From the ground up: Building the Dirt Works Studio

Kansas does not possess a fertile history of rammed earth architecture. While a number of factors likely contributed to this historical lack, there remain significant barriers preventing its current use. These barriers range from perceptual-many Kansans are unfamiliar with rammed earth or harbor misconceptions as to its suitability-to local soils, which tend to be quite high in clay content. On the other hand, Kansas has robust mineral resources, from large shale deposits to the ‘flinty’ limestone that made farming impossible over a wide swath of land, resulting in the Flint Hills tallgrass prairie.