Gitai Architects used rammed earth and stones from the nearby Mitzpe Ramon crater to build the Landroom observatory in Israel's Negev desert.
Landroom is intended to function as a shelter from the sun in daytime and an observatory at night. The structure measures just six square metres and has space for only two people.

Israeli studio Gitai Architects built the minimalist structure at the western observation point of the Mitzpe Ramon crater, where it is easily accessible from the town of Mitzpe Ramon via a natural path.
The square building has a circular interior and an opening facing the desert, as well as a built-in seat where travellers can rest.

It has no roof but is instead open to the desert air to give visitors a view of the night sky framed by its pressed-earth walls. The studio described Landroom as "a minimal environmental structure designed on the verge between territory and a landscape object."

Architect Ben Gitai, founder of Gitai Architects, used local materials ? stones and soil from the surrounding desert ? to construct the rammed-earth observatory.
"It is a microtopography design process," he told Dezeen. "The technique of the rammed earth construction consists of excavating the local earth and ramming it into designed moulds in order to shape the walls."

The architect had previously used the technique for his Earth Memorial project, which he said is the only memorial in the world made from earth, and finds it very durable....