Co-taught: Christopher Romano + Michael Hoover

Students: Rocco Battista, Serena Minix, Ainish Sheth

SoilWorks: Mortaring is an independent material research project that investigates the performance, craft, and environmental potential of stabilized earth construction through the development of compressed earth blocks and compatible mud mortar systems. The project focuses on achieving a monolithic wall assembly by aligning block and mortar chemistry, hydrology, and fabrication methods, reducing reliance on high-carbon cement while prioritizing locally sourced soils and aggregates. Through an extensive matrix of block and mortar recipes, the research tests variations in clay content, particle packing, water ratios, and stabilizers to understand how material composition affects strength, workability, curing behavior, and moisture transfer. Full-scale block production using an Auram Press, paired with iterative wall mock-ups, allowed the team to study real construction variables such as brick saturation, mortar adhesion, joint craft, and post-assembly curing. Hydrology testing revealed that controlled moisture—specifically lightly dampened bricks rather than fully dry or saturated units—produced the most reliable bonding and minimized cracking. The project culminates in a refined set of low-cement block and mortar recipes that function cohesively as a system, demonstrating how earthen construction can support durable, low-carbon building assemblies while reconnecting architectural production to material knowledge, manual labor, and regional soil ecologies.