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Clay: a smile through eternity
23.10.08 19:06
Автор:By Maria Rangelova – Luethi
An article, published in AMC Aspecti magazine, June 1999
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According to the Bible, God created Man out of mud.
Islamic cosmogony states that Man was made out of three types of clay: red, white and black.
The mythology of the Muiski ?? Indians inhabiting South America tells us that Man was made out of clay, and Woman out of reed.
What do people do when they lose something?
Some start immediately searching for it. Others let IT find THEM. Of course, depending on what the thing is and how urgently they need it. In the former case, searchers usually have some serious motive making them hurry. And the latter probably say to themselves: “God knows where this thing now is laughing at me” and calmly wait to hear the “laugh”.
It is interesting to see what the answer to the same question would be from the point of view of an artist who for some reason lost the drive to seek.
There are many correct answers that he could give, e.g. “the time hasn't come” or “every new thing is a well known old thing with a different casing and price” or… But one day it happens that, accidentally and at first glance, he sees the idea or hears the “laugh” and rushes forward enthusiastically to rediscover the “good old thing” – having found the … “search”.
The new thing could be anything – a structure, a pattern, a unit, a material. Or, as it happens most often – all these together. Things are interrelated but, still, there is one which was the first. And it is not obligatory for everyone to believe that God created Man out of mud to admit that the same man, becoming a little cleverer and braver, going out of the cave and starting to build his own shelter, used solely those materials that Nature gave him. And survived!
Earth, clay, was surely one of them, on most of our planet's territory.
At least it would be impractical to reject the impact of progress. On the contrary, life unambiguously proves that there are many ways for progress to be utilized in harmony with Nature. And there are examples everywhere.
Clay, is a building material that was used a long time before the word architecture came into being.
But it is here and now, and will outlive many of its contemporary brothers, sisters or enemies. Combined with other ecological components, it is capable of conveying creative impulses and provoking the ingenuity of architects, designers – or simply of people. Clay is also successfully used as a basic building material. Nowadays two major methods are employed: using rammed earth or using adobe.
Easily accessible and cheap, earth can easily and practically be used for erecting all kinds of buildings.
And this is only a matter of search and imagination!
Fortunately, Rick Joy from Arizona was not deprived of these. Skillfully and lovingly, he managed to turn a decrepit suburb of Tucson, a small town near the Mexican border inhabited by poor and heterogeneous population, into a real, colorful jewel.
Preserving the basic line in the traditional architectural style of the neighborhood from the beginning of the century, he succeeded in arranging and refreshing it so that the suburb grew from a grim and unattractive site into a joyful and comfortable living place.
At the other end of the world, in Western Australia, on the major road to Sydney, some industrious owners of a brewery attract tourists and clients to their unique Tourist Center, built out of rammed earth. Light, modern and spacious, the building of Carton&United Breweries Tour Center invites visitors, generously offering them openness, similitude and revelation. Clearly, the building material fired the creative imagination of Australians in such a strong way that besides family houses and a whole tourist village (Kooralbyn Resort in Queensland, David Oliver) in Uluru National Park (Central Australia), in full harmony with red rocks, an enthusiastic nature-lover actually built toilets out of rammed earth.
In the sands of the Nigerian Desert, worshippers built their faith in Allah into the thousands of clay bricks that erect the Yaama Mosque, raising its slender body at the border between reality and eternity. For almost two decades, almost all the members of the village community tested their faith through their labor, sharing their innermost dreams and prayers with the adobe. Proud, warm and human-like, the mosque represents, in fact, an impulse of the creating will of people to experiment and achieve results, inducing a novel, moving perception of their capabilities. Traditional architecture often loses this aspect but in this particular case it is palpable and directed to the true deep essence of things. Wisdom and hope combined into an eternal cheerful principle.
For more than 20 years, David Easton’s company has been using rammed earth to build houses in sunny California. Large or small, ornate or plain, for rich or poor people, they have been springing up one after the other, as an additional ornamentation to the otherwise beautiful local scenery. And to the pleasure of inhabitants and builders. The houses are many, but all of them impart joy, a glimmer of hope for life, and earthly humbleness. This might be so, for funny statistics show that earth houses are inhabited by either fairly well-to-do … or very poor people. The former might have grasped the essence of the contact with basic principles of life and the latter – after having found themselves at the lower end of the strata. And the curious thing is that the expected conflict between luxurious villas and small cottages is simply missing. What is more, all clay houses around the world look alike.
They are like a shelter for the spirit of the Earth. Like a calm young smile originating from their essence – clay. Beaming softly, crumbly and purely. Even when trampled or underrated. Because clay is real and eternal like universal space, simple and grateful like a flower, warm and generous like a mother, alive and plastic like a woman in need of a loving caress in order to smile. Unfortunately, those who saw it and breathed its essence in are not yet many. But they know that it is here – a smile from eternity, giving power and happiness.
Sources:
The Architectural Review; November 1986
The Architectural Review; November 1998
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