The Earth Pavilion
Lancaster House, The Mall, London, UK - 2010

'Sustainable Shells' - Timbrel vaulting using soil stabilised tiles in a developing world context has recently been awarded winner of the Built environment category at the 2010 Earth Awards in recognition of the potential future positive impact of this exciting innovation on people's lives in the developing world.

As part of the Earth Awards and the 'Start Festival' (sponsored by the Prince of Wales), the practice in collaboration with Michael Ramage constructed a small vaulted Earth tiled pavilion in the grounds of Lancaster House.

The pavilion consisted of a series of overlapping catenary vaults, each stiffened with a elegant flare The vaults built in only 14 days, with hand pressed tiles made out of local London soil. The ply blanks used to form the tiles were used as the pavilion flooring. A slatted timber screen, designed to filter the morning light was made from sweet chestnut coppice cuttings.

In this high profile context we demonstrated just how economic, beautiful and elegant the results of this simple technology can be.