A Rammed-Earth Home in Napa Valley
(Page 4 of 4)
September/October 1999
By Laurel Lund
One home at a time, Easton has perfected his earth-building techniques. “I’ve always used the sale of a personal residence—usually a rammed-earth experiment—as a stepping stone to new earth technologies. Each time I refine a technique, I sell the house and move on to the next level of research.”
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Easton’s expertise has brought him fame and fortune, particularly in his own Napa Valley region where vintners appreciate the Old World earth construction reminiscent of the French wine region.
“Many people here like thick-wall masonry because it reminds them of the vernacular architecture in Southern Europe,” says Easton. His clients refer to living in their earth-built homes as comforting, calming, and reassuring. “They feel earthen walls have a solid, secure quality because they absorb sound—unlike wood-frame structures that actually heighten sound vibrations. One client even described walking into her rammed-earth home as being like walking into a lover’s outstretched arms.”
Those arms encircle the globe, where Easton has initiated numerous rammed-earth projects and programs. In 1993, he supervised construction of a preschool in Leon, Nicaragua, while teaching forty community volunteers how to build rammed-earth structures. Two years later he helped locals in Brazil build a rammed-earth orphanage outside São Paulo. And in 1997 he consulted with Habitat for Humanity volunteers to construct a rammed-earth building on a Native American reservation in South Dakota.
“Our belief, our goal, is to create environmentally responsible housing for the developing world,” says Easton of his work with Wright. “That’s why we’re developing construction techniques that utilize natural resources in a geographically appropriate way, taking the climate, tradition, and local building standards into consideration.”
The couple’s next project is designing a rammed-earth sewing factory in Kenya with Wildlife Works. The organization helps locals support themselves by sewing eco-clothing for worldwide sale rather than poaching wildlife. The sewing factory also will teach villagers a building method that can help them improve their own, and others’, communities.
Improving the lives of others is what Easton and Wright are all about. “We don’t think of ourselves as builders. We think of ourselves as teachers. We have the opportunity to make earthen buildings affordable and code compliant the world over. In essence, we’ve refined an ancient technology to create structures that are modern in every way.” NH
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