(Archive) Linking Tiles

Sea silt clay ripening plant

The Dutch north coast is struggling with a silt surplus. The Eems Dollard is silting up, threatening biodiversity and the accessibility passage of ports. At the same time the sea level is rising while the land behind the dikes is subsiding requiring material levelling of the land. At project Pilot Kleirijperij the surplus silt is matured on land and used to counter soil scarcity. As building materials are rapidly becoming scarce, there is a demand for more diverse applications of this continuous residual flow.

sea silt as renewable clay body

In the project 'Linking elements' Humade has succeeded in developing a multitude of usable recipes across different production techniques. By focusing on the elasticity of the material, new solutions are created. The ambition to use as much local raw materials and waste streams as possible resulted in a production process with a minimum of two-thirds sludge.
The material provides a beautiful palette of colours and can sinter itself, making an extra glaze firing unnecessary and resulting in a reduction of emissions.

Scale up with Kon. Tichelaar

During the Design residency we have started together with Kon. Tichelaar the research towards a possible scale up of the sea silt ceramic.
We had great assistance from the current lab and old employees who volunteered to share with us their knowledge. We started with the clay body and glaze for the skins cladding system but due to the may in house production techniques there will be many more to come.