The Clayground
As a co-creation project with the Happy Pigeons co-living community, we are refurbishing the basement of the Happy Pigeons co-working with clay as the main material. The clay was sourced locally from another construction project and is now reused in our basement to redo the floor and walls. This circular approach benefitted both parties because all costs for disposal and purchasing were avoided.
Current status: in construction
It all began with…
…organizing our coworking basement at the beginning of this year. Before, it was only used as a storage unit for a long time, and we only became aware of its potential after cleaning it up. It turned out to be a great space with great potential: around 30 sqm in size with direct access to the coworking space.
Although we were not exactly sure what the future usage could be - ideas ranging from a sauna room & fitness studio to a wood workshop - we knew that we had to refurbish it in any way. The walls had ancient & humid plaster; the old concrete floor was broken and uneven as hell - one side was 15 cm higher.
Sourcing the clay.
We started by looking for local clay offers in Berlin and found one in the north of Berlin - a family was building a water fountain in the garden and, therefore, was surplus to a lot of earth.
We took a sample and tested the quality of the clay, which turned out to be very well.
Next, we found ourselves picking up the clay in a rental car and bringing it to the coworking basement. Luckily, many Happy Pigeons community members were (and still are) very interested in that project and helped us with the transportation.
Constructing with Clay.
The first step of the construction was the hardest one. To straighten the floor, we had to mix massive amounts of clay with sand and straw and pour it on the floor. We used the rammed earth method, meaning we compacted the 10-15cm layer of the clay mix by stamping our feet. It was a fun but also exhausting activity. We used a concrete mixer that we rented to facilitate the mixing process. Our locally sourced clay was great for our first raw rammed earth layer.
The First Result.
After exhausting ourselves physically for a week, we were now finished with the first stage of construction. Now, we had to wait, wait and wait again until the clay was completely dry. This process took us a month, as the cellar is cold and not optimally ventilated. After the long wait, we were pleased with the first result. Large cracks had formed, but this was to be expected. The most important thing was that the floor was firm, dry, and, more or less, leveled.
The Last Push.
The floor was already fully functional, but we wanted to repair the cracks to achieve an even, smooth look. So, feeling fully motivated, we rolled up our sleeves again and, in the next step, plastered the entire floor with a wonderful clay mixture from ClayTec, which was very easy to work with. We made the mixture fairly wet, allowing it to act almost like an additional leveling compound, making it very easy to spread smoothly.
