This project explores how the use of clay transitions into contemporary construction methods. Through augmenting traditional brick extrusion techniques and adopting emerging processes of additive manufacturing technology with clay, a series of proposals aim to heighten the sensuous and tactile relationship between the body and the materials of our built environment.

Further the project aims to critique the flow of London Clay out of the city into landfill, as a waste product of civil engineering tunnelling, and super basement excavations. Instead, the The Earthen Land Registry uses this waste clay to develop a new build house typology and a retrofit strategy for the existing London brick housing stock. Embedded within a circular resource system the project promotes the use of clay in construction and includes the proposal for a new fabrication facility and public monument in the heart of the city.
The retrofit design research offers a particularly pertinent contribution towards efforts for net carbon zero 2050. Using waste London clay with robotic fabrication, a tailored ‘Earthen Blanket’ is proposed to insulate the solid-wall brick home. It honours the material heritage, maintains vapor permeability, and has the potential to be adopted on mass to upgrade the UK’s draughty housing stock.

The project was deveoped at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

KOOZ What prompted the project?

DP London Clay plays a distinguished role in the rich architectural history of London and has now largely disappeared as a living industry. The Earthen Land Registry, a circular resource system, is proposed, producing new London Clay architectures using emerging technologies and tailored to current environmental sustainability priorities.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

DP The project asks, how we can transform London to net-zero by 2050, using local construction resources that do not harm the environment. It speculates what a future London Clay construction resource system might look like when developing it to minimise environmental impacts; it tests how we can strip out complexity by making a simple clay component-based architecture; it wonders how on-site 3D printed clay can introduce some tailored comfort to new build homes; it questions how we can retrofit London’s existing masonry buildings to upgrade performance whilst accounting for and evolving their material and architectural lineage; it scrutinises how recent advances in metrology and digital fabrication can be used for tailored retrofits to individual homes?

KOOZ What are for you the greatest shortcomings of our contemporary cities, from the way we construct and inhabit these?

DP Global material sourcing and complexity in construction result in buildings with short lifespans and materials that cannot be reused. Historic construction with London brick is a perfect example of using locally sourced materials to produce local architecture vernaculars of simple construction that have lasted hundreds of years and whose materials can be reused.

KOOZ How does the project understand and explore the potential of a circular resource system to architecture?

DP The circular economy is considered at the scale of the city, the borough, street, house, and individual brick. The clay is sourced from local construction and engineering project waste streams, including the Thames Tideway Tunnel and city super-basements, diverting it from away from landfill. It is stored in the Greater London area, processed into tailored components including insulative extruded bricks, and used for on-site additive manufacturing. The fired components are assembled with lime mortar enabling their re-use at the end of their life whilst unfired clay interiors simply return to the ground.

KOOZ What are the biggest opportunities which can arise from a renowned approach to contemporary retrofitting?

DP It is widely recognised that one of the major challenges of hitting net zero carbon by 2050 is addressing the energy performance of existing solid-wall masonry buildings. Current examples often do this in ways that is in opposition to the original architectural and material basis and also shortens the lifespan of the existing building fabric. The Earthen Blanket proposes to evolve London’s current brick buildings with tailored clay parts, using recent advances in metrology and fabrication, to raise the building performance to net-zero carbon standards using a vapor-permeable ‘blanket’ in a cohesive way that can last for hundreds of years.

KOOZ What is for you the power of the architectural imaginary?

DP For me, the power of the architectural imaginary is the ability to draw out and test ideas at all scales. My favourite part of the process is when ideas that work on the level of the city dissect into micro details and components at the scale of the body.

Bio

Dan’s design practice is centered around his passion for clay, locally abundant materials, and their transition into contemporary construction processes. The latest project explored how clay construction waste can be used with additive manufacturing processes to propose a new build house typology and retrofit strategy to insulate London’s draughty brick housing stock. The project was awarded a Role Model 2021 Honourable Mention by The Healthy Materials Lab at Parsons School of Design. It has been shortlisted for the AJ Sustainability Prize 2021 and it was also awarded the Sir Bannister Fletcher Prize and Medal at the Bartlett Summer Show 2021.