They rise from Ibra’s stark ground in rounded forms that seem to belong to another planet. Its clustered curves soften the outline of a building into something closer to a sculpture. Yet the material behind that unfamiliar shape connects it to a growing movement in architecture, and to a building tradition Oman has known for centuries.
Around the world, architects are reconsidering earth as a construction material. Unesco has documented renewed interest in rammed earth, compressed earth blocks and sun-dried bricks as designers seek ways to reduce construction’s environmental cost.
In Ibra, that conversation has taken the form of Dome cafe.
Earth Artists, the group behind its design and construction, describes Dome as a project bringing together soil, natural forms and the character of its surroundings. “From the heart of Oman and from its soil our story began”, it says in its announcement.
Oman’s old settlements provide ample evidence of what builders could do with it. At Bahla, mud-brick walls and towers stand on stone foundations. Conservation records describe mixing soil with hay and water, continuing the use of plant fibres in earthen construction. These fibres help hold the mixture together and limit cracking as it dries.
Such buildings grew from practical local knowledge: which soil to choose, how to prepare it and how to protect a wall from water.
Dome offers a contemporary point of connection with that knowledge. Its curves introduce a different architectural language, while its use of earth recalls a familiar relationship between building and place.
Earth Artists began in Iran in 2019, initially as an educational organisation teaching SuperAdobe construction. It now undertakes design, construction and consultancy. According to its website, the group has conducted more than 60 workshops, training over 1,200 participants, and completed projects in countries including Oman, Türkiye, Colombia and Australia.
There is an artistic possibility here, but also a discipline. Soil varies. A mixture suitable for one site may fail at another. Testing and preparation remain essential.
Rammed earth and SuperAdobe are two distinct approaches within this wider family of earth building. Rammed earth involves compressing selected gravel, sand, silt and clay between temporary panels.
SuperAdobe, developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili, uses bags or long tubes filled with moistened earth. These are laid in courses and compacted, with barbed wire between layers providing reinforcement and helping prevent sliding.
To form a dome, the rings move gradually inwards as the building rises. The shape emerges through repeated decisions about placement and geometry, rather like a pot taking form through coils of clay.
For Oman, the possibilities are appealing. Suitable material sourced nearby can reduce transport and reliance on heavily processed wall materials. The resulting surfaces can carry colours familiar from surrounding hills and open ground. Desert sand alone, however, is not automatically suitable.
Thick earth walls also store heat and slow its movement, potentially moderating daily temperature changes. Their performance depends on shading, ventilation, insulation and opportunities to release accumulated heat. An earthen building still needs careful design for an Omani summer, along with drainage and protection against rain.
Ibra gives these ideas a setting richer than its bare stretches initially suggest. Cultivated plots and date palms sit within a town framed by hills and watchtowers. Its old quarter retains traces of merchant wealth connected to Zanzibar.
Dome adds a new reason to stop and look.
Its unusual design is already attracting social media attention. Earth Artists sees the cafe as the beginning of a wider involvement in Oman, with further projects planned. For now, Dome’s immediate achievement is to make people curious about a building.
The photographs invite the alien comparison. Looking closer brings the story back to Ibra: to the colours of its ground, its older earthen walls and the knowledge of people who made shelter from soil. A visitor may arrive for coffee and a photograph, then leave seeing the surrounding landscape as a source of architectural possibility.
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