Earth building Techniques Bangalore Archives

An Electropop Ballet

A choreography of natural materials for the interiors of Aditi Organics Office in Bangalore, India

The site was a 3000 sft empty shell on the first floor of another concrete building in Bangalore city. Walled on three sides, with structural glazing to the west, it overlooks the beautiful canopies of Gulmohar trees together with the mighty ramp of a concrete flyover in the distance. This is a typical illustration of Bangalore’s predicament; striving to be the IT hub while trying to retain its identity as the garden city of India.

The team members at Aditi were enthusiastic about creating a space that reflects who they are. A company whose work is to certify organic agricultural produce in the country, knew that they wanted their office to be a bold and vibrant environment created out of natural materials. That was our design brief.

With a demanding timeline of two months and a challenging budget, what began was an exercise in choreography to waltz in all the materials we love and all the teams on site to complete the project.

While catering to the comfort of the everyday user, we wanted to provide the occasional visitor with an experience; be it the corporate who walks in for a meeting, or a farmer who brings in samples of his soil and produce for certification. An experience of an architecture and a materiality which is closer to nature while responding to today’s aspiration of modernity, aesthetics and comfort.

Within the interior space, we needed partition walls together with plenty of storage and seating, it had to be something easy to implement, considering the short time at hand. We needed a module!

The ubiquitous slotted angle came to our rescue. With great flexibility, 3×3 feet frames have been used to create a rhythm with multiple functions.

The dance could start; a partition wall became a cabinet for storage, a shelf has turned into a bench, a window or a blackboard. These modules have then been filled with plastered panels, rendered in clay or lime, bolted onto them. Pine wood boards, glass, and even exposed fired bricks have been used in some areas, adding to the chorus.

Work desks were handcrafted in solid pine wood. The remaining walls were finished with natural clay and pigmented lime plaster.

Finally, a seamless silver grey oxide floor completes the act, wrapping around inbuilt seating and furniture as well.

As much as team Aditi by its activity, questions the world of agricultural practices, we hope that its office questions the world of interior design. There is no air-conditioning, neither wooden laminates, plastics, resin nor chemical wood treatment in this project.

2016 – JJ Maternity Hospital

“The patient should feel like being in a temple, an Aayalam”, Dr.Jayanthi told us, “the hospital should be earthy and calm. A center for healing and birth. Something that can serve as a landmark for both medicine and architecture.” These are the words with which we are working towards building an out-patient unit for a maternity hospital in Kalyanagar, in the heart of Hyderabad City. It will be a five story building in earth 🙂

The project brief is very clear. The thoughts expressed by our client is our driving force in redefining how we look at healing spaces today. We need to keep a functioning hospital while we work around the challenging requirements, to make a space that speaks for itself, together with its purpose, together in earth.

Healthy, breathing, natural, durable, low energy consumption and low environmental impact for mining, processing, transportation, construction and destruction; only one material fulfills all these criterias to near perfection : Earth.

And what better place to explore sustainable design than a hospital!
A healing center can be truly healing if the materials that it uses and the systems on which it relies have a positive impact,
on the people who build it,
the patients who come for consultation,
the doctors and nurses and staff who work there every day,
and for the environment as a whole!

“How does earth architecture render itself as a response to large scale public projects in the core of urban Indian cities?, we ask ourselves.
And as we dive deeper into one of our most challenging projects, we couldn’t wait to share with you a tiny glimpse into what our team is working on.

an interior view of the waiting room adjacent to consultancy rooms 3 and 4

2014 Ecological Bus-stop Prototype, Blog, Compressed earth bricks (CEB - CSEB), Work & Projects

2014 Ecological Bus-stop

We developed a prototype of a bus-stop for the village of Leubringhen, to be used by students and travelers in the region. “An opportunity to demonstrate ecological materials in a public space” was the brief given to us. We built it with poplar wood and Compressed stabilized earth blocks (CSEB) with a green roof. The design was conceived with a solar panel that lights up the inside as the sun is very rare in this region during winter. The bus-stop had to protect against the stong winds in the pas-de-calais region.

The huge interior wall gave plenty of room for creative freedom. We drew a map of the region highlighting all the local treasures, using non-toxic paints and plenty of enthusiasm from the village children.

2014 Chenelet Homes, Blog, Earth Plaster, Lime Plaster, Natural Plaster, Workshops 0

Earth is a forgiving material

In the summer of 2014, the community homes at Chênelet in the North of France, received a make over. Our 10 day mission was to coordinate and train a team of 6 employees from Chênelet to restore 80 sq metres of plastered earth walls.

Hidden in the countryside of Nord-pas-de-Calais, Chênelet is an association that supports unemployed people and persons from socially difficult backgrounds to train in areas of their interest. Their training period usually lasts from 6 months to 2 years. Thanks to the work and access to basic needs, they are able to regain their dignity and their place in society. After their training period, they find employment in the regular sector and sometimes even start practices of their own. Through this objective of employment and training, Chênelet has developed activities that create an integrated value chain in the region : organic farming, forestry, processing of the local raw materials (timber, organic fruits, vegetables) and construction of ecological social housing with the use of local building materials like timber, earth and residues from the mining industry.

[Benjamin and Amin work together on the west facade]

The 6 trainees we worked with this summer were interested in moving forward with their career in the building sector. They received a week-long training in earth plastering techniques at the site of the Chênelet homes.

The walls of these houses are insulated with a mixture of lime and wooden chips which is protected with 2 layers of plaster. The first thick layer is made of linen/flax plant straw, lime, earth and sand that creates a support to receive the next layer.

The second layer is the “finishing”, that protects the wall from rain and shocks. After 15 years, it is this layer that required a “face lifting”.

The tough weather conditions in this region of the North made it necessary for us to use a considerable amount of lime in the plaster. We used a mix of NHL 3.5 lime, earth and fine river sand, to obtain a smooth finishing layer of 5mm.

[In July the sun was surprisingly hot in “Pas-de-Calais”, we had to work under a shade net to make sure that neither us nor the plaster dry too fast!]

We had to redo the first layer in some patches with linen/flax plant straw mix. To ensure durability, we decided to protect all the houses with stone tiles which we placed at the bottom before putting the finishing layer.

[A nearly finished wall surface of the south facade, the beautiful waves show the movement of the hands while preparing the layer]

Those 10 days were intense!
All the 6 participants worked with earth for the first time, they had only worked with conventional building materials before like cement and sand. We were amazed to see how quickly they caught the technique; ” It is not the same! It is much more soft!”, ” It feels more natural” , “It is a forgiving material”. Everyone felt that working with earth was much easier, pleasant and non-toxic as compared to cement plastering.
A great team spirit grew over the weeks and they were all very enthusiastic about what they had learnt, eager to share and spread this interest in the companies that they will join later!

A plaster that breathes, regulates temperature and humidity inside the building, absorbs both noise and odors and that ages beautifully with time. Add to that the infinite possibilities in aesthetics; Coloured or Natural, smooth or grainy, regular or patterned, contemporary or rustic; earth plaster is irresistible! The method is simple and fun, you can even do it yourself!

We will leave you with a photograph of a beautiful Chênelet home in the sun.

Handmade with care, handmade in earth.