rammed earth monolith

2014 Omicron Company, Schlinz, Swiss

Fair trade meets regionalism. The project, 3 rammed earth sculptures that serve as meeting rooms for the workers, is a commitment to support craftsmanship locally as well as in Bangladesh and in India. The aim is to create an atmospheric space of high quality for the employees of Omicron, and at the same time to make a social economic impact by involving a high amount of local craftsmanship and development organization from the global South.

The 3 sculptures can be seen as living rooms for the companies employees, to have meetings in a comfortable poetic atmosphere to retreat, contemplate, meditate, brainstorm, to have a coffee break, to chat.

The monolith is the most experimental structure of these 3. It is an attempt to bring the most basic building earth technique, zabur, as it is used in Ghana for example into Austrian laws and regulation systems. It is a two stories structure with only 15 centimeters thick and stabilized clay walls including a load bearing clay dome. 

The second phase of the project aimed at creating good meeting spaces for informal talking and brainstorming, so that the stif meeting rooms could be changed for ideas out of the box. Each of the 7 spaces refers to a place where Omicron is involed in charity. Studio Anna Heringer therefore looked for local artists and artisans to come up with local and original furniture, stimulating the economy in Bangladesh, Afghanisan, Tansania, Bahrain, Ecuador, Ghana and Mexico