CENTROTERRA is an organization committed to the advancement and dissemination of earth building in Italy
Design + Build in Marfa, Texas
NEW PROGRAM DATES FOR AREA SUMMER DESIGN+BUILD
JUNE 1 – JULY 1 2005
AREA is a summer research+build workshop that engages a 90 year old abandoned mud-brick building, located in the town of Marfa, Texas, as the testing grounds for questioning the notion of occupation, the theme of this years inquiry. Through a series of explorations that examine the process of making and unmaking in architecture, participants will design and build full-scale interventions that respond to a critical examination of place and program while addressing local/global and industrial/non-industrial agendas for architecture by employing raw earth as the primary building material in these investigations. Marfa serves as an ideal laboratory from where to study these issues. It is a town constructed almost entirely from mud-brick and transformed by rich historical, cultural and geographic forces. At 5,000 feet above sea level, it is one of the oldest cultivated areas in the United States. Located 30 miles from the U.S./Mexico border, Marfa is also home to the Chinati Foundation, an internationally renowned contemporary art museum, founded by Donald Judd, whose emphasis is on works in which art and the surrounding landscape are inextricably linked. Participants will have the opportunity to visit this extraordinary cultural and geographic landscape through a series of directed and self-guided field-studies. AREA is an initiative of the School of Architecture at Clemson University and made possible in part by the Adobe Alliance, a non-profit organization committed to the dissemination of traditional earth building technologies.
MORE INFORMATION AT: www.areainstitute.org
ADOBE 2004
The Second Annual Conference of the Adobe Association of the Southwest will take place May 21, 22 and 23 in El Rito, New Mexico on the campus of Northern New Mexico Community College in the recently renovated Cutting Hall Auditorium. It is a stately adobe building joining the two-story adobe South Dorm and Cafeteria.
Schedule:
Adel Fahmy, Cairo: “Old Traditions and New Improvements”
John Morony, Southwest Texas Junior College: “Adobe and Latent Heat; A Critical Connection”
Ronald Rael, Clemson University: “A Counter History of Modern Architecture” Luis Fernando Guerrero Baca, Univ. Autonima Metropolitana, Xochimilco with Francisco Uvina Contreras, Cornerstones Community Partnerships: “Conserving Adobe Architecture at the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro”
Dean Sherwin, Philadelphia: “Heavy and Slow, the Thermal Properties of Thick Wall Construction”
Reid Hayashi and Kristina Orchard-Hays, El Prado, NM: “Monolithic Adobe: A Viable and Inexpensive Building Method for the Southwest”
Arnie Valdez, San Luis, CO: “Adobe Education at UNM: Alternative Construction Methods and Materials”
Richard Burt and Charles Graham, Texas A&M: “The Earth Construction Course at Texas A&M University”
Barbara Narici, Milan, Italy: “Raw Earth Architecture in Italy between Tradition and Actuality; Geologika and Mud Interiors as an Ancient Energy in Today’s Immaterial Life”
Quentin Wilson, NNMCC: “Jacal y Fuerte, Wattle and Daub in NM”
Anita Otilia Rodriguez, Mexico and Taos: “La Enjarradora”
Mark Chalom, Santa Fe: “The Prisciantelli Home: Adobe Off the Grid”
Simone Swan, Santa Fe/Presidio: “Teaching Women in Obregon; Passing on the Legacy”
Pat Frazier, Abiquiu, NM: “Houses built by Pat and Felipe”
Steve Safken, Arizona: “Adobe: Compressive Structures and Materials” (Not Confirmed)
Susan Jerome, Mule Creek, NM: “Community Building at the Mudpit”
Dr. Mahmoud Ahmed Eissa, King Abdel Aziz University, Jeddah: “Ecological Aspects of the Courtyard House as a Passive Cooling System” (Not Confirmed)
Steve Burroughs, PhD, Canberra, “Affordable Earth Construction” (Pending)
Conference Schedule:
Friday, May 21, 2004
11AM to 1PM Registration
1:30PM to 4:30 PM Session I
5PM to 6:30PM Dinner
7PM to 9PM Social Hour
Saturday, May 22, 2004
9:30AM to 12M Session II
1:30PM to 5PM Tour
7PM to 9PM Session III
Sunday, May 23, 2004
9:30AM to 12M Session IV
Northern New Mexico Community College has dorm rooms, suites, and a cafeteria available at very reasonable prices. Contact Donald Martinez for reservations or local hotel/motel contacts at 505-581-4120 or donmart@mail.nnmcc.edu
The Conference registration cost is $30 for Association members and $45 for non-members. Charles Knight is the Conference Registrar at 505-581-0159 or mailto:cdkni@zianet.com
Contact Quentin Wilson, Conference Coordinator for other questions at 505-581-4156 or qwilson@mail.nnmcc.edu
Auroville Building Center
The Auroville Earth Institute (AEI) was founded by the Government of India in 1989. The AEI aims to research, develop, promote and transfer earth-based technologies, which are cost and energy effective. These technologies are disseminated through training courses, seminars, workshops, publications and consultancy within and outside India. The main expertise is with Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (CSEB), but they also promote manual rammed earth and other earth based technologies
18th April: International Day for Monuments and Sites 2004: Earthen architecture and heritage
The International Day for Monuments and Sites was created on 18th April 1982 by ICOMOS and approved by the UNESCO General Conference. This special day offers an opportunity to raise the public’s awareness about the diversity of cultural heritage and the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as draw attention to its vulnerability.
Mud brick, rammed earth or other systems, one of the simplest material – earth – coupled with the skills of hands and minds, has produced an immense diversity of buildings, settlements or landscapes that constitutes a major but unknown part of our cultural heritage, to be found almost everywhere.
Getty Center Conservation Newsletter on Earthen Architecture
From the Getty Center Conservation Newsletter Volume 16, Number 1 – Spring 2001
The Conservation of Earthen Architecture by Alejandro Alva Balderrama
Conservation and Continuity of Tradition: A Discussion about Earthen Architecture with Anthony Crosby, Hugo Houben, John Hurd, Neville Agnew, Erica Avrami
Project Terra by Erica Avrami
Joya de Cerén: Conservation and Management Planning for an Earthen Archaeological Site by Carolina Castellanos, Françoise Descamps, and María Isaura Aráuz
Earthen Refrigeration
In a region where electricity is nonexistent and traditional clay pots are being replaced by aluminum and plastic containers, Mohammed Bah Abba has invented a clay pot in pot refrigeration system that, through evaporative cooling, dramatically extends the shelf-life of food.
Earth Build 2005 Call For Papers
The Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology, Sydney extends an invitation to all researchers/practitioners involved in earth building to submit papers for the EarthBuild 2005 conference. The conference will be held at the university campus on 19th and 20th of January 2005, with site visits planned for the 21st of January.
Those wishing to present a paper at the conference should submit an abstract of not more than 500 words with title and name of the author. Separately please provide us with your name and full contact details (address, organization, tel/fax, email etc.) as well as a short description of your involvement with earth building.
Contributions for a 20-minute oral presentation at the conference will be selected on the basis of the abstracts submitted. It is intended that refereed and non-refereed papers be presented at the conference and all contributions will be published in the conference proceedings.
The conference language will be English.
Closing date for submissions of abstracts for papers is 1st July 2004.
Abstracts and enquiries should be emailed to g.moor@uts.edu.au
Conference information will be regularly updated on the Earth Building Research Forum web page.
For more information contact:
Dr. Kevan Heathcote and Gregory Moor
Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
University of Technology, Sydney
702-730 Harris Street, Ultimo
PO Box 123, Broadway 2007
tel. 61 2 95148837
fax. 61 2 95148828
Call for Papers and Conference Announcement
The Second Annual Conference of the Adobe Association of the Southwest will take place May 21, 22 and 23 in El Rito, New Mexico on the campus of Northern New Mexico Community College.
Call for Papers Schedule:
One page (maximum) abstract due March 23, 2004
Notification of acceptance March 31, 2004
Full paper (5-page maximum) due April 23, 2004 for conference prepublication.
Presenters will have 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes to answer questions. Time limits will be carefully monitored.
The host institution can accomodate 2×2 slides in Carousels or Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations.
Topics of special interest are:
Affordable adobe construction
Thermal properties of earthen materials
Historical buildings of note in the United States
Historical builders of note in the United States
Historical architects/designers of note
Historical developers/planners of note
New projects
Adobe education
Manufacture and supply of construction materials
Conference Schedule:
Friday, May 21, 2004
11AM to 1PM Registration
1:30PM to 4:30 PM Session I
5PM to 6:30PM Dinner
7PM to 9PM Social Hour
Saturday, May 22, 2004
9:30AM to 12M Session II
1:30PM to 5PM Tour
7PM to 9PM Session III
Sunday, May 23, 2004
9:30AM to 12M Session IV
Northern New Mexico Community College has dorm rooms, suites, and a cafeteria available at very reasonable prices. Contact Donald Martinez for reservations at 505-581-4120 or donmart@mail.nnmcc.edu
The Conference registration cost is $30 for Association members and $45 for non-members. For more information contact Quentin Wilson at 505-581-4156 or qwilson@mail.nnmcc.edu
The Building Bookshop
The Earth Building section of the The Building Bookshop Architecture Bookstore has several interesting titles.