Outrage: greenwashing risks giving dirt a filthy name
- 11 February 2020
- London EMAP Publishing Limited 2020
In 1825, German lawyer Wilhelm Wimpf began construction on one of the tallest rammed-earth buildings in the world. Entirely self-taught, he completed the seven-storey house in Weilburg three years later, and it is still in use today. The book he published chronicling the project was titled Complete Instructions to Build Extremely Cheap, Permanent, Warm and Fireproof Apartments from Rammed Earth. Soil was, for Wimpf, the material of the future.
Nearly 200 years later and soil is still stuck in the future; contemporary Western architecture is only now getting to grips with earth-based buildings. The strengths of earth construction are the same for us as for Wimpf: low pollution, high thermal mass, good load-bearing capability and locally abundant. Yet confusion, rotten practice and greenwashing now risk dirt getting a filthy name. Will the mud stick?