Built with Earth, two exhibitions at the vai in Vorarlberg

The Vorarlberger Architekturinstitut of Dornbirn, in Vorarlberg, Austria, hosts two exhibitions investigating the contemporary earthen architectures. TERRA Award offers an overview of the international projects entered in its 2016 contest, while Martin Rauch presents innovative solutions for rammed earth architectures.


Rammed earth is readily available and economical and has a low embodied energy. It is an essential element of the architectures of the past and the future and is becoming increasingly popular thanks to the exceptional aesthetic and technical quality of the solutions it offers for the design of ecological and low-cost housing.
This topic is also dealt with by the exhibition “Built with Earth”, opening on 07 March at the vai Architecture Institute in Vorarlberg (Austria). The exhibition is composed of two parts. The first part, curated by Dominique Lauzon-Müller, is dedicated to the 40 finalists of the TERRA Awards. As many as 40 architectures are on display, including residential, public and commercial buildings that were selected out of the 357 participants in the TERRA Award, the first global award for contemporary earthen architectures. Walls made in bricks, undulated bricks, CEB and COB are just some of the examples coming from all over the world that are on display at this exhibition, helping us rediscover a readily available, economical and sustainable construction material. Building with earth is an important contribution towards a green and social change, thanks to the use of a material that has a low impact on the environment throughout its entire life-cycle.
The second exhibition, curated by Clemens Quirin and entitled “Martin Rauch. Unstabilisiert, vorfabriziert, tragend” (“Martin Rauch. Non-stabilised, prefabricated and load-bearing”) presents the work of Martin Rauch and his team, “Lehm Ton Erde”, who for over 30 years have been realising construction projects and installations that had a strong impact on contemporary earthen architecture.
Rauch, renowned builder from Vorarlberg, is always faithful to unsterilized and non-stabilised earth; instead of using artificial additional agents to improve the properties of the materials, he is constantly looking for new methods and solutions for construction engineering and design. The technique and development of prefabrication, that made great progress in past few years, allow to use rammed earth in today’s complex building processes, notably widening the future application options for this sustainable material with a low energy impact, from the realisation phase of the architectures, up until their very use.

Christiane Bürklein

“Mit Erde bauen” Exhibition
From 07 March to 19 May 2018
vai – vorarlberger architektur institut, Dornbirn, Austria
Images: courtesy of TERRA Award
Find out more: https://v-a-i.at/ausstellungen/mit-erde-gebaut