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A first wall was raised with the poured earth technique, it is one of the first large scale constructions with this technique in the Iberian Peninsula.

After a first week of intense experimentation the groups were ready to start designing their own mixes with three different soils and experiment with formwork.

On the beginning of October we finally gathered 11 participants from different countries at the Oficinas da Ceramica e da Terra in Montemor-o-Novo, ready to explore poured earth knowledge along the next four weeks.

The third LearnBIØN-workshop started this week in Benevento

Exploring this innovative technique that allows a building site to be fast and similar to a conventional one is the aim of this workshop.

After telling you how the work was initiated during the Workshop BIØN² #2 Design & Build for Disassembly, here some updates on the results the team achieved during the initiative’s last week.

The workshop participants will contribute to the realisation of a set of fix furniture for the new barbecue area of Caffè dell'Orto - Fattoria Sociale Orto di Casa Betania, a social enterprise that uses urban farming as an opportunity for persons with disabilities or social difficulties to have an independent live. All the structures will be built with raw earth, namely with the technique of rammed earth.

Apply now to participate in Design and Build for Disassembly. A two week building workshop in San Ginesio, Macerata, Italy

The workshop main focus is to build for Disassembly, with reused and recycled materials. A great way to lower the impact on the climate, and upcycle materials to becoming useful again. The workshop will be held in San Genesio, Macerata, Italy on the 19-30th of July.

More information on how to participate coming shortly!

Because of the current unpredictable future, we advise you to follow our calendar and the updates as the situation changes quickly. We hope to run all planned events and workshops, but the times may be altered due to the situation.

This fourth and last week of Workshop BIØN² #1 Design&Build with Straw Bales was full of intense work, in order to be able to open the “Casita de Paja” to the local community on saturday.

This third week of workshop started with a key step: placing the cork insulated core slabs to build the roof of the “Casita de Paja”. With the help of a crane truck, we first put a 6m long ridge beam on which we installed and screwed one by one the prefabricated elements.

With the great help of the local community to move the prefab elements to the building site (one of the advantages of a rural areas is that “almost everybody” has a tractor!), we could start this week to place the straw panels onsite in order to build the walls of “La Casita de Paja”.

After several weeks of intense preparation work and uncertainty due to the Covid-19 crisis, we are finally pleased to announce that Workshop BIØN² #1 Design&Build with Straw Bales has started! Our 18 participants coming from 5 different countries (Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium) just arrived in the small and nice village of Villasbuenas de Gata (Cáceres, Spain), that will host the workshop from 3 to 30 august 2020.

Organized by miga – ACTYVA, from August 3rd until August 30th 2020, the workshop Design and Build with Straw Bales (prefabricated panels) will take place in the north of Extremadura (Spain) in Villasbuenas de Gata, a small village located in a privileged environment of mediterranean forest and rivers.

The techniques that will be the main vehicle for this workshop will be defined along with the design to be co-created by all the participants in the beginning of the week.

We will concentrate on some of the techniques shared abroad during the LearnBIØN program, so skills can be more easily shared with ones getting in contact with them for the first time and improved by the ones who have experienced them.

The forth week, has been dedicated to close the opening with old windows that were ready to be demolished. We decided to recycle more than 60 square meters of windows to give the good transparency to the building and we worked on the visual connection through the inside and the outside.

To use national pinewood turned out to be more of a challenge than we first thought, as its quality is much lower than the expected and not at all in line with its price. Of course, the design of the doors, following the geometry of the inner arches and therefore with a quarter circle part, was already a big challenge for newbies!

The third week starts with a little changing of the participants, and few more mosquitos. The bottle walls had to be completed and each bottle had to be properly clean. It was a meditative job, which gave the expected result of a shining light through the glasses. The experience with the mortar mixture of the previous week was needed to use the good quality of mixture during the plastering. We used more than 5 tons of mixture for the wall and the plastering.