Workshop on ‘earth construction’

This spring, come and discover solid earth construction through a workshop dedicated to rammed earth and cob techniques.

These two monolithic techniques are ideal for creating load-bearing walls without a timber frame, solar-collecting walls and genuine natural regulators of indoor humidity. Environmentally friendly, requiring no energy-intensive or polluting firing processes or chemical additives, and using only local natural materials (and a bit of elbow grease), they are also infinitely recyclable!

But is the soil of the Boulogne countryside (and more generally of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region) suited to these techniques? Why is our local built heritage mostly constructed using cob rather than rammed earth? What links are there with the geology and climate? Is it enough simply to add aggregates and fibres for the ‘recipe’ to work and for the construction to be durable?

On the programme: two days of free workshops to explore these techniques and their links with the soils and heritage of the Nord–Pas-de-Calais region:

Friday 24th April
(For an informed audience, primarily professionals or enthusiasts)
Characterisation and suitability tests on several local soils
+ Production of cob and rammed earth prototypes using local earth and aggregates/fibres
Led by two architects from DSA terre crue: Pamela Cumbal and Luis Alarcon

Saturday 25th April
(Open to beginners and the general public)
Community-led workshop to build a formwork-encased cob collector wall (for a walipini greenhouse)
Led by François Streiff, consultant architect at the Cotentin Bessin Regional Nature Park (project lead for the European CobBauge project)

Meet in the garden of the La Chevêche eco-gîte in Saint-Martin-Choquel (62), where Philippe Longavesne will welcome you.

Photo credits: @ARPE Normandy, @Pamela CUMBAL, @PNRCMO