The Kiln Tower

The Kiln Tower is a 9-meter-high tower with viewing platform planned and built on the grounds of the Cham Brickworks Museum in Switzerland. Made mainly of rammed earth, it houses an exhibition space and a kiln and looks out onto a nature reserve. The Kiln Tower is designed by Studio Boltshauser from the ETH Zurich.

The project showcases various technical advances:a prestressing system that makes the building resistant to earthquake loads, an ideal combination of earth that can withstand only compressive loads with tensile steel, and the integration of timber base plates into the wallstructure. The weather drips mounted between the elements of the wall protect them from erosion and emphasize the principle of joining.

More than sixty million tons of earth and clay are excavated in Switzerland every year, most of it for use as landfill for gravel pits. Finding new ways of using this unexploited resource would be an important contribution to the quest for alternatives to energy-intensive building materials such as concrete and brick. Such alternatives would enable embodied energy savings of up to forty percent in new builds. The purpose of the Kiln Tower is thus to further the development of traditional earthen building and with it the building industry’s shift toward greater sustainability.

Exhibition Content Navigation

Introduction to the Exhibition

A Short History of Earthen Architecture

Early History Worldwide

The Earthen Monuments of Pre-Columbian America

Brazil: The Merging of Two Building Cultures

The Renaissance of Earthen Building Techniques

The Rammed Earth Pioneer: François Cointeraux

The Dissemination of the Pisé Technique Along Trade Routes

Rapid Robotic Clay Rotunda

Watch the Making of the Rapid Robotic Clay Rotunda

The Kiln Tower

Watch the Making of the Kiln Tower

Clay Properties