Post date: Aug 29, 2011 12:0:44 PM
Arcosanti | Jeff Buderer | 082911 - Two architects, Antonio Chelen from Chile and Flavio Borelli from Italy are working on a construction project that includes alternative building techniques in the Mindsgarden at Arcosanti.
A major foundation for these alternative building techniques was Antonio's stint at the Cal Earth Institute in Hesperia CA. Cal Earth features cutting edge designs using alternative building materials. Superadobe technique for example developed at Cal Earth uses the same woven plastic fabric that goes into making rice bags and then fills them with a mixture of cement and earth. This bags are then arranged in concentric rows that move inward to the center of the building as they go up towards the ceiling/roof line. So you end up making a coil that eventually becomes a building made of earth. Barbed wire is used as a binder to hold the layers of hardened mix together. Nader Khalili - the founder of Cal Earth - sought to show how low cost, low impact, labor intensive building technologies could be built for habitats virtually anywhere in the world. The potential for these green/alternative building technologies is particularly great for developing countries, especially in earthquake zones. Antonio recalled the story of how they built a test model to make sure the building was up to CA earthquake code and the machine they brought in could not take it down.
One of the benefits to Earth Building is that it involves the use of these local sourced and relatively easy to construct materials. This is definitely a technique to doing superadobe buildings like the ones you can see at Cal Earth. While at Arcosanti, Antonio has made it a goal to construct a project that expressed this alternative method of building. Flavio comes from a family in Naples, Italy that was in many ways self reliant and more linked to the nature and culture than many. His father always encouraged him to do something if he was wondering about it, encouraging a ethic of experimentation and not being afraid to get dirty in the soil.
Although the mix they used to bind the rock and wood together and build the footpath had some cement in it, it seemed quite inert and was friendly to the touch. The material because of its high clay content was quite pliable and so many things could be made out of this material like bricks and even sculptural elements which could be added later.
They see the process as a experiment in which new things can be tried and new experiences gained in combining natural materials in interesting and creative ways that inspire and get people to feel closer to nature and maybe even a deeper sense of themselves. The ideal in construction is when the act of building itself is also a way to get closer with the earth. I believe that the act of building something if carried out with a high level of creativity that is inspired by communion with nature, stimulates a certain outcome in the design process. This may be one reason why Soleri preferred and continues to prefer the "Bricolage" way of doing things.
Once you overcome that socially instilled stigma about getting dirty it can be a liberating experience to the get the mix on you and also to work the material with your hands and get on your feet and between your toes. I felt very comfortable getting it on my hands and the rest of my body. From the EdenSpace perspective, creating Sacred Spaces was what Soleri (whether he realized that or not) was doing when he created Arcosanti. And like these Flavio and Antonio, he often was not afraid to literally cast himself or use his body as the basis for the construction of the structure. I saw this expressed powerfully in a picture of him constructing the Soleri Amphitheatre in Santa Fe.
The act of being inspired by nature and then building something, is not an purely organic process - it is more than nature because we have added our intellect or consciousness to the process. This or something very similar, is Soleri's response, when people talk about his work as an "organic architect." Maybe the more correct way to explain it (esp what we see at Cosanti), is as a form of architectural design that is inspired by natural elements, processes and systems. Regardless, it was reassuring to be involved in this because, I could both see and participate in the building of something that is inspired by nature and linked to it - it was a form of healing therapy to me.
There are more pictures like the one below on my Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150348739661760.395995.702541759&l=8277689210&type=1