We let our creativity loose on Earth Blossom House, we were inspired to show people the level of artistry that can be possible with a rammed earth home. Secondly, our desire is to build this very home for people who are excited about it and want to live in it. Creating beautiful architecture is fun, making a design of this sophistication is a good challenge but rewarding. The home is spacious and bright with lots of windows, particularly from the clerestory windows in the rooms. Some environmental features include: Insulated rammed earth walls, geothermal in floor heating, non-toxic finishes, sustainably harvested wood and solar panels for electricity.

The house has an impressive presence upon initial approach to the entrance on the north side. The slots you see between the rounded ends of the rammed earth walls have a 6″ piece of structural glass from floor to ceiling. The slot allows light to enter the home in an interesting way and create dramatic moods on the walls at different times of day.

A view of the roof looking from the southwest. Petal shaped roofs artistically arranged with a green living roof for the flat areas.

This is the large covered patio that is accessible from the living room, kitchen and a bedroom. It’s a great place to sit and relax on a hot sunny day.

Looking from the south, the kitchen is in the center, large patio and bedroom to the left and the master bedroom to the right.

Sitting in the living room looking north to the fireplace.

Looking south out of the living room.

A view from the den looking out to the west, the tree is growing up through an opening in the roof.

A view from the bed in the master bedroom looking onto a water feature. Notice where the window mullions and transoms meet there are 4 wooden pegs for an added touch.

The view west from the master bedroom.

Buddha statue with moon window next to living room.

To revisit and clarify for those who don’t know, since there is some misinformation out there on the net by people without first hand knowledge.

Rammed Earth is: A wall made of compacted layers of mixed gravel, sand,silt and clay that is hard as rock. It can have insulation inside the wall and/or be stabilized with some lime or cement like the walls we make. When we say clay it is not like pottery clay but instead it is finely distributed and only makes up around 15% of the mixture, not noticeable to most people.

The above definition is more or less the same mixture that has been used for 10,000 years for quality structural walls. Some people write about or experiment with packing mud or some other mixture that no professional builder anywhere in the world would use. So anybody can put some type of earth in forms and ram it and can call it whatever they want but it is important to  understand the difference between that and what building professionals, engineers and most people call rammed earth.  Rammed earth is a high performance structural wall system that can handle earthquakes, rain, snow etc, and it’s built to last.  Learn more about insulated rammed earth.