Our common principals

The Learn BIØN – A Handbook Guide for Hands-On Learning from the Building Impact Zero Network was made during our first Erasmus+ project LearnBIØN.

Here we collectively wrote down the common ground for the network, our principals. Our aim is to share knowledge, practices and experiences, in order to contribute to the built environment and to our communities.

Another week has passed at the Design and Build with CEB course in Portugal. It was the time to take out the foundation’s formwork and see the result of the previous week of work. It seamed like a desirable pool, that was quickly filled with gravel. A layer of juta fabric and a regularization bastard mortar (cement and lime) helped prepare the surface for the upcoming masonry.

For the project that we are planning to build in July, with the participants at LearnBIØN Workshop#2 Build and Design with wattle-and-daub and light straw and the local community of Casaprota, we still need some canes.

On Sunday 14th of May, we would like to invite you everybody to a study and work day in the middle of the Sabina hills. The one day seminar includes hands-on activity and a short theoretic introduction on building with canes.

The LearnBIØN project entered in its active phase with the first Build and Design Workshop on its run in Portugal. Under the coordination of Oficinas do Convento, the whole network-team gathered in Montemor-o-Novo for three days to share experiences on technical and logistical aspects related to our training project, to organise the upcoming workshops and to develop future perspectives on our way of understanding sustainable architecture.

The first week of Design and Build with CEB workshop in Portugal has passed with the achieved goal: the foundation is finished!

19 participants from 7 different countries engaged in the challenge of building a prototype that can host 2 residents/volunteers in our Oficinas da Cerâmica e da Terra.

On Thursday, 13th of April, LearnBIØN Workshop #2 (Build and Design with wattle-and-daub and light straw) has officially been lanced in Casaprota, central Italy. AK0-chairman Arch. Stefan Pollak met Marcello Ratini, mayor of Casaprota and Arch. Renato Vivaldi Tesser, chairman of SabinArti, the local partner organisation, for the project start.

Another week has passed at the Design and Build with CEB course in Portugal. It was the time to take out the foundation’s formwork and see the result of the previous week of work. It seamed like a desirable pool, that was quickly filled with gravel. A layer of juta fabric and a regularization bastard mortar (cement and lime) helped prepare the surface for the upcoming masonry. Studying the masonry bound-pattern according to the building new dimensions was the next step.

Saturday 18th of February the AK0-team together with a group of volunteers have started to harvest the canes needed for the raw-earth walls they are planning to build in next July. The canes have been sourced on a private estate in the hilly Sabina region, 60km north-east from Rome and only some hundred metres from the future building site in the town of Casaprota that will host the workshop.

Here, in Montemor-o-Novo, it was an intense weekend. We received our 3 volunteers to start producing Compressed Earth Blocks stabilized or not, with different mixes. We worked with 7 different recipes, mixing clay, small stones, Natural Hydraulic Lime, ashes and cement.

We start in Montemor-o-Novo in Portugal with our first 4 week workshop, running from 20th april- 20th may. The course teach how to design and build with Compressed Earth Bricks. A great oppertunity to learn from professionals in vernacular building techniques. Join Oficinas do Convento in this great spatial exploration in a practical build workshop.

We crossed the city to go from Uccle to Laeken on Thursday (Dec.8, 2016) to meet Matthieu Lietaert, a political science researcher and filmmaker, and one of the brains behind the cohousing project L’Échappée. Matthieu lets us in and we sit at his living room to learn about the long process that made this utopia possible.

Our whole team gathered in Brussels for our first training course. HE2B had prepared an interesting program for us, including both group discussions and site visits with a chance to engage with different stakeholders.

We started our first meetings in Brussels on the 22nd-25th may, the first meeting where all partners gather and finally meet. We thank François and HEB who has prepared our visit and the program.

We discussed the project, the overall objectives, the budget and documentation.

We are glad to announce that BIØN has been approved in the Erasmus+ Programme, and we can finally start this promising project.

BIØN is a network of partners active in low impact building techniques. Our aim is to share knowledge, practices and experiences, in order to contribute to the built environment and to our communities.