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Rammed Earth, Relearned

For a Riyadh retreat, the soil from the excavation became the walls. On stabilised mixes, formwork discipline and why rammed earth is the most honest facade we build.

Rammed earth is the oldest wall system on the site it stands on. For the Desert Rose retreat outside Riyadh, the soil removed from the excavation became the walls of the house — which is either an ancient idea or an extremely modern one, depending on how long your memory is. What made it work in 2023 was not nostalgia; it was testing, formwork and a subcontractor willing to treat soil like a specification.

The wall is the certificate

Every lift of every wall was sampled and logged — moisture, gradation, stabilisation, compaction. The result reads as geology: strata of the same ground the house sits on, in bands that follow the days the wall was made. Guests touch it within minutes of arriving. No other material we specify produces that reflex, and it is not sentimentality — the wall simply registers as true.

Thermal mass you can plaster nothing over, because it needs nothing over it.

What the modern version demands

  • Engineered mixes — raw site soil, corrected with aggregate and a small cement stabilisation, tested per lift.
  • Rigorous formwork — the shutter is the entire finish; one bolt mark is on the wall forever.
  • Protected tops — caps, drips and generous overhangs, because earth dislikes standing water more than sun.

    • The 860-metre-square house holds silence and temperature with walls 600 millimetres thick, and the mechanical cooling backing it up is smaller than the client expected. Earth-wall construction is not cheaper than concrete and not faster — it is better, in exactly the places a desert house is judged: heat, quiet and the feeling of the ground under you.

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