Posted on January 16, 2010 by Nik

Reviving Low Tech High Tech Architecture

“People assume that in the 21st century buildings should be made of titanium, because we have a narrow definition of progress. Maybe a 21st-century building is made out of dirt used in an intelligent and beautiful way.”

John Ochsendorf MIT Professor of Structural Engineering and Architecture proofs structurally stable, aesthetic structures built of mud as opposed to steel and concrete (reducing costs, energy consumption and pollution associated with traditional modern construction)

See Smithsonian’s With-Ancient-Arches-the-Old-is-New-Again

Structural visualization and research projects here

Images from construction of Mapungubwe Visitor’s Center in South Africa:

See source gallery for more images here