St.Gallen – An exhibition pavilion made of rammed earth will be built in St.Gallen next year. A smaller version is now being constructed in the Sittertal valley by students from Swiss and German universities.

The Sittertal valley was well known as a textile manufacturing region until the 19th century, according to an article by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Constructing buildings out of rammed earth also goes well back in history. 

“Using the rammed-earth technique for a building on a site that was once devoted to textiles is our way of acknowledging that history,” explained architect and EPFL guest professor Roger Boltshauser.

The exhibition building, which will be built next year, will be 23 metres long, 6 metres high and 6 metres wide. Students from the EPFL, the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany are now constructing a smaller model or ‘mock-up’ using building materials from the region and prefabricated components. This approach will help cut down the building time, explains the EPFL.  

The building materials also have the advantage that they can be recycled, allowing the mock-up to serve as a pilot project for the new technique. The rammed-earth columns will also have steel cables running through them from top to bottom, a technique that could be used for other projects.

As regards construction of the St.Gallen pavilion next year, Bolthauser said: “By combining prefabricated earth blocks with other prefabricated concrete components, the pavilion is a glimpse at what could be the future of rammed-earth construction. It will also allow us to calculate the associated savings in terms of costs and grey energy.”