Built 1828 in Weilburg, Germany, this is the tallest rammed earth building in Europe. Despite its age it is still in excellent condition. Currently being renovated for use as apartments. 3 stories on the front, and 6 stories on the back, it is built into a slope. 
The builder was the doctor of law, diplomat, businessman and self taught architect Wilhelm Jacob Wimpf (1767-1839) who intended it for use by his childen. The walls are 750mm at the bottom, and taper upwards to end at 400mm on the top floor, using only breathing natural material.
Weilburg might be the capital of rammed earth building there are still 2 million of them in the whole of Germany, especially in East where the Soviet govt. mandated local materials to be used as much as possible and oak was scarce and brick expensive, so clay it was. This, 1959.
Here is gorgeous worker housing built in rammed earth in 1955 in Mücheln, Saxony-Anhalt with very muscular DDR mural art. Perfect condition but the apartment windows look very new (ugly, unfitting, compare with the staircase windows in the middle).
Progs: "But it is too expensive to build with rammed earth today! The labor cost!"
Me: "Let people build their own rammed earth homes. The materials costs next to nothing compared to regular homes. Put the /social/ back in social housing".
Me: "Let people build their own rammed earth homes. The materials costs next to nothing compared to regular homes. Put the /social/ back in social housing".
The oldest rammed earth home in Germany (there are far older earth houses but not built with this particular technique), constructed in 1795 by a Fire Department Chief who wanted the ultimate fire safe home. Norderstraße 1, Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Renovated in 1993.
