Spring '08 Work begins

Spring ’08:

Terra’s House is being built near the top of a black oak and ponderosa pine hill at the 3000 foot elevation in Calaveras County, California.  The site slopes gently to the south, exposed to the eastern sun and to prevailing afternoon western breezes.  Oak trees shade the northwest corner in the summer, and a grove of small oaks protect the north side and frame the entry.

The work involved in site preparation is typical of most rural residential construction:  clearing and grubbing, which is removing small trees, brush, and top soil from the building area; and cutting a level pad (Terra’s House has a concrete slab on grade floor). Since it was within our skill set to undertake this work ourselves, we rented a small bulldozer (Case 210 at $200 per day). The work was accomplished with the dozer, a chain saw, a builder’s level, and a one-hundred foot tape.  It took two people about two days.  

Winter '08

Design work begins.  The challenge was to develop a construction approach that could result in an affordable house with a strong architectural aesthetic

After years of watching architect-designed rammed earth houses become more complicated and the wall systems more expensive to construct, I was determined to prove rammed earth was still within reach of the average homeowner.  

The previous year we built a project in Hana, Maui where we used two shipping containers 

to create the primary rooms for a small cottage.  Porches front and back plus a breezeway were the "free" spaces that evolved from the placement of the containers.

  

I thought a similar concept of built space and free space could work with rammed earth

 modules.  The design of Terra's House groups three 24' x 20' rectangles under two offset horizontal SIP roof planes.  Clerestories along two

 walls of each module let in light and serve as ventilators while helping the thick profile roof “float” over the massive walls.  

The second cost saving design innovation  was the use of re-useable volume displacement

 boxes in the formwork to "carve" closets, bookcases, appliance niches, and other storage areas out of the wall 

volume.  This would be a major time saver when it came to finish work.  It would celebrate the mass and the beauty of the rammed earth plus it would eliminate framing, paneling, painting, and trim.  You can see the three rammed ea

rth rooms and all of the spaces in the walls in the sketch.

We finished a "builder's set" of plans in June and submitted for permits.  Since Calaveras County was the home of the rebirth of Rammed Earth, the approval process went smoothly.