Clay Plaster in Sustainable Architecture: A Conversation with Adam Weismann of Clayworks

An exploration of clay as a living material - breathing walls, healthier homes, and architecture rooted in nature.

 Sean Ronnie Hill in conversation with Adam Weismann, co-founder of Clayworks, exploring clay plaster as a living material that supports healthier, low-energy architecture.

At RISE, we believe materials are never neutral. They shape how a building feels, how it performs, and how people live within it. Few materials embody this belief as quietly and powerfully as clay.

In this conversation, Sean Ronnie Hill speaks with Adam Weismann, co-founder of Clayworks, whose clay plasters have become integral to several RISE projects, including Birch & Clay Refugio, Douglas House, Finn House and Herbert Paradise. What emerges is not a discussion about finishes, but about architecture that breathes, ages, and connects us back to the earth.

Why clay, and why now

Clayworks began not as a brand, but as a response to place. Over two decades ago, Adam and his partner Katy were immersed in natural building traditions in the Pacific Northwest, working with cob, straw bale and earth plasters. When they returned to the UK to restore historic cottages in Cornwall, clay became a bridge between past and future.

Rather than treating earth as something primitive or nostalgic, Clayworks set out to re-introduce clay as a contemporary architectural material – relevant, refined, and deeply performative.

“We weren’t interested in recreating the past. We wanted to bring clay into modern buildings in a way that felt honest and current.”
Adam Weismann

Material as performance, not decoration

In architecture, surfaces are often reduced to appearance. Clay resists that simplification. It is tactile, soft, and visually deep - but it also works hard.

Clay is hygroscopic. It absorbs and releases moisture, helping to regulate internal humidity. It improves indoor air quality, contains no VOCs, and supports healthier internal environments. In low-energy buildings, these qualities are not incidental - they are essential.

On Herbert Paradise, a deep retrofit upgraded to EnerPHit principles, Clayworks plasters were used in bedrooms and circulation spaces. The result is a home that feels calm and stable throughout the seasons, supporting the fabric-first approach underpinning the project.

“Clay isn’t decoration – it’s a living surface. It breathes with the building and with the people inside it.”
Adam Weismann

Architecture you can feel

At Birch & Clay Refugio, the brief went beyond energy performance. The walls needed to do more than enclose space – they needed to slow it down.

Visitors often ask what the walls are made of. They reach out and touch them. The surfaces hold light differently throughout the day, creating a quiet sensory stillness that’s difficult to replicate with synthetic materials.

This tactile quality is not accidental. Clay’s subtle variation and depth reflect natural processes – sediment, erosion, time. It invites interaction without demanding attention.

“Once people experience a clay interior, it’s very hard to go back to painted plasterboard.”
Adam Weismann

Health, air quality and peace of mind

On Douglas House, the material choice was driven by necessity. The family living there has chemical sensitivities, requiring finishes with zero off-gassing and absolute transparency around material composition.

Clayworks plasters offered peace of mind as well as beauty. With no petrochemicals, no cement and published third-party environmental data, the material aligned fully with the project’s health-led brief.

This is an issue that remains widely underestimated. We spend the majority of our lives indoors, yet many modern interiors are sealed with products that quietly compromise air quality over time.

Clay offers an alternative – one rooted in simplicity, honesty and care.

Contemporary clay, not rustic cliché

There is a persistent myth that natural materials must look rustic. Clayworks has consistently challenged that assumption.

Through custom pigments, refined textures and close collaboration with architects, clay has been re-imagined for ultra-minimal interiors, wabi-sabi spaces and everything in between. It can be bold or restrained, expressive or almost invisible.

“Clay is infinitely versatile - if you understand it.”
Adam Weismann

This versatility has made it a natural partner for RISE projects, where material restraint and spatial clarity are central to the architectural language.

From building material to art practice

Beyond architecture, Adam’s work extends into Claymoon Studio – a more intuitive, meditative exploration of earth, light and perception.

Working with clay, charred wood, ancient stones, natural fibres and pigments, Claymoon installations are influenced by the work of James Turrell and the idea of slowing perception. Here, the material is allowed to lead.

The boundary between architecture and art dissolves, revealing something deeper: a shared desire to create spaces that ground us, calm us, and reconnect us with elemental matter.

Building a future that breathes

At RISE, we often say our projects are not just buildings – they are invitations to live differently. Clay supports that idea with quiet confidence.

It is low in embodied carbon. It is recyclable and biodegradable. It improves comfort and wellbeing. And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that architecture does not need to dominate nature to feel modern.

“We’re not offering a trend. We’re offering timelessness, rooted in nature.”
Adam Weismann

As clients become more conscious of health, comfort and environmental impact, materials like clay are no longer niche. They are becoming foundational.

This conversation with Adam Weismann reinforces something we hold deeply at RISE: the future of architecture will be shaped not just by how buildings look, but by how they feel, how they perform, and how responsibly they are made.

Building with living materials

At RISE, we believe that material choices are never superficial. They shape how a building performs, how it feels to live in, and how responsibly it sits in the world. Clay plaster is not a finish. It is a commitment – to healthier air, lower embodied carbon, and architecture that breathes with its occupants.

Conversations like this with Adam Weismann remind us that the future of sustainable architecture will be built from intelligence, care, and respect for natural materials. Buildings that are crafted, not coated. Spaces that age with grace and reward touch, light, and time.

Considering a project where health, comfort and material integrity matter?
Let’s talk about how your building could work harder – and feel better – through thoughtful, low-impact design.

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