Poland's New Renaissance in Clay
Clay has played a crucial role in the development of civilisation since the Paleolithic Age. Today, in the 21st century, a new generation is once again making use of its functional benefits. Will clay become the material of the future?
It is to the Chinese and the Japanese whom we owe the knowledge of how to fire clay and create durable objects from it. According to current research, it was in China and Japan, between 29,000 and 25,000 BCE, that the use of clay vessels began. This region is also where some of the oldest examples of prehistoric pottery have been found. In 2009, the results of a study of ceramic fragments found in a cave in Yuchanyan, in the Hunan province of China, were published. It turned out that they came from ceramic vessels most likely made between 17,500 and 18,300 years ago. Some slightly newer ceramic objects, dating from about 14,000 BCE, were found in the central region of the Japanese island of Honsiu. In Poland, earthenware vessels probably first appeared around 5,400 BCE.
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Bottle with two spouts, clay, first half of 3000 BCE, Early Jazir III period, photo: National Museum in Warsaw
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The capability of processing this widely occurring natural material significantly influenced the development of civilisation. Not only did it allow for the storage of water, preparation of meals and transportation of various products, but people also started to build with clay – it is one of the oldest materials in history enabling the construction of man-made shelters. And it is still widely used. Today, between one-half and two-thirds of the world’s population lives in buildings made of clay or bricks made from it. Significantly, clay building materials are equally popular in places with low and high levels of urbanisation.
Although clay has never stopped being used, its qualities have become more appreciated in recent decades. Adverse environmental changes due to the climate crisis, as well as a growing ecological awareness, are contributing to a growing interest in what nature offers humanity. Clay is a good representative of this: it doesn’t require difficult processing or additional ingredients, and no special skills are needed to work with it. It is a locally available, easily obtainable and inexpensive material. Its enthusiasts also emphasise its sensual attributes – it has a distinctive fragrance, texture, colour and temperature. Clay stimulates all the senses, both during processing and use – all of them, without exception. In antiquity, as well as in later periods, it was quite popular to eat clay, during religious rituals and as a healing and strengthening substance that was especially recommended for pregnant women. The benefits of eating clay were described by Aristotle, for example.
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Potter Jan Kudrewicz, Czarna, Podlasie, photo: Andrzej Sidor / Forum
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There are many ways to have contact with clay. One of the most popular of these recently is the independent creation of dishes and objects. Pottery workshops and ceramic studios are popping up in Poland like mushrooms. Their users emphasise that making a vase or a mug on one’s own is extremely satisfying, has a practical dimension, and, above all… has a calming effect. This is why pottery wheels can be seen spinning in big cities recently, where there’s more stress and it’s harder to find somewhere to truly relax. There’s a growing number of people who consider more or less successful attempts at shaping balls of clay to be an excellent means of relaxation.
On the other side of the spectrum from urban residents seeking solace, there are professional designers. It might seem that everything has already been expressed in ceramics design and, after tens of thousands of years of using this material, it’s difficult to come up with anything new. It turns out, however, that clay can satisfy the needs of contemporary people very well. Designers understand its remarkable properties, sensuality and delicacy, and use it to create objects that alleviate the hardships of life.
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Natural clay air humidifier, designed by Olga Milczyńska, 2015, photo: Irina Grishina
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Olga Milczyńska from August Design Studio has designed natural air humidifiers made of clay, and Patrycja Bołzan – food storage containers that keep food fresh for a long time (root vegetables ‘sit’ in a clay container filled with sand as if in a vegetable patch, and a clay breadbox maintains the optimal humidity and temperature needed for bread). In 2020, Patrycja Gorzela made it to the final round of the ‘make me!’ competition at the Łódź Design Festival with her design of flowerpots with… a calendar on which you can ‘record’ when a plant was last watered. Konrad Dybicki uses ceramics to create sets of pots for natural medical treatments – the Balneo set consists of four elements (a compress, a hot-water bottle, a vaporiser and a vessel for jala neti), which, apart from fulfilling their basic functions, have a soothing effect on the user thanks to the natural material, colour and organic shape.
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‘Oko’ by Malwina Konopacka, photo: Aga Bilska, courtesy of the artist
Quality of life is undoubtedly improved by contact with beautiful objects. This is where designers once again come to the rescue, since they’re able to use glazed and painted clay to create useful objects that often enter the realm of art due to their original forms.
Such are, for example, the vases designed by Malwina Konopacka. They have various surprising shapes and are intensely colourful, and often simply surreal. Ola Mirecka also plays with form when creating vases – her designs from the Modern Greek Vase series clearly make reference to the ancient tradition of decorating clay vessels, but instead of warriors and mythological heroes, the artist paints scenes on them from the everyday life of contemporary people, inhabitants of Poland in the 21st century. Just as Ola Mirecka makes reference to the surrounding world with the help of new incarnations of classical Greek vases, Agnieszka Prucia puts inscriptions – quotations, pearls of wisdom, and affirmative statements – on the plates and platters she designs. Natasza Grześkiewicz’s plates charm with their minor imperfections, while Natalia Gruszecka’s mugs play with surreal forms.
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‘Modern Greek Vase’, part of a series of vases illustrating scenes from contemporary life, project by Ola Mirecka, 2017, photo: Rasmus Laurvig
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Nowoczesna Grecka Waza, część serii waz ilustrujących sceny z życia współczesnego, projekt Ola Mirecka fot. Rasmus Laurvig 2017
Alicja Patanowska is inspired by objects and folk costumes donated by friends, often crossing the border between design and art, while Karina Marusińska uses waste from the production of ceramic objects, giving it new life.
Clay is a very versatile material – just a few design ideas can show how many ways it can be shaped. While attractive or practical ceramic objects surround us in our daily lives, it is less often remembered that clay can also be a very good building material. Houses made of clay are associated with distant countries and ancient peoples, while today the material is experiencing a renaissance in the construction industry. If one were to enumerate the characteristics of clay used in construction, it could be considered an ideal material. It’s versatile: you can use it to build load-bearing walls and partition walls, and you can fill structures with it, for example wooden ones. It can also be used as an external plaster and interior finishing material for floors, ceilings and even domes. Building with clay doesn’t require complicated machines, technologies or teams of specialists. There’s no need to use energy from fossil fuels or bring various ingredients from far away. As if that weren’t enough, clay has properties that are extremely people-friendly. It’s an excellent substitute for air conditioning because it’s capable of regulating temperature, cooling in summer and heating in winter. It’s even better at ‘managing’ air humidity. It’s resistant to fire. And small bits of unused clay can be reused or even used as compost.
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‘CUBI’ by Alicja Patanowska, porcelain, photo: courtesy of the designer
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For all these reasons, building with clay is attracting increased interest in the developed world as well. Although a few decades ago, clay houses could be seen mainly in places with hot climates (for example, in Arab countries), today it is widely known that this material works equally well in other parts of the world. Modern houses made of clay (often combined with wood, stone or blocks of pressed straw) are increasingly popular in the UK, South America and the Czech Republic. The Burkina Faso-born, now Germany-based architect Diébédo Francis Kéré, who has been considered an important candidate for the Pritzker Prize for many years, encourages people to build with clay. He believes the two most important aims in construction are building harmoniously with the environment and understanding the real needs of the community. According to Kéré, clay – this malleable, sensual, environmentally and people-friendly material – is ideally suited to fulfilling these.
In Poland, clay buildings are still quite rare. The architect Piotr Kuczia, who in 2009 built an energy-efficient house near Pszczyna with a thick clay wall ensuring the natural regulation of temperature and humidity, discussed the advantages of this material. The Copernicus Science Centre in Warsaw has also contributed to the promotion of building with clay. In 2012, next to the main building of this extremely popular institution, Pavilion 512 was erected – an 85-metre-long building constructed largely of clay (the other material used here is decorative concrete). Like the entire complex of the Copernicus Science Centre, it was designed by Jan Kubec’s RAr-2 Laboratory of Architecture.
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Pavilion 512, designed by Rar2 Jan Kubec’s Architecture Laboratory, Copernicus Science Center, Warsaw, photo: Mateusz Baj / AG
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The pavilion serves as an exhibition and workshop space, and its programme is intended to be strongly linked to environmental education. For such needs, the best choice was probably the most environmentally friendly building material available today.
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Comfortable ecological house, designed by Jacek Gałąska / Earth-Heart, realized by Earth-Heart natural construction, photo: Earth-Heart press materials / http: //www.earth-heart.pl
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The Białystok-based Earth-Heart Studio builds modern, comfortable and environmentally-friendly houses using the straw-bale technique, in which clay is combined with bales of straw. The founders of Earth-Heart, Monika Sierakowska and Paweł Fornalski, explain:
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Thanks to the characteristics of clay and straw, such as moisture-permeability, regulation of humidity and air temperature, absorption of electromagnetic waves and ease of recycling, the houses we build support the health of each inhabitant and protect the environment.
The founders of mech.build studio, Jan Dowgiałło and Anna Zawadzka-Sobieraj (who is also the plenipotentiary for natural building in the Warsaw Branch of the Association of Polish Architects) are keen on using clay in construction – as is Magdalena Górska, the founder of eKodama Studio, which employs experts in building with wood, straw, hemp and clay.
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Ecological farm in the Kłodzko Valley, designed by eKodama studio – Magdalena Górska, photo: studio press materials / http://www.ekodama.pl
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Among eKodama’s projects, for example, there is an eco-friendly farm in Kotlina Kłodzka where a house was built with a wooden structure filled with bales of straw and plastered with clay.
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House made of wood, straw & clay, designed by mech.build architectural studio, Borawy, 2017, photo: Emilia Oksentowicz
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In an interview for the Bryla.pl website, Jan Dowgiałło from mech.build recalled that his understanding of the value of natural materials was influenced by his former contact with the CoHabitat Network, which runs workshops on building with straw and clay. It was there that the architect became aware that treating clay as waste on construction sites, although common, is a terrible mistake. In their projects, Jan Dowgiałło and Anna Zawadzka-Sobieraj use clay, wood, compressed straw, hempcrete, cellulose, and compacted earth. They describe their architectural approach as follows:
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We use natural, low-processed, biodegradable, recyclable and reusable materials, always keeping in mind the circulation of matter and the life cycle of the objects we design.
They add that there are materials – such as clay – which not only fulfil the requirement of building in an environmentally friendly way, but also have a positive impact on people’s health, senses and mental well-being.
It’s worth bringing clay out of the world of pottery and surrounding ourselves not only with objects made from it, but also buildings – for both our own benefit and that of the planet.
Originally written in Polish, Apr 2021, translated by Scotia Gilroy, Sep 2021