From June 25 to July 8, I was one of the participants/builders of a rammed earth workshop that took place at Savvaļa in Latvia as part of the RuralArtConnect project. The workshop was led by rammed earth practitioners Kaarel Kuusk and Maria Luiga (kuidas.works) from Estonia, with the process coordinated by artist Andris Eglītis. The project’s curator and producer was Kitija Vasiļjeva.

Participants included architects, designers, builders, artists, and other practitioners: Niklāvs Krievs, Ernests Damroze, Reinis Leo Miķelsons, Jānis Aufmanis, Gabriele Šimkute, Anna Underowicz, Alexander Petrounine, Hanna Samoson, Trevor Kinna, Marco Manfredino, Ola Lewczyk, Elmārs Grigorovičs, and Aleksejs Beļeckis.

As a result of the workshop, the first free-standing rammed earth structure in the Baltics was built!