Earthly Matters, Earthy Visions: National Architecture Narratives and the Unexpected Culture of Norwegian Rammed Earth Houses

Abstract

Abstract: This research paper shares the neglected story of rammed earth houses in Norway, with a focus on the past conditions that enabled its craft and emergence. Architectural representations in the country have been inexorably tied to craft traditions and localisms, framed as a marriage of natural materials and the built form; however, wood and stone occupy center stage of this material-oriented ethos. Very little attention is given to old rammed earth building techniques. Beyond tectonic considerations, the paper's aim is to document the value-tinged discourse around the making of rammed earth houses, or jordhus, built at the end of the nineteenth century, between 1920 and 1930, and during the post–World War II building boom. I examine and document the social circumstances and ideologies that caused Norwegian individuals to turn to—and away from—such a material. Based on Asbjørn Klepp's seminal "Jordhus i Norge," as well as Akershus Museum's little-known surveys, building projects in Østland, Vestland, and Sørland are the focus of this study of the social, cultural and technological histories embedded in rammed earth free-standing walls. Notions of sustainability and craft, of vernacular knowledge and home aesthetics are then utilized to qualify and weigh the significance of jordhus for present-day building narratives of Norway, thus shedding new light on established methods for the writing and telling of the country's architectural narratives: in the concluding section, I briefly comment on rammed earth's resurgence in the face of current climate concerns and describe a contemporary case study (Raab Jordhus, 2019) that shows the material's significance for future Norwegian architectural cultures.