Modern Earth: A Rammed Earth House in Wyoming
An architect and an interior designer bring rammed earth to Wyoming.
September/October 2009
By Mindy Pantiel
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Steel beams help the roof stand up to the large snow loads and potential earthquakes. An inverted roof structure helps protect against the accumulation of ice as snow thaws and freezes.
Photo By Michael Shopenn
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When they’d tired of New York City in the 1980s, architect Tom Ward and his wife, Katherine Reedy, yearned for a home that would accommodate their large Newfoundland, Hector; where Tom could drive his Alfa Romeo on winding mountain roads; and where Katherine could walk out the door and fly fish. In 1998, they found the perfect place: a slightly dilapidated house on seven-plus unzoned acres just south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Though Tom says the area, east of the Snake River and about 12 miles south of Jackson Hole, “is not a fashionable address,” the wide open spaces and proximity to the Snake River made the property perfectly suited to him and Katherine. They envisioned building their dream home there using rammed earth, a material no one in Wyoming had used before.
Though building with rammed earth was unprecedented in the area, the rural location made using an unusual building method easier. In more populated areas, proving an untested new material can become a bureaucratic nightmare, but the county’s lack of covenants and building restrictions simplified the process. Plus, the building style seemed suited to its surroundings. “With its barren walls, it was complementary to the region and our site,” Katherine says.
Tom became fascinated with rammed earth construction when, investigating the building method for a client, he talked with rammed-earth guru Rick Joy, an Arizona-based architect known for his desert dirt designs. But his years of experience told Tom what worked in the stable, earthquake-free desert wasn’t likely to translate to Wyoming, where seismic activity is considerable.
Not one to be easily dissuaded, Tom worked with the University of Wyoming’s Civil Engineering Department to patent EarthWall, a low-tech method of stabilizing rammed earth walls with reinforced steel rods. “The steel provides the tensile strength,” he says. The construction method relies on a base material of native soil and crusher fines, a gravel residue byproduct, joined with Portland cement. “You add water to activate the cement, and the crusher fines give the mixture horsepower,” Tom says. “The process is similar to pouring a concrete wall, but instead of concrete, you’re using soil from the site.”
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Thick walls, long views
After years of planning and developing their building system, Katherine and Tom were ready to build in 2004, six years after buying the land. Their home, completed in 2004, is a 2,700-square-foot structure with rammed earth walls and large glass panels that frame views of the rugged terrain. “The house is focused on the 20-million-year-old bluffs behind it and across the valley, where it’s all national forest,” Tom says. “We can see mountain lions and elk in the park and deer and peregrine falcons out our kitchen window. It’s 24/7 wildlife around here.”
The 18-inch-thick walls make for comfortable, energy-efficient living year-round. “It’s a concept called thermal mass, and it’s the same reason adobe works so well,” Tom says. “You have these thick, dense walls that absorb heat from the sun, and on a cold day or after the sun sets, the walls slowly release heat back into the house.” In summer, nighttime temperatures cool the thick walls, which are shielded from the heat of the afternoon sun by strategically placed overhangs. Energy-efficient Solarban 60 windows diffuse direct sunlight to further reduce heat gain in summer while allowing the sun’s warmth into the house in winter.
A radiant heat system pipes warm or cool water, depending on the season, through tubing laid beneath the concrete and slate floors, modulating temperatures and eliminating the need for air conditioning.
The long, slender residence makes the most of natural ventilation by paralleling the steep hillside, and openings on the north and south ends encourage air flow in the summer. “After having lived here for so many years, we knew how the site behaved and that the breezes didn’t flow up or down it; they flowed across it,” Tom says.
A butterfly roof tilts up to reveal a fir ceiling and steel beam supports. The inverted roof form forces rain and melting snow to flow toward the center, where drains funnel it through internal pipes and redirect it to the landscape. “The shape guarantees that the eaves never drip, and that prevents erosion,” Tom says.
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