Performing Earth Building: An Exercise in Exaptive Design
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Performing Earth Building acts as a unique signpost to index 20 West Shore Road
A proposed circular economy hub guides visitors through the site’s changed identity, connecting inhabitants and the public. Exceeding a typical student project, the rammed earth structure integrates reclaimed piano components, diverting them from landfill. These deconstructed instruments serve as formwork, shelves, and displays, imprinting unique textures onto the earth surfaces. Hand-built by the student team, the installation embodies distributed authorship through evolving site conditions, materials, and processes. Centered on harvested materials and circular economies, the project explores reactive design, material reuse, and earth remediation, demonstrating the long-term potential of innovative waste-based construction.
Data
- Begun: Feb 2024
- Completed: Apr 2024
- Floor area: 10m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Funding: The University of Edinburgh provided earth material, tools and appropriate PPE equipment required on-site at no cost to the student. Further construction material donated by the Pianodrome.
- Procurement: N/A
- Address: 20 West Shore Road, Granton, Edinburgh, EH5 1QD, United Kingdom
Tags 
Materials
Professional Team
- Architect: Peter Brewser, James Melville and Coll Drury
- Client: EALA Impacts
- Structural engineer tutor: Elham Mousavian
- Main contractor: Peter Brewser, Coll Drury + James Melville
Suppliers
- The ESALA workshop staff: Malcolm Cruickshank, Paul Charlton, Paul Diamond, Molly Stubbs
