Living in Earthen Cities – kerpic’05 Cities Conference

The “Living in Earthen Cities – kerpic’05” congress is to be held at Istanbul Technical University , July 6-7 in Istanbul, Turkey. The focus of the congresses has evolved from quality of life in earthen architecture, environmental and health care, towards disaster prevention. The congress organizers hope that it will bring together the related disciplines of architects and engineers, on material, construction, marketing and environmental science, to create database, technology watch and strategy. The workshop will cover the entire construction activities of alker (gypsum stabilized earthen material), where all the participants can take part. Social and cultural program will offer interesting historical tour; distinguished dinner will welcome you on Bosphorus. Visit the Congress Website

Adobe Alliance Workshop

The Adobe Alliance is pleased to announce the 7th annual workshop in Presidio, TX. Vault building and earth plastering will be featured during the workshop which takes place February 18-20, 2005. Demonstrations on applying a water-resistant exterior plaster of clay, straw, cactus juice and horse manure which breathes with the environment, which has withstood superbly in the unseasonally heavy rains of summer 2004 in the Big Bend.

Lodgings are easily booked at The Riata (432 229 2528) in Presidio, the Three Palms (432 229 3211,) or you can explore across the bridge a few minutes into Ojinaga, Mexico, a city of 25,000 people. The Paisano Hotel in Marfa is 60 miles to the north. There are many restaurants on both sides of the river.

For more information contact the Adobe Alliance.

Modern Earth Building 2005

The MODERN EARTH BUILDING 2005 – International conference and fair will be held on the 18th to 20th of November 2005 in Berlin. Again visitors learn about new developments in earthen architecture. The business field of earth building products is increasing in the last years and new technological developments can be presented. The aim of the conference is to enhance the earthen architecture and culture.

Contact and information:
Umbra GmbH
Peter Steingass
Rigaer Stra?e 29 A, 10247 Berlin
Telefon: ++49-30 / 61 62 55 48
Telefax: ++49-30 / 61 62 55 49
info@lehmbauforum.com
www.lehmbauforum.com

Conference on Rammed Earth Construction

To coincide with launch of the new publication Rammed earth: design &
construction guidelines, a one-day conference on rammed earth construction
is to be held on Wednesday 9th February 2005 in the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering at the University of Bath.

The conference will examine historic and modern use of rammed earth in the
UK and Europe, practical issues of construction applications, material
testing and selection, formwork and construction, engineering design,
architectural design and detailing, maintenance and repair of walls. The
workshop is open to architects, engineers, designers, building surveyors,
construction companies, property developers, researchers and interested
individuals.

Issues for discussion will include thermal performance, durability, material
strength, cement stabilisation, building control, quality testing and wall
finishes. Case studies from recent rammed earth projects in the UK and
Europe will be presented. Findings from recent research work will also be
outlined. The workshop will also include an exhibition and practical
demonstration of rammed earth construction.

Rammed earth: design & construction guidelines is the result of a DTi
sponsored research and innovation programme investigating the potential of
rammed earth for new construction.

Conference speakers include:

Martin Rauch, Baukunst GmbH
Lars Allan Palmgren, Architect
Rowland Keable, Insitu Rammed Earth Co. Ltd
Pat Borer, Architect
Gordon Pearson
Tom Morton, ARC Architects
Andy Simmonds, Simmonds-Mills Architect Builders
Mark Lovell, Mark Lovell Design Engineers
Jonathan Hines, Architype
Mark Swenarton, Architecture Today
Peter Trotman, BRE
Paul Ellis, Ecology Building Society
Joe Martin, JM Architects
Steve Goodhew, University of Plymouth
Peter Walker, University of Bath

To reserve a place please: email P.Walker@bath.ac.uk, telephone 01225
386646, or fax 01225 386691. Alternatively send your name and contact
details to Peter Walker, Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering,
University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK. Download the conference brief in .pdf format.

Preliminary programme:

Registration 8.30 AM
Opening presentations (Introduction; Historical bakcground; Applications;
Materials): 9.00-10.45 AM
Coffee break: 10.45-11.15 AM
Presentations (Construction; Design; Maintenance & Repair): 11.15 AM – 12.45
PM
Lunch: 12.45-2.00 PM
Presentations (Case studies I): 2.00-3.20 PM
Coffee break: 3.20-3.45 PM
Closing presentations (Case studies II; Research work) and discussion:
3.45-5.00 PM

Full day registration fee: £105.00
Concessionary registration fee: £80.00 (AECB members; full-time students)
Morning or afternoon half-day fee (without lunch): £65.00 (£50.00 conc.)
Registration includes a copy of the Rammed earth: design & construction
guidelines.

SismoAdobe2005

The Department of Engineering of the Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) is organizing an International Seminar of Architecture, Construction and Conservation of Earthen Buildings in Seismic Areas. The seminar is sponsored by Proterra (a Research Project of CYTED), the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI).

This event will take place on the PUCP campus, from 16-19 May 2005. It will include keynote conferences from international experts, oral and poster presentations, and technical demonstrations at the Structures Laboratory of the PUCP, where full-scale seismic simulation tests of adobe dwellings will be performed.

You are welcome to visit the website of SismoAdobe2005 at www.pucp.edu.pe/eventos/SismoAdobe2005 for more information.

Design + Build in Marfa, Texas

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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

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

[via] Earth Building Research Forum

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