Made In Earth, a Bangalore-based design firm, makes its mark in the world of architecture with its unique design techniques and material selections that follow the concept of sustainability. Their projects articulate different mediums of sustainability and have innate associations with the local context and culture of the respective structure.
Made In Earth is an architecture studio that promotes practices that connect with people, the environment, the resources of the place while also establishing a dialogue between natural materials and the Earth. The architects believe that the buildings are not just a product of brick and mortar but a blank canvas for experimentation and innovation. The firm, started by four founding members, focuses on modern expressions that are both elemental and eco-friendly.
“We believe in an architecture that is simple and sensible; created with an understanding of the soil on which it exists; with an exploration of the materials from its place; and in collaboration with the skills and the imagination of its people.” — Made In Earth
The design team at Made In Earth uses natural materials like clay, lime, wood, stone, straw, and thatch, combining them with concrete, glass, steel, and ceramics to create beautiful and responsible sustainable architecture. Now, let’s look at some of their incredible creations:
1. Design for Cause – Special Care Facility
Project: RANA HOUSE, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu
Completed: 2013
The design stands for the people and they should be able to correspond to it. Made In Earth collaborated with an Italian NGO, Terre des Hommes Core Trust, to create a special-care home to foster HIV-positive children that are abandoned or parentless.
With an idea of sustainability beyond that reflected in the design, the project encompasses small-scale interventions that can be managed by the support and involvement of the local community, keeping architecture as the foundation to pursue bigger goals. The building is composed of two monolithic slabs, a raised plinth, and a walkable roof from which colourful volumes stretch out as skylights and chimneys, thus providing a means of natural ventilation. Within this setup, five brick-coloured boxes are designed to contain other habitable spaces.
The interior layout takes care of their needs making it a priority to make children feel safe and comfortable while performing any activity. A bamboo curtain wall contains the interiors, creating shaded segregations between indoor and outdoor spaces. The most prominent emphasis is the hold of the local context on the design, namely material, resources, community participation, and technical solutions and costs. Casa Rana stands as the perfect example of a socially inclusive design that matches traditional building techniques with products of the modern market.
2. Residences that speak volumes – Community Row Housing
Project: Brick Kiln House, Malur, Bangalore
Completed: 2016
A housing project that doubles as a sustainable community model, the Brick Kiln House was the first take by Made In Earth on building with earth blocks. The usage of natural materials and construction techniques effortlessly allowed the building to blend with its surroundings. As a result of porous spaces and open courtyards, the house feels light in appearance, thus breaking up the building’s massing.
Taking inspiration from its region’s vernacular architecture, the house comes together with a composite thatched roof that gives a new meaning to rustic in the concept of contemporary earth architecture. The thatch roof floats above the walls and enhances the emphasis on the thin side profile of the roof, contrasting the delicate detailing on surfaces against the more structural elements of design.
The house borrows from its setting, culture, and tradition. The featured facet of the house is the Filler slab composed of pots, terracotta tiles, coconut shells, and bottles embedded into reinforced concrete slabs. Along with Athangudi tiles and yellow oxide applied for flooring, the thatch roof ceiling also contains stretches of bamboo panels underneath. With the Brick Kiln House, the designers at Made In Earth set a precedent for the entire sustainable community with a humble, efficient and responsible project.
3. A Hands-On Learning Experience – Adobe School
Project: Cuckoo Forest School, Singarapettai, Tamil Nadu
Completed: 2015
‘The Cuckoo Movement for Children’ was started as a way to reach out to children from humble backgrounds who could not afford education. The group running this movement went around different rural communities giving children the necessary means and mediums to learning, extracurriculars, and play.
Made In Earth was associated with getting together a team that would help build a space at the foothills of Javadu for the rural folk to have a structure to which the kids could come. Thus commenced the 10-day hands-on workshop that brought 40 volunteers of varied professions together to build the Cuckoo Forest School using only locally sourced materials. The design for the Cuckoo Forest School aimed at striking a balance between human needs and nature’s needs. Every aspect of its construction accommodates nature, not as a resource but just as a companion.
It started as a simple structure of mud and clay and developed into a two-story building that can house up to 50 people. Materials were acquired from the forest and the technique of earth construction stood apt for this project. Volunteers over ten days laid bricks, churned clay mortar, and learned a green and sustainable way of construction from scratch. The school also has outdoor spaces like zen gardens, vegetable gardens, and fields of corn.
4. Sublime Aesthetics – Cafe Interiors
Project: Little Green Cafe, Museum Road, Bangalore
Completed: 2017
Described best by the architects of Made In Earth, the Little Green Cafe is imagined like an urban oasis, in an atmosphere that calms and soothes with the use of natural materials that come together bearing their most honest expressions. The interiors of this cafe are completed to finesse using natural plasters made of clay and lime. An application of natural pigments complements the earthy tones of the structural walls with old teak wood used to accessorize the setup.
Each piece of wood used in the cafe has a story to tell. Old teak wood is upcycled to transform into shelves, furniture as well as ceilings. The flooring also showcases a mixed-use of hardwood in a herringbone pattern and polished local black kadappa stones with an intricate brass inlay.
Along with sustainable measures vividly visible in the cafe, special attention has been given to the energy consumption of the space. Vintage lampshades are scattered across the ceiling using LED bulbs for low consumption and a passive air cooling system is created as an alternative to air conditioning that significantly cuts down on wasteful exhaustion of energy resources.
5. Bringing People Together – Community Centre
Project: M.A.C Community Centre, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu
Completed: 2016
The M.A.C (Music, Art and Cultural Academy) by Made In Earth is another project in partnership with Terre Des Hommes Core Trust that is an abode to children from troubled backgrounds through to the age of employment. The structure consists of small interventions spaced all over the region to create a network that would multiply positive effects on its inhabitants.
The building is conceived as a semi-transparent wall that presents itself as a curly ribbon changing its curvature and height. The design approach kept in mind the cost and availability of material and created a conceptually and constructively simplistic structure. The perforated wall is made of hollow concrete blocks, rolling itself in a spiral, that filters the bright natural light into a smooth diffused setting, fabricating a naturally ventilated space.
The pillars, walls, and roof constructed of a single material form the spiral that concludes to give the lead to an inner covered pavilion. The handmade hollow blocks allow the spiral to develop into a longer path that is used to narrate the foundation story and create a unique spatial sequence.
References
https://madeinearth.in/projects/
https://www.archdaily.com/770080/casa-rana-made-in-earth?ad_medium=office_landing&ad_name=article
https://www.habitusliving.com/architecture/little-green-cafe-made-in-earth-collective
https://www.insightssuccess.in/made-in-earth-defining-new-possibilities-of-sustainable-architecture/
https://www.domusweb.it/en/news/2017/05/15/mac_made_in_earth.html
https://www.thebetterindia.com/184408/bengaluru-sustainable-home-architect-locally-sourced-material-india/
https://www.thebetterindia.com/184408/bengaluru-sustainable-home-architect-locally-sourced-material-india/
