Stirred not Tumbled: A Recipe for Rammed Earth

Essay, No Density, Sami Akkach, Senseable Technologies, Soil Lab, Technology and fabrication.

Architect's challenge, Architecture, Clay, Colour, Earth Walls, Essay, Experimentation, Geology, Knowledge, Natural materials, Raw materials, Resistance, Soil, Texture

Essay by Sami Akkach, excerpted from Soil Lab by Eibhlín Ní Chathasaigh, James Albert Martin, Anne Dorthe Vester and Maria Bruun, published by Actar Publishers.

In June, while based in Copenhagen testing soil ratios, we searched naively for the magic ratio of clay, sand and aggregate. Ratios ranged from source to source. When the eight big bags of clay soil ordered from Solum arrived, we queried why they had delivered sand: the soil from Roskilde, on the north of Zealand, was yellow, grainy and sandy to touch. This was our first introduction to the richness and variety of soil types across the world. Many failed tests later we understood that the clay content of this Danish soil was low. We learnt the ratio would come to depend on the makeup of the local found ground.