Excursion to Austria & Switzerland
25—28 October 2021
ZHAW at Zurich Lake
Day 1 and 2
In a single, fully occupied car, the nevertheless small research group „pro/grammed earth“ set out on an excursion. For four days the car moved between Austria and Switzerland to experience a lively exchange of knowledge between different experts, companies and institutions.
Walking through soil layers
Our first stop was at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). We walked through the beautiful garden and agricultural testing field of the university.
With Dr. Luzius Matile we dug through soil science at the campus and went deeper and deeper through the history of soil layers. We learned about the conscious handling of soil in Switzerland and why it is so important to take care of it.
Luzius told us more about the structure of clay and laim and was setting the base for our better understanding of these natural building materials.
Sitterwerke/Kunstgiesserei St. Gallen
Day 2
In St. Gallen, Julia Lütolf poured out knowledge about the Sitterwerke art foundry and then took us to the library of our dreams, the material archive. A comprehensive library was supplementing the material archive. The library is organised from roboter which frequently scan the backs of the books to feed the database with its specific location inside the shelves. A hierachy or classification of the books is no longer possible, every book is allowed to be stored in every part of the library shelves.
On the side we were lucky enough to be right there when the workshop employees of the artistic casting began to cast an artwork made of lead.
ZHdK Zurich
Day 3
At the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), workshop manager Adrian Brazerol took us on a tour of several floors of interdisciplinary workshops where we ended up with Franziska Müller-Reissmann, who not only collects knowledge and exhibits for the Material Archive, but also has dedicated employees like the artist Marie Giesmar, who introduced us with her work with artificial coral reefs.
After sharing our homemade sandwiches with Franziska Müller-Reissmann in the ZHdK canteen, we raced on to ETH Zurich.
LEHMAG
Day 3
A surprisingly long ride took us to LEHMAG in Zug. In the last evening twilight we used our smartphone to illuminate the experiment series of Felix Hilgert’s and Roger Boltshauser’s student group.
Cormo founder Stefan Grass lectured us in the abandoned factory building on how ideas can be materialised.
In the dark of the night, Felix Hilgert revealed us everything we wanted to know about current rammed earth research along with a few beers and a plate of warm Gulasch.
In a night long conversation Felix told us all about the difficulties of loam industry and why loam buildings are more expensive than buildings made of concrete. For now!
Lehm Ton Erde
Day 4
The last stop of our excursion was made of rammed earth itself.
We sat in the Martin Rauch studio, discussing the basics of the fascinating material and the company itself. Directly next door we were invited to climb through a rammed earth construction site and were introduced to Roberta, the first machine to produce industrial rammed earth modules.
Martin Mackowitz is not the first to enjoy our small group size. This leads to an intimate, open round that fluently united visions and knowledge.
This sincere, mutual interest made the excursion unique. Knowledge exchange at eye level has been a matter of course during these days.
| thanks to: | Dr. Luzius Matile, Julia Lütolf, Adrian Brazerol, Franziska Müller-Reissmann, Felix Hilgert’s and Roger Boltshauser, Stefan Grass, Martin Rauch & Martin Mackowitz |
| project: | prog/rammed earth |
| year: | 2021/22 |