Design and Build with Compressed Earth Blocks
20th April – 21st May 2017
Design and Build with Compressed Earth Blocks, a 4 week building course, in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal.
During the workshop we built a prototype for artists in residence at Oficinas da Cerâmica e da Terra, a research department from Oficinas do Convento ONG.
Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) are made from a mix of raw earth. The development of this masonry material took place through the inspiration on rammed earth materials and raw earth bricks, the adobes. CEB meets contemporary needs and standards. These are regular shaped prefabricated bricks, produced with local soil, which behave as a regular fired brick in a building site context but with all the advantages of raw earth material.
The workshop was a four-week training. A balance between theory and practice approached in detail the material and the masonry techniques to build with CEB.
The Design
The building consists of two rooms for 2 to 4 people in total, and the entrance will function as storage area for clothes and luggage, with a small sink. The building is situated at the Ceramic workshop, one minute walk from the Earth Laboratory and the Brick workshop.
“I think that it was perfect so my answer is everything but I liked in particular the building site experience. I understood really how I could make mortar or concrete or make the foundation or in general how I can build with bricks using bubble level and other stuff.”
— Participant in workshop
The Material
Compressed Earth Block CEB
Compressed Earth Blocks are contemporary descendants of both the molded earth block (adobe) and rammed earth, techniques so common in Portugal until the mid 90’s. The soil, raw or stabilized, is slightly moistened, poured into a steel press, and then compressed either with a manual or motorized press. The bricks are then stored and dried before used as as masonry blocks.
Workshop Resources
Poster
Project poster
Design and Build with Compressed Earth Blocks
Read and download the documentation
News from the workshop
Oficinas do Convento – Associação de Arte e Comunicação (OC) non-profit NGO for Culture, Art and Communication, based in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal, since 1996.
It is a NGO for Development since 2009 and a UNESCO Center since 2010. Develops its artistic activity essentially in the Visual and Sound Arts, Design and Heritage, through artistic promotion, training, production and dissemination.
Montemor-o-Novo is a small town in Alentejo, a low developed region, with low population density and aged population. Low development of the region has as result a high unemployment rate, especially in the young population, which translates into the arising of a local NEET (young person not in education, employment, or training) community.
Oficinas do Convento
Tânia Teixeira, Project Coordinator, Management and Research
taniadpteixeira@gmail.com
Team
Oficinas do Convento
Tania
Nuno
Marta
Nélia
Tiago
João
Participants Partner Mobility
Aaron | AES
Alessandra | CV
Giada | Ak0
Juan | DT
Sonia | Arco
Participants Volunteers
André
Cristina
Greta
João
Pedro
Participants Regular
Elena
Joana
Julia
Marco
Nikos
Rodrigo
Serena
Silvia
Tiago