THE LEHMKÜCHE

THE LEHMKÜCHE

The “Lehmküche”

The “Lehmküche” is a project which was born from the need of renovating and extending an old family kitchen and the will of using only local materials for the refurbishment.

All the old pieces of furniture, heavily worn by 20 years of intense usage, were firstly dismantled and removed, leaving untouched only the original ceramic stove on the side of the dining area. Around the old stove was then designed and implemented a new customized kitchen characterized by a minimal design and made in local spruce wood, earth plaster, and inserts of copper.

Once all the new wood frames, drawers, and cabinet doors have been cut and built into place, a thick clay plaster was applied around the new kitchen island built on the side of the old stove.

The raw material for the plaster has been sourced on-site, directly digging in the house garden and collecting the clay-rich soil laying 50cm below the surface. Hemp fibers from the nearby farm, sand, and water have been later added in the right proportion to the clay and the mix was then applied in two subsequent layers on a reed mat previously fixed to the wood surface. Finally, in order to preserve continuity with the oldest Austrian cooking tradition, as it was drying, the clay plaster was modeled with a low relief pattern reminiscent of old majolica stoves.

The use of clay plaster in a kitchen space isn’t only aesthetic but also a strong strategic choice: clay is indeed not only able to balance the humidity fluctuations in a closed space but also absorb and bind pollutant particles or smells released in the air while cooking.