Earthen rituals

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Natural Materials Lab

Earthen Rituals is a devotional brickmaking and multi-media project that explores the intersection of computational prompts with traditional earthen materials rooted in embodied human histories. Currently on view at the Arsenale of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, it investigates the porous intersections between ancient knowledge and digital fabrication. Developed by Lola Ben-Alon and her team at Columbia University’s Natural Materials Lab, the brick designs are inspired by traditional techniques and translated through an AI apparatus to create a mesh of graphic representations of earth construction techniques across regions, which were then translated by a machine into a printable brick.

The installation emerges from a deeply cyclical ethos: making, mooning, impregnation, incubation, and birth. These metaphoric and literal processes are embedded in the work’s material and formal logic. At its core is a computational translation: historic textures of vernacular construction — gleaned from global traditions such as Terracruda (Italian), Lehm (German), Toub Laban (Arabic), and Udongo (Swahili) — and abstracted into bitmaps by an AI apparatus. Printed with a novel lightweight earth-fiber mix developed at the Natural Materials Lab, the bricks are both structural and aesthetically expressive. The mix fuses excavation waste and agricultural by-products, sequestering carbon while resisting the extractive tendencies of modern construction.

The fabrication process itself draws from kitchen-based experimentation as much as from scientific analysis - a devotion to embodied, hands-on practice. The built system is elegantly simple: 4-meter bamboo poles act as verticals, stabilized by the bricks and tensioned by wooden rings that enhance lateral stability. No glue. No plastics. No irreversible fixing. Just soil, fiber, wood, and bamboo — materials that breathe, decay, regenerate. A soft, earthy scent emanates from the structure, recalling the sensation of walking through a forest floor. A floor-based projection anchors the space: a circular choreography of making and unmaking that reflects on the ritualistic practices at the Natural Materials Lab, and the technological retooling toward feminist and ecological rhythms of labor.

Researcher:
Lola Ben-Alon

Lab Assistants:
Olga Beatrice Carcassi, Penmai Chongtoua, Keenan Bellisari, Christopher Tillinghast Sherman, Trella Isabel Lopez, Kelechi Iheanacho, Neil Potnis, Sherry Aine Chuang Te, Nikoletta Zakynthinou Xanthi, and Amani Makee Hill

Lab Assistants:
WASP 3D Printers (Italy) served as technical partners, with contributions by Francesca Moretti, Massimo Moretti, Giulio Buscaroli, and others.

Exhibitions:
Earthen Rituals, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2025

Publications and Events

Columbia Books on
Architecture and the City

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