This workshop demonstrates the versatility of spray machines and the range of possibilities for clay/fibre spray applied coatings and monolithic walls. It also demonstrates the possibilities for insulating light-earth blocks and load bearing earth blocks for use in mainstream construction. 

Will Stanwix is a natural building enthusiast. Will has worked in the construction industry as surveyor, contractor and project manager. He is most well known for starting the Hempcrete building company; Hemp-LimeConstruct (now UK Hempcrete) and co-authoring 'The Hempcrete Book’. Will has now taken a break from contracting and joined HG Matthews to look at ways to develop clay, straw and hemp based materials for the more mainstream building industry in the form of un-fired blocks. Will is working with Grahame Durrant of Hemp-lime Spray to explore the potential for spray applied coatings composed of clay and natural fibre.

'Earth and earth-lime mortars were the common mortar of masonry construction across the UK, Ireland, Europe and the Americas until the end of the 18thC, in association with hot mixed lime pointing and finish coat or render mortars. This course will look at historic precedent and numerous examples of this widespread pattern of construction and will discuss its demand for compatible repair and conservation and explore the materials and methods necessary to achieve this'.

Starting out as a dry-stone waller in Cornwall, Nigel trained after 1989 as stonemason and carver, working largely in conservation across the south of England, and in Vermont, USA, as well as in Granada, Andalusia. Nigel was consultant stonemason for the Irish Hunger Memorial project in Battery Park City, New York, 2001. Since 2001, Nigel has worked extensively as consultant and practitioner in the field of building conservation and repair in North Yorkshire upon a wide range of vernacular and high status buildings, as building conservation consultant for the Fitzwilliam Estate in Malton, designing, specifying and executing major repair projects to a wide range of historic buildings within the town, as well as researching,

This forsaken device, an ingenious hybrid of mud oven and Roman hypocaust, comes to you from the Spanish castellan steppe to warm up your shared tasteful dinners using only mud and straw, as it was for centuries in its tree-free birth land. Stepped into in: that’s what ESTEPA Association did a decade ago, developing this model we are spreading around in three continents. Permanent equipment in public areas, community centres and schools, it stands in rural and urban Europe, Latin America and Africa, witnessing new applications and swallowing unexpected fuels.

We hope this itinerant workshop will combine intercultural sharing, technical training and building of public equipment. Languages (EN-FR-ES), ages and professions are mixed and trainees are encouraged to skip the script in a twin track participative learning. In plus, bringing this oven to life develop many earth building skills in a short time by using different techniques –adobe and rammed earth in this case. And then many hours of cooking remain ahead… So come and join us!

Mud and Stud, a vernacular form of wattle and daub, comprises a mixture of earth, clay, straw and water being in-filled within a lightweight timber frame with laths and traditionally having a thatched roof. It is peculiar to Lincolnshire, and versions of it can be found all round the world. Such buildings have links to Tennyson through the village of Somersby in the Lincolnshire Wolds, and Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

Trevor Oliver and Rob Ley will be leading a hands-on workshop which can be joined for either one or more days over a four-day period, building a sizeable scaled down model of a Mud and Stud structure. A brick plinth will have a pre-fabricated timber frame with openings and pre-fabricated roof. They will introduce the basics of Mud and Stud, the concept and tradition of the building form. Rob will show and demonstrate the elements and methods that make and form the timber framing with vertical riven ash laths and together with Trevor will lead into the earth with clay material selection, mixing with straw, sand and water and application within the timber framing to the laths using the ‘daubing’ technique. Attention will be paid to the treatment and technical detailing with junction of the ‘earth material mix’ with other materials such as the plinth and openings.

Light earth: an amazing building material, but completely unknown. Today the renewable surplus of wood has led to the Renaissance of wood-frame construction, and we can go back again to the old tradition of the earth formwork in the modern form of wooden skeleton and frame construction. The big advantage compared with load-bearing construction methods: earthen construction works can be built under the weatherproof protection of the roof. Earth is adaptable and is the ideal partner for wood because of its drainage qualities. With thermal-insulating light earth, all structural elements – exterior and interior walls, ceilings and roof – can be filled in in a non-load bearing way. The desired thermal insulation or heat storage are controlled through the proportion of earth and straw mixed together. Uncomplicated production with simple hand tools or machine support promised a quick and cost-effective implementation, even in professional applications.

Franz Volhard (born in 1948 in Frankfurt/Main) is a partner of Schauer + Volhard architects (BDA) in Darmstadt. Since 1980, he has designed and built numerous light earth projects, many of which have won architecture prizes and awards. His  

Are modern low carbon buildings detrimental to our health? Modern buildings have been developed to be very airtight, improving their energy efficiency and reducing their carbon footprint. However, these sealed environments have created unexpected side effects, with research showing that a build-up of potentially harmful chemicals in the air is potentially causing negative impacts on occupants.

Dan will present the findings of a European Union project titled ECO-SEE which has used clay plasters to regulate the indoor environment quality. The project has been running for 3.5 years and brought together 18 partners from across Europe. His research bridges the quantitative measurements behind the qualitative experience of living within an earthen home.

Louise will explore the relationship of The Centre of Alternative technology (CAT) and Earth. She will show how CAT allows future professionals in building, policy and sustainability to fully appreciate the credentials of materials. She will explain how critical thinking and practical exploration are key to fighting green wash and understanding carbon footprint whilst increasing breathability and health within the built environment. She will give a brief outline of how CAT keep students excited about sustainability after they leave CAT and show some data on the influence CAT alumni have in taking natural materials into the main stream.

Louise is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Alternative Technology’s Graduate School of the Environment. She focusses on adaptation planning, water security and practical sustainable building. She is especially interested in ‘normalising’ low carbon materials and debunking greenwash.

Maria will talk about her research survey on the remained earth buildings, or places where the element earth as a construction material was crucial and widely used in Scotland’s past. One of the main resources for documentary evidence for her research is the extensive inherited collection of Bruce Walker by historic environment Scotland, as Bruce’s main field of research for many years had been vernacular buildings and clay traditional uses in construction mainly in Scotland. She will give us an overview of the content of his archive.

Maria is a Spanish trained Building Engineer. Her early career specialised in earth materials and intervention in disasters,  researching at Civil Engineering School in Portugalon, analysing the mechanical properties of adobe bricks during earthquakes. At Edinburgh in 2013 for a Beng (HONS) Energy and Environmental Engineering focusing on energy efficiency, thermal mass and solar space heating for new design as well as old/historic buildings. After completing her MSc Architectural Conservation at Edinburgh University in 2016, she works for Historic Environment Scotland on Documentation and Analysis of the history and use of Earth Materials in Scotland. She is passionate about heritage and its conservation, earth materials, energy efficiency and sustainable design.

Rowland will show how marketing can be done easily and cheaply by earth builders, changing market perceptions and personal practice.

More details to follow

A number of groups of architecture students from Lincoln University worked on its construction, part of the reasoning behind this was to help enable them to understand the transition from the drawing board to the actual construction process. During construction varies methods of applying earth to the walls were tested, results show that it may be possible to speed up the build process and thermal properties by introducing clay fired balls, hemp or other materials into the mix. More tests are planned in the near future. Once the building has dried sufficiently it will be tested for u/values and hygrothermal performance. This building is important in that it will help to provide evidence for the use of earth as a viable construction material for our future.

The tour will be conducted by Trevor Oliver who led the construction work.

Partners

EBUKI are partnering with three local organisations to make Clayfest as successful as it can be, they are:

Heritage Skills Centre Lincoln, the location for Clayfest in their bespoke facility and on the area around it. This is the first Clayfest to be hosted in an urban environment, we're looking forward to it!

Hill Holt Wood are a very successful organisation in working with young people and bringing them into the world of work and jobs. Through their Growing Up Green program they are able to bring young people to workshops and make sure they get the most out of them.

East Midlands Earth Structures Society are a regional earth building group founded by the visionary Rodney Cousins and currently steered by Trevor Oliver who not only supports us with local knowledge and contacts, he is running a mud and stud workshop too...

BOOKING IS THROUGH OUR PARTNERS THE HERITAGE SKILLS CENTRE, PLEASE CLICK HERE