You thought the construction site outside your door was annoying. This designer is happy about it.
When Thomas Legler thinks of construction sites, he doesn't think of noise or barrier tape, but of material. The architect and ceramicist collects clay that excavators would otherwise pull from the ground and turns it into unique pieces that capture the very place they come from. A conversation about Zurich earth, cargo bike logistics, and why a find in one's own garden can be just as valuable as one from a construction site.
In Thomas Legler's studio in Wipkingen, they stand in a row: small fired tiles, each labeled with a street name. Josefstrasse. Fellenbergstrasse. Hegianwandweg. None look like the other: beige, rust-red, almost black, a warm orange next to a cool gray. It is the archive of 31 Zurich earths. Those who don't know what they are looking at might think of color swatches. Those who do know see a collection of places.
Legler studied architecture and then worked as an architect for ten years – in Belgium, in Italy, and finally in Zurich. For some time now, he has been doing only this for his studio Arché: collecting, testing, firing, and shaping earth. He uses the terms 'earth' and 'clay' interchangeably – both refer to the same raw material that he extracts directly from the ground. In doing so, he hasn't really left architecture behind.
How did you come up with the idea of working with construction site earth?
Thomas Legler: As an architect, I was standing on a construction site on the Uetliberg one day. Too much clay in the ground – that's a problem, because then you need piles that go 20 meters deep to stabilize the slope. I took the clay in my hand and thought: This is almost exactly the same material I buy in the store to make ceramics. But I only realized that on that day.
And how did you get into ceramics in the first place?
During my studies, I traveled to Burkina Faso with Francis Kéré. We built there using clay directly from the ground: bricks, walls, everything – and I made my first vase there. I then took my first real ceramics course in Italy. On the Uetliberg, these two threads came together.
You have collected 31 different earths from Zurich. What happens when you hold a new earth in your hands for the first time?
First, I take a close look at it. Then I make a flat plate, let it dry, and fire it twice: once without glaze, once with a transparent one. This makes all the materials contained in the clay visible. Once, I had an earth that was light green before firing. It contained so much iron oxide that I could make a black glaze out of it for a side table.
You don't change the material, do you?
I could increase the plasticity or add additives, but then it wouldn't be this earth anymore. The archive would no longer be an archive. These 31 tiles here are untouched.
I don't want to change the earth. This is truly the archive of the Zurich soil.
That means you don't know at the beginning what you will have at the end.
Exactly. If someone comes to me and wants a terracotta vase, I can't promise that. Some earths behave poorly on the potter's wheel but have a fantastic glaze color. With others, it's the opposite. The material determines the form, not me.
On your website, you provide the GPS coordinates of the construction site for every piece.
What you are buying is not a piece made of store-bought clay. It is a piece of the city. And when the construction site is closed, the material is gone. Kronenstrasse exists exactly once. Josefstrasse too. That's why all pieces are unique. Not as a promise, but because there is no other way.
Kronenstrasse exists exactly once.
I often think construction sites last forever. You see it differently.
As a collector, I know: the earth is gone faster than you think. I stop with my cargo bike, briefly explain what I'm doing – the construction workers usually laugh – and ask for a sample. If it's suitable, I have to go back quickly. What we see from the outside, this endless barrier, is only the surface. Beneath it, the layers disappear before you know it.
In the beginning, you weren't exactly welcome on the construction sites.
No, not really. But that has slowly changed. The office Pool Architektur brought me directly to the construction site for the exhibition "Layers of Memory" – with a helmet, everything correct. They used the excavator to move the earth directly to the car. No cargo bike, no small samples. That was nice.
Did you have an idea of the object before the material, or did the earth determine the form?
I test first, then I draw and develop the form from that. Actually, that's not so different from architecture – there, too, you develop an idea, test it, and refine it further. Only here it happens with your hands and the earth itself sets the framework.
I draw first, but truly understanding what I can do comes from the earth.
What advice do you have for someone who happens to come across clay at home or in the garden?
Just try it out. I found clay at my own home that I have been using ever since. And for a friend in Italy, I made a bowl for his mother from his find. Important: soak it first, then dry it and form a small, flat test plate. Firing will show whether and what the earth is suitable for.
In the end, it really is the material on which your building stands and on which your life continues.
How do you set prices for pieces that have had so much work put into them?
When selling art and design, it doesn't work on an hourly basis. Each piece carries the entire process within it – the collecting, the testing, getting to know an earth that will never exist in this way again. That cannot be translated into a conventional calculation.
Do you miss architecture?
Yes, with my studies and work, I was in the industry for a total of 16 years. But I don't miss working on the computer – I miss the development. Developing an idea, testing it, refining it further. I still do that, only the material has changed.
Like a cheerleader, I celebrate good design and bring you closer to everything furniture- and interior design-related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior finds, track down trends and interview creative minds about their work.
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