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Form Earth ™ 2023
We Are
Form Earth
We are developing the first automated rammed earth machine called the Freeform.
Our mission is for every person to be able to afford a healthy home.
Tested on March 16, 2020.
Why Rammed Earth?
Rammed earth is cool in summer and warm in winter, fireproof, insect resistant, humidity regulating, natural, reusable and produces no waste.
However, its high cost has been a significant drawback. At Form Earth, we are working to solve this.
Is Earth Abundant?
Rammed earth is an abundant and readily available building material that can be sourced from mines and quarries. When extracting minerals, mines remove the earth above the deposits, which is referred to as overburden and is often rich in the raw materials needed for rammed earth. Similarly, quarries set aside earth that has a high clay content and is not suitable for construction purposes, making it an ideal source of rammed earth material.
David Freeman
Designer & Founder
What made rammed earth compelling for me was the right mix of durability and beauty. My choice of rammed earth home is with most of the interior walls coated with lime and polished earth floors.
Many old homes will still end up in landfills, but we need not add new ones. My conscious effort is to help build the technology so we can strive for zero-waste construction.
An example of a modern rammed earth living is Limalimo Lodge in Ethiopia with exposed rammed earth walls.
Earth towers in Shibam Hadramawt, Yemen, were built in the 16th century from a soil, hay and water mixture which was fashioned into bricks.
This rammed earth school in France built in 1880 has a decorative lime plaster finish.
The Great Wall in Jiayuguan City was built in the early Ming Dynasty 1372.
The Wise Building at the Centre for Alternative Technology is a circular lecture theatre in Wales. — Rowland Keable
The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) in the Indian Himalayas keep warm with insulation including scrunched-up scrap paper, sawdust and solar passive design. — Sonam Wangchuk
Otto Cottage in South Africa — Paul Marais