Martin Rauch

Conférence
3 avril 2017

Martin Rauch
entrepreneur spécialiste du pisé, Schlins, Autriche

Construire en terre crue

Building with clay and rammed earth is as old as the history of mankind, yet the material continues to be as modern and contemporary as hardly any other building material concerning its ecological properties and building physics.

Within the last 30 years, Martin Rauch and his company Lehm Ton Erde, have developed and implemented many techniques and projects relating to rammed earth. A crucial pivot point in this development is not only the persistent elaboration of constructional details and enhancements of production possibilities, but also establishing the material with contemporary architecture and aesthetics. Many buildings and installations have been realised in cooperation with international and renowned artists and architectural offices, which have enriched building with earth in a technical and creative sense.

Loam – Clay – Earth (Lehm Ton Erde). These three words do not only mark Martin Rauchs work, they also have a very symbolic meaning for him and describe his holistic approach: Loam (Lehm) – implies handcraft and technology, Clay (Ton) symbolizes artistic design, Earth (Erde) stands for the sustainability in mud constructions.

Martin Rauch
Born 1958 in Schlins, Vorarlberg, Austria. 1978-83 University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Master class for Ceramic Art Prof. Matteo Thun and Prof. Maria Bilger-Perz. Since 1984 Conception, planning and realisation of earth building projects in Austria and abroad. 1999 company foundation of Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH. 1988-2016 personal and group exhibitions in Feldkirch, Meran, Paris, Graz, Venice; Several prices and awards, among which international price for sustainable architecture Fassa Bortolo and Clients’ award of the Austrian Zentralvereinigung der Architekten in 2008, the 2011 Holcim Award for a Teaching and Training Centre in Morocco. From 2003 to 2010 lecturer at the University for Art and Industrial Design Linz. International workshops, in Bangladesh, South Africa, and Austria in co-operation with BASEhabitat.

Since April 2010 Martin Rauch is UNESCO Honorary professor at the Chair of Earthen architecture, building cultures and sustainable development and 2014-2016 guest lecturer at the ETH Zurich.