Architecture in Aqueous Flux: The CaCO3 Depositional House

Abstract

A petrifying well in northern England inspired architect James Eagle to explore how crystallisation could be applied to architecture. Begun as his fifth‐year MArch thesis at the University of Greenwich, London, and further developed thereafter, his proposals for the CaCO3 Depositional House use porous templates and cybernetics to guide the formation of calcium carbonate deposits into fantastical yet functional structures, from windows to sanitary facilities. He describes the process, the project, the prototype, and its implications for architecture's future.