Exploring Poured Earth Technique in Montemor-o-Novo
On day 3 of october 2021 we were happy to gather a new group of 11 participants in Montemor-o-Novo (Portugal) for a neaw one month wrkshop. They came from several countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Serbia and Belgium) to be trained on one of the most recent earth construction technique called “Poured Earth” or “Clay Concrete” with our training team composed by the architects Tânia Teixeira and Pedro Sequeira from Oficinas do Convento (Portugal) and the material engineer Lucile Couvreur from miga / ACTYVA (Spain).
The purpose of the first week of this workshop was to get our group of participants trained on the main aspects of the technique in order to make them able to start building small prototypes in the following weeks.
Through a intensive theoretical and practical program partly based on didactic contents developed by CRAterre-amàco, they get skilled on the following topics:
Fundamentals on earth architecture (Lecture)
Physico-chemical properties of earth material (Experimental lecture + Carazas Test)
Soil Selection (Lecture +Field & Laboratory tests)
Introduction to Poured Earth technique (Lecture + Pouring prototype demonstration)
Mix formulation for the Poured Earth technique (Lecture)
Formwork design and use for Poured Earth technique (Lecture)
Once again, we took advantage from the facilitation techniques taught by our partner HE2B to enhance the group cohesion and make the participants share their learning expectations for this one month workshop:
“Learn about alternative ways to build our home”
“Experience with earth as a building material”
“Learn how to build wall with poured earth”
“Learn how to test the earth”
“Learn techniques in order to be able to build houses and structures in the future”
“Practice teamwork”
“Improve my english and learn a bit of Portuguese”
“Hope this workshop to be mind opener and changer”
“Learn to work with earth and be more grounded”
“Learn about formulations for poured earth constructions”
“New thoughts and practices for a new collective conscience”
“Connect with people in a whole”
“Learn about jobs possibilities in the sector of eco-architecture”
