A Prescott dentist and his family are the owners of a lovely rammed earth home and a rammed earth dental office. The ambience of the dental office is so effective that other local dentists have attempted to emulate the rammed earth using frame construction and faux embellishment, with predictable lack of success.

When this client wanted to build an addition to his home, Cast Earth had been invented and used in Prescott, so he was determined to utilize it instead of rammed earth because of its even greater beauty, not to mention cost effectiveness.

This addition consists of several relatively short segments of Cast Earth walls, joined by French doors, a fireplace and a Cast Earth banca (bench). Due to the short runs and generally 10 ft. height, some without corners, the walls were poured three feet thick to provide a substantial footprint. Two inches of styrofoam insulation are cast inside the walls. As described elsewhere, this technique can only be utilized efficiently by a poured wall system, easy with Cast Earth, but nearly impossible with rammed earth or adobe.

Many techniques are available for further enhancing the already nearly perfect appearance of exposed Cast Earth. In this case, the mix was only lightly pigmented, and was poured around several rocks placed next to the forms. These rocks are copper ores, very appropriate in a major copper producing state such as Arizona. The green and blue minerals are a powerful counterpoint to the earth colors encasing them.

In other houses, different effects have been achieved by techniques such as exposing some of the small aggregates after stripping forms, or by use of more intense pigmentation. Discontinuities in the pours also allow for a serendipitous flow of striations in the Cast Earth, reminiscent of the strata in a sedimentary rock formation or exposed stream bed profiles.

Because Cast Earth is a casting mix, it is possible to create either positive or negative impressions by using molds placed in the forms before pouring. A bas relief, perhaps of a favorite animal or a coat of arms, would easily be the result of the proper mold. In this example, a small niche has bee cast into a wall segment, and will be illuminated in shadow box fashion via wiring also placed in the form before the pour.

This is the first use of Cast Earth in walls three feet thick. They also contain 2" of styrofoam insulation, placed internally about 6" from the wall's exterior surface. The energy efficiency of these great walls will be unusually high. Another view including of some of this insulation, and more discussion of energy considerations of mass walls including insulation, may be viewed at this link.