desert dream

Hugo Gasnier (1, 2)

1 AE&CC - Architecture, Environnement & Cultures Constructives
2 CRAterre - CRAterre

This work entitled “desert dream” is the result of a three month long study trip financed by the Delano-Aldrich and Emerson Foundation. Ever since the end of my studies, I dreamt of crossing the usa Territory to visit the contemporary earth architecture there. This desire forced me to drive trough Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, California to meet with architects and craftsmen working with earth as a material (this type of construction being very present in this area of the United States). The purpose of this trip was to uncover and understand the architectural thinking specific to western USA and its dry territory. How and why would the persons I meet make American desert rime with earth architecture renewal? As an architect expert on earth architecture (CRAterre), I thought using earth would become a way to built a contemporary architecture connected with mankind, landscape, space, light… Somewhere along this trip I realized it was actually way more than that. This kind of construction is the pride of those designing it, building it, living within it. This architecture talks about its context, its territory, it’s long forgotten history and it’s inhabitants.

Mots clés: Rammed earth; Delano and Aldrich Emerson; AIA

Mots clés: Architecture de terre; usa; filière terre; pisé; voyage d'étude; CRAterre

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Architecture, aménagement de l'espace

Hugo Gasnier. desert dream: Contemporary Earth Architecture in the vast American Desert.. [University works] ENSAG; CRAterre. 2013. ⟨hal-01841585⟩