As summer gets into full swing, my husband and I are revving up to complete construction on the rammed earth shed that was started in our backyard last summer. Our time isn't quite freed up yet, though, so I was doing a little armchair building by browsing the web for similar earthen structures in others' backyards. And I came up with a few fine examples:
1. A rammed earth garden wall in Napa Valley by Blasen Landscape Architecture.
2. A shed in Halifax built by architecture students, with a fantastic tour on YouTube.
3. Garden walls supporting trellises
4. An earth-coated, straw bale shed right here in my neighborhood in Lawrence, Kansas.
Can't wait to show you my own!
MORE RAMMED EARTH ON APARTMENT THERAPY:
• Rammed Earth Bathroom Walls
• Green Style: Rammed Earth House by Rick Joy
• A Modern Rammed Earth, Steel and Glass Home
(Images: 1. Marion Brenner Photography via American Society of Landscape Architects, 2. YouTube, 3. rammed-earth.org, 4. Jana's Straw Bale Shed Project)
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Wow, some of those are great. I'd never heard of rammed earth before but now I'm intrigued. Can you do this on a smaller scale, like for furniture, perhaps?
That first wall is gorgeous! Rammed earth can look just like sandstone, which totally makes sense! I wonder how it holds up to monsoons, though? (It has been raining here in NH fairly steadily for the past couple of weeks -- temporary dry lulls then it comes again.) Does rammed earth hold up or turn to mud??
Our friend built a rammed earth house about 15 years ago, here in Nevada County, CA. Our average rainfall is 55 inches. Our soil is very red and the walls are beautiful but as I remember there was a lot of cement involved. It seemed like the earth was primarily a color agent.
Ooh, I love rammed earth buildings! A little larger in scale, but this church in Berlin is really nice, with an interesting story behind it.
http://www.dab.uts.edu.au/ebrf/conferences/modern_earth_2002.html