Over the past 35 years, Martin Rauch and his company, Lehm Ton Erde, have realized numerous projects worldwide. As builders, designers, educators, and researchers in unstabilized rammed earth construction, they have transformed this ancient material into a modern, sustainable solution within an industrialized European context. Rauch’s innovations in prefabrication have earned him international recognition, including an honorary professorship as UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, an honorary doctorate from Liechtenstein University, and the EU’s New European Bauhaus Prize.

Born in 1958 in Schlins, Vorarlberg, Austria, Rauch studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna from 1978 to 1983, specializing in ceramic art under Matteo Thun and Maria Bilger-Perz. His diploma project, Lehm Ton Erde, received an honorary prize from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. Since 1984, he has been involved in designing, planning, and realizing earth construction projects in Austria and internationally. In 1999, he founded Lehm Ton Erde Baukunst GmbH.

Rauch’s work has been widely exhibited in cities such as Feldkirch, Meran, Paris, Graz, and Venice. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Fassa Bortolo International Prize for Sustainable Architecture, the Austrian Zentralvereinigung der Architekten Clients’ Award (2008), the Holcim Award for a Teaching and Training Centre in Morocco (2011), the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, and la Médaille de l’Innovation technique et constructive from the Académie d’Architecture.

Committed to education and knowledge sharing, Rauch has led international workshops in Bangladesh, South Africa, and Austria in collaboration with BASEhabitat. Since 2010, he has served as an honorary professor at the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, and from 2014 to 2016, he was a guest lecturer at ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture, alongside Anna Heringer.