I fell in love with Rammed earth in 2008 at the Auroville earth Institute, UNESCO Chair for Earthen Architecture, Asia. Our relationship deepened into a beautiful romance over the next years as I slowly got to understand her. I had to present her to my parents to build their house with rammed earth. Looking at our deep relationship while building the first few test walls on their house, my parents approved our marriage. I later went on to build over 4 residential projects in the next years in India. One of them went on to win Indian Architect & Builders Young Architects Award in 2014.
I then travelled to Canada, at McGill University where I explored the methods of diffusion of Rammed earth and wrote a research paper on her greatest ex lover, François Cointeraux (1740-1830). He had dedicated a full life to Rammed earth, dedicating 4 books and various construction to her. I mainly focussed on how he and other romantics before and after him taught/diffused Rammed earth. I traveled to learn from experts around the world, India, USA, and Canada. I started traveling mainly to know her whereabouts: bringing me to Mexico in 2014 to look at the project of Mauricio Rocha (School of plastic arts, Oaxaca).
However, our relationship has since lost its strength, mainly because she has chosen lovers of the current age that are only appreciating her for her spectacular looks. I have been a consultant to various architects and builders in Mexico and have organized several workshops on the same.
Below are the research directions that deeply interest us at Vanamu.
History of Monolithic construction, aspects of design | History of rammed earth | Types of formworks and its relation to built form | Design guidelines | Structural design | Rammed earth foundations | Details of joints with various materials and components | Thermal properties, density, and thickness selection | Hygroscopic properties and humidity buffering potential | Costs and time | Codes of practice and normativity | Soil identification methods | Soil stabilization Methods | Selection of materials | Texture, porosity, and durability| Design of mixes – use of additives | Designs, and fabrication of modern formworks | Fabrication of rammers | Organization of site | Curing of rammed earth, precautions | Errors, and learning from personal and shared experiences | Rectification and maintenance.
Working with scaled models of formworks (1:5) from China, Peru, Morocco, France, and Nepal
List of research papers we’ve covered so far
How to sign up for a workshop?
See images of previous workshops here