This workshop offers the unique opportunity to build a rammed earth fire-place for Boisbuchet.

In 2016, Alvaro Siza and his workshop developed two bonfire-places: The “rural” one at the lake-side had been realized in stone and wood while the second one, close to Boisbchet’s historical buildings, remained unfinished; it was originally intended to be built with bricks.

Supported by Alvaro Siza and his partnering architect Carlos Castanheira, our workshop’s mission is now to translate the design into a new material technique! "Rammed earth" is an ancient technique, where soil is compacted layer by layer in a formwork creating load bearing walls. Thanks to its unique ecological benefits and aesthetic potential, it is today one of the most promising techniques for sustainable architecture.

Participants of this workshop will be learning by doing, so do take into account that your clothes and hands will get dirty! But it is also an ideal occasion to team-work with hands, machines and tools in order to literally "emerge from the ground" a free standing structure that gathers future generations of Boisbuchet’s visitors.