Earth, Lightly

2025

Earth, Lightly is a research project about Light Earth construction, exploring the role of ornamentation in earthen architecture. The purpose of this study was to develop an approach to the retrofit of an industrial warehouse for the Villa Filanda Antonini in Treviso.

Assemble were awarded the Experimental Fellowship at Bauhaus Earth to study and experiment with Light Earth as a lesser-known building method, which typically coats agricultural byproduct fibres in a clay-rich earth slip for use as infill in timber-framed walls. It gained attention in the 1980s in Europe, the US and New Zealand as an environmentally responsible alternative to conventional insulation, although it was first documented as its own building technique in Germany from the 1930s.

This is one of the prototypes made during the Fellowship in July: a sculptural installation showcasing a variety of Light Earth mixtures as well as the aesthetic results of different imprinting and pressing methods. Three of the segments are pre cast, the others cast in situ.

Light Earth building holds great potential as a construction method that can create large volumes whilst remaining lightweight. It shifts from extractive to generative economies by using grown materials and tapping into existing waste streams, and it can achieve effective acoustic and thermal insulation with only a fraction of earthen material typically required in earth building. By combining this with a more artistically led approach, we hope to both expand the palette and vocabulary of earth building, and to accelerate its uptake and accessibility in the contemporary building industry.