The TerraPIA workshop with Alessandro Serra
An earth-building workshop — clay soils, straw reinforcement — testing the plaster for a future bread oven, followed by a public talk on architecture made from natural materials.
Part ofSocial Fabric 2023
An earth-building workshop in the house courtyard: about types of clay soil, about reinforcing with straw, and about techniques hundreds of years old. The tests had a very concrete purpose — choosing the right mix for the plaster of a bread oven to be built in a future residency.
On 8 September 2023 a public talk followed, on sustainable architecture made with natural materials. The conversation after the workshop started from a paradox: although Banat has an abundance of clay soils and the craft of building with earth has not been lost, such buildings are seen either as exotica or as a sign of poverty. The open question was how these techniques might be revived in a context where the construction-materials industry is everywhere and accreditation and insurance rules favour it.
Alessandro Serra is an architect specialising in earth construction, trained at CRAterre-ENSAG Grenoble and a member of the TERRAPia collective.