Wildfarm Earth Blocks & Mortar

Le Monde des Mille Couleurs is a wildfarm performing permaculture, food forestry and regenerative farming. Le Monde des Mille Couleurs and BC materials found themselves as Soilmates, working with earth in radically different sectors. TOOP architectuur envisioned a freestanding building as a contemporary farmhouse, mainly made of earth, fibers and wood. Moulded earth blocks and earth mortar are used in loadbearing masonry walls, which are visible or rendered in earth plaster.

BC materials developed these earth blocks and earth mortar from local excavations: Ypresian clay soil was excavated on the farm's land and Loessloam soil was recuperated from a nearby pond excavation. Some river sand was added for the mortar recipe.

Subsequently earth blocks and earth mortar were developed and validated using DIN18945 and DIN18946 respectively. The test results coming out of this prototype validation was used to calculate the structural application of earth block masonry walls according to the newly published and highly innovative DIN18940; this project is the first project outside of Germany with loadbearing earth block masonry walls calculated via this norm.

Production of the earth blocks was done at Vande Moortel brick factory through processes of milling, mixing, moulding and drying while earth mortar was prepared on site by soaking local clay and loam and adding sand.

The resulting walls are beautiful, healthy, hyperlocal and circular masonry walls, borrowed from the farmland to the benefit of human beings, until the end of the life cycle of the building at which point the earth building materials can be given back to the land.

Client
Le Monde des Mille Couleurs
Architect
TOOP architectuur
Contractor
Segers Bouw
Material consulting & Development
BC materials
Material Production
Vande Moortel + BC materials