For her graduation project at Design Academy Eindhoven, Isa Ella Irma Gassmann studied earth as a building material in three locations. In Sicily, together with designer Antonia Vincenza Schreiber, she tested whether local waste materials could be developed into water-resistant earth plasters. In Uganda she worked with the start-up CoolBricks in Kampala. In Berlin she visited the laboratory of ZRS Ingenieure.

There she interviewed Gloria Hohmann, who has been testing earth building materials for six years and has led the laboratory team for around four. The chapter Inside the Lab sets laboratory data next to craft knowledge from the field. It covers the reversibility of earth building materials, the fire behaviour of fibre-containing materials, earth and timber composite systems as an alternative to reinforced concrete, and the current state of standardisation.

 Photo: Isa Ella Irma Gassmann / ZRS Architekten Ingenieure