Rupert's Landscapes

On the Chelsea garden the thatched roof is nearly finished and we have been experimenting with different types and colours of mud render, as this will have to match the surrounding red African soil.

Red mud render on a mesh to form the walls of the mud hut.

We also started the next part of the project, which our designers sent to test us. An area of cracked soil in the shape of the Water Aid symbol, which is a water drop.

On the surface this sounds quite simple, we could soak the soil and then dry this, through heating, to make it crack into the shape of the droplet. But someone might walk on it and leave a large footprint in our work. So we figured we could make this cracked clay droplet, then pour a rubber compound over the top, this would set to form a mould. Once the clay was washed off we could make a concrete mix and then cast a concrete droplet in the correct colour. So we made some small forms.

Cut pipe former, Poured rubber mould, and a piece of concrete

that looks like cracked soil.

As you can see we have been experimenting with a small sample of the rubber compound, supplied by Bentley Advanced Materials. The piece you can see at the bottom of this picture is actually concrete and will withstand the worst of the May weather and the odd misplaced work boot. Pretty good hey!

Now we just need to do this on a larger scale.