I feel in interfaces they were scared
they were like who’s gonna build that
who’s gonna build this no se puede we
that this can be done like they were
scared so what we what we decided to do
is like okay we scale down they use the
usage of earth we designed a curve of
rammed earth who is fully load-bearing
and is holding a brick vault around this
core we have different materials like
concrete and cement blocks the reaction
of local contractors was the same as we
have heard in Sweden’s like this is not
going to work so we would travel down to
Mexico and show them we built these
walls half a meter thick and Ram dirt is
usually massive is heavy
this is incense for structure but this
is also a benefit as a thermal mass in
Mexico for example when it’s really hot
outside around the wall can cool down
the indoor temperature now I know what
your my thinking as well okay here is
thought Mexico that’s only good for
southern climates but the truth is it
also works in cold climates we are
actually testing this this is a wall we
are helping to build inside a straw bale
house here in Sweden the wall is
oriented towards the south so during the
winter the Sun hits the wall it warms it
up and during night it will release the
heat so the house will let will need
less energy to stay warm rammed earth
walls also helps to create a healthy
indoor environment as I do not release
any chemicals they also regulate
humidity because they take up and
release moisture throughout the day
there’s other qualities with rammed
earth like the layers that you see the
owners of this house they said that the
layers well they gave them a high
account feeling and the layers and just
for looks they are a result of the
process
the thickness of the layers our risotto
drummers are using and the looks you
want share now she are using manual
runners for example the small one is a
little drummer for the edges but in more
industrialized projects pneumatic or
automatic runners are used the important
thing when working with rammed earth is
that each layer of loose earth should be
during our journey working with rammed
earth we have experienced many great
buildings and the one thing that is in
common with all of them is that we can’t
take our hands of em there is an honesty
about the material and this obsession
has taken us to different places around
the world to Berlin where we visited the
Chapel of reconciliation this beautiful
oval rendered structure and even to
China to see the ancient tulu gigantic
rammed earth structures they have been
standing there for centuries we hope
that to through our work we can help to
remove the stigmas that have been
associated with earth like it is for
poor people or not durable many of the
stigma started when new products were
developed during the industrial
revolution and they still remain they
still remain but they are not true as we
have seen in the alhambra and Tulu
we aim to do this also through
collaboration by bringing people
together and communities we have
discovered that rammed earth can be
empowering earth is one of the most
local building materials as it comes
directly from the building site or an
area close by we feel that earth is a
puzzle or a piece in a smash in a bigger
puzzle it doesn’t have to be in the
scale of a building you can also do
other things as well like building
fireplaces
candleholders or even Lambos seems like
their ramen is finished where the form
until now has been used as a tool to
shake the earth we are going to remove
it and solve the earth beneath this is
this is how a fresh rammed earth wall
looks like it’s a little bit dark in
color but it’s strong enough to continue
building on the top you need to the wall
to be completely fully cured so think
about it we build this cube how could it
become if we continued a wall a bench a
house what could you ambition we need to
be able to imagine something to be able
to build it but we do not know how the
future will be if we will have robot
arms building our houses but if the
craft of building will come back or
maybe a combination of both what we know
is that building with earth can help us
to build that future now you have the
power to imagine how that future might
look like so we hope that next time you
want to build something you take a look
down the ground and ask can I make this
out of Earth thank you very much [Applause]