Friday, July 11, 2008

Architecture of Lazarc, France





templars.wordpress.com/2007/05/


findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041128/ai_n12763431/pg_2

A Nice House ~ from José Bové, Larzac France



http://josebove.over-blog.com/article-3736814.html


La maison new age de José Bové
par Raphaëlle Bacqué

Le permis de construire n'a pas été facile à obtenir. La première lettre de l'architecte-conseil de la direction de l'équipement a même franchement jeté un froid : "Votre projet ne s'inscrit pas dans l'architecture vernaculaire du Larzac." Il fallait presque tout modifier. (more)

BabelFish (rough) translation:

The house new old of Jose Bove The house new old of Jose Bove by Raphaëlle Bacqué. The permit building was not easy to obtain. The first letter from the consulting architect of the direction of l' equipment even frankly threw a cold: "Your registered project is not in the vernacular architecture of Larzac." It was necessary almost all to modify.
---
Rec'd from my email friend Cat in France, who writes "A Nice House:
2008/July/9 learned luddite http://josebove.over-blog.com/article-3736814.html
---
For more on Larzac, France: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041128/ai_n12763431/pg_2

Architecture special: Brilliance on the edge of town
Independent on Sunday, The, Nov 28, 2004

Stretching away to the east is the great wilderness of the Larzac moors, home to ancient fortified farms and villages of the Knights Templar - La Couvertoirade, Sainte Eulalie de Cernon - and the great military training ground of the Larzac (occasionally a tank or truck crawls across the horizon). It was here, 30 years ago, that the first French rock festival, the Aveyron's Woodstock, marked the birth of the protest movement which defeated the army's plan to extend the Larzac base. A year ago, a similar festival reunited 100,000 followers of Bove to the sounds of a raft of like-minded entertainers, from Manu Chao to the Asian Dub Foundation.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Design Like You Give a Damn


Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises
by Architecture for Humanity (Author), Kate Stohr (Editor), Cameron Sinclair (Editor)

"Heavy on context and images, light on celebrity names, Design Like You Give a Damn is a bracing reminder that there's more to architecture than museums and posh private homes. Instead, the founders of the group Architecture for Humanity round up 77 nimble solutions to real-life problems: There are fiberglass domes for the homeless of Los Angeles, a schoolhouse in Burkina Faso with an arced steel roof that insulates the clay brick classrooms below -- even a water pump in South Africa that is powered by children playing on a merry-go-round. Truly inspirational. (San Francisco Chronicle 20060716)"
---
...a 336-page love letter to architects worldwide who provide pro-bono design services to communities that have survived war, government oppression and natural disasters. It's also an antidote to apathy. (Leilani Labong 7X7 Magazine )

Product Description
The greatest humanitarian challenge we face today is that of providing shelter. Currently one in seven people lives in a slum or refugee camp, and more than 3,000,000,000 people--nearly half the world's population--do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation. The physical design of our homes, neighborhoods and communities shapes every aspect of our lives. Yet too often architects are desperately needed in the places where they can least be afforded.Edited by Architecture for Humanity and now on its third printing, Design Like You Give a Damn is a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives. The first book to bring the best of humanitarian architecture and design to the printed page, Design Like You Give a Damn offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design, and showcases more than 80 contemporary solutions to such urgent needs as basic shelter, healthcare, education and access to clean water, energy and sanitation.Design Like You Give a Damn is an indispensable resource for designers and humanitarian organizations charged with rebuilding after disaster and engaged in the search for sustainable development. It is also a call to action to anyone committed to building a better world. (20061116)

Note: This one I have to buy. Right away.

Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency


by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean (Author), Timothy http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifHursley (Author) "THE ELDERLY SHEPARD BRYANT makes do by fishing, hunting, and growing vegetables..." (more)
Key Phrases: cardboard bales, goat house, thesis students, Rural Studio, Hale County, Mason's Bend (more...)

CT note: This one sounds great... I've read about Mockbee before. He sounds like a very good man, could have been a priest from the sound of it. Or a saint.

Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities


Have you seen their book?
basicinitiative.org/Resources/Book.htm and on Amazon.com

"Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities"
documents the international and regional community studios organized by Sergio Palleroni, Steve Badanes, and David Riley, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability. These pioneering design/build programs have uniquely combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems--one building at a time.

Authors: Sergio Palleroni with Christina Merkelbach
Foreward: Bryan Bell
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: October 2004
ISBN: 0295984325 (paperback, 191 pages)
---
Amazon Editorial Reviews
Book Description
For more than a decade, architects and students from the University of Washington have been working with squatter communities in Mexico, migrant laborers in eastern Washington, and Indian reservations of the inland West as well as communities in Cuba, India, and Africa to provide housing, schools, clinics, and other vital structures. Led by Sergio Palleroni, Steve Badanes, and David Riley, these pioneering design/build programs have combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems one building at a time.

Studio at Large documents the international and regional community studios organized by Sergio Palleroni and his colleagues, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability.

Sergio Palleroni is visiting associate professor at the School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin, and the founding director of the University of Washington BASIC Initiative. Christina Merkelbach is a designer and former design/build student. Bryan Bell is a founder of Design Corps and editor of Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture.

Humanitecture.com

Re: Sergio Palleroni & Sustainable Building Practices, National Design Award 2005, Inhabit

from Catherine Todd
to "Dijana, Matt, Jeremy Capone"
date Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM
subject Sergio Palleroni & Sustainable Building Practices, National Design Award 2005, Inhabit
Humanitecture.com

Dear Dijana & Matt (?),
Great meeting with you recently; looking forward to your return! As you know, I'm leaving July 29 for August and Sept. to NC in the states, and you all are welcome to use my apartment while I'm gone if you want. I can leave keys for you at the Hotel Kitchequel (sp?) next door. Just let me know before I go.
In the meantime, here's a great article I had stored from awhile back. I had wanted to go to Austin and study under him, and actually went down there, but cedar fever did me in. Now, as you know, I'd like to do some of this work here at Lake Atitlan. I met with Susana from PuraVidaAtitlan.org last week and she will have 2,400 stuffed mini-ecodrillos ready by Nov. for me to start building one of their small houses. Plus I'd like to do a wall and a "dry" outdoor toilet. I assume you saw their model in San Marcos... sounds good! What do you think about these techniques? We actually never talked about that. Hope you can be around for some or all of this... Until later, I remain

Your friend "in art and architecture," Catherine Todd, new cell 502.4198.7184

www.inhabitat.com/2005/10/25/sergio-palleroni/

SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, UT Austin


Coming to Guatemala? [SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, UT Austin
1 message
Catherine Todd Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 8:06 PM
To: palleroni@mail.utexas.edu
Re: BaSIC Initiative.org ~ classes, workshop info?
SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices,
University of Texas at Austin

Dear Professor Sergio,

Thanks for the friend add on FaceBook! I had to look you up in email (FaceBook copied all my contacts and put them here!) What a surprise... I was so pleased to find that I had written to you and commented about your excellent program in sustainable building practices.

I had hoped to come to Austin and take some courses, but cedar fever "did me in." So I'm down here in Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, getting ready to build some sustainable buildings using different techniques, one of which may be the PuraVidaAtitlan.org project techniques of stuffed, recycled plastic water bottles... it's really pretty incredible. I have four very nice, small building lots across the road from Calle Santa Catarina on the edge of Jucanya, Panajachel, with a lake view just a little ways up the road.

They are small but perfect lots for sustainable building practices, and since I've not started any more building projects in the states due to the downturn in the U.S. housing market, it's a perfect time to start using some of the ecologically sound techniques I have been dreaming about for years. It's good to be able to do things with a variety of materials that are readily available and using local hand labor to make something for oneself and the community, with no Lowe's credit card in sight!

I'd like to plan this small project (4 to 6 houses and community building) in the best way possible, so hope you may have something on your website, or pointers for the right direction...

I am also hoping you are at some point heading this way! Lots of humanitarian groups doing good work around here. Would love to see your group here if you haven't already come...

I have pasted an article about your program and the award it won below from inhabit.com: "SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, University of Texas at Austin." It's great to get recognition that is so richly deserved, for building practices and design that is so necessary to us all.

I'll be back to NC in August and visiting San Antonio in Aug. or Sept. Perhaps there is something going on around sustainable building practices nearby or in Austin?

Yours, in art and architecture, Catherine Todd

Oxford NC and Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

-
Catherine Todd
3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565
H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727,
Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.4198.7184 (new 6-08)

For 2008:

"The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails."
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ~ Gospel of Ramakrishna

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
— R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path*

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner

---
http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/10/25/sergio-palleroni/

Inhabit, October 25, 2005
SERGIO PALLERONI
by NK

Last Thursday, the National Design Awards were announced at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, honoring the best of American Design in ten broad categories including Architecture, Fashion, and Communication. While we applaud Patagonia, who won the Corporate Achievement Award for their environmental initiatives, we are particularly appreciative of the accolades for Sergio Palleroni, who won a Special Jury Commendation for his work at the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development. Palleroni runs design/build studios in disadvantaged communities worldwide, teaching participants how to best exploit locally available resources and to build long term, sustainable developments.

Professor Palleroni and the UT Sustainable Design and Development Workshop will be showcased next year as part of a 6-part series on PBS called "Architecture=e2," to be broadcast for Earth-Day. The segment, which will be entitled, "Design Like You Give a Damn," will center on Palleroni's work to provide assistance in areas hit by disaster, which seems particularly appropriate given recent global events. Currently, Palleroni is working with a student team to produce 19,000 homes for single mothers in rural Yaqui, Mexico.

+ National Design Awards, Sergio Palleroni
+ University of Texas School of Architecture eNews

Via The New York Times


---

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 6:05 PM, Catherine Todd wrote:

Green for All (podcast), introduction by Brad Pitt, class discussion with Sergio Palleroni re: Austin TX Hispanic district

Hosted at www.design-e2.com June 19, 2006 - 32 views
New PBS Series on Sustainable Design

http://www.design-e2.com/podcasts/Video/green_for_all.mov


Learn more about the inspirational architect Sergio Palleroni, who works with poor and underdeveloped communities around the world

More info from House & Garden, Feb 2007 article, pg. 34.

The University of Texas at Austin
Center for Sustainable Development, Building Sustainable Communities Initiative (BaSIC) founded in 1995; it takes students into marginalized areas (such as South Dakota)... (see article for rest).

http://www.basicinitiative.org/Contact.htm


file:///Users/Catherine/Desktop/Basic%20Initiative.org%20%20U%20of%20Tx%20at%20Austin/Green%20for%20All%20-%20podcast.Sergio%20Palleroni.html




On 1/19/07, catherinetodd < ctodd1000@gmail.com> wrote:


BaSIC Initiative.org
http://www.basicinitiative.org/Contact.htm

Contact

Sergio Palleroni
Visiting Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture
1 University Station B7500
Austin, TX 78712

Tel 512/471-7878
palleroni@mail.utexas.edu


Dear Professor Palleroni,

I am interesting in signing up or auditing one of your Sustainable building courses. I am in San Antonio and Austin for the next year or so, in between farm, landscape and home building projects in North Carolina and various endeavors in Guatemala.

I am very interested in the work you are doing, and have been licensed for over 20 years in landscape and outdoor construction, and real estate in North Carolina. I would like to learn more about "sustainable building" concepts which are critically important to our future, and then put these practices TO WORK here in the United States and Latin America, or wherever needed. For the lasts ten years I have worked with a Latin American crew in NC, speaking Spanish all day, so have sufficient rudimentary Guatemalan Spanish to "get the work done." Plus enough understanding to hold conversations regarding regulations, religion, spirituality, construction, agriculture, weather, tools, materials, plants, animals, with some art, music, newsworthy and family events.

Please let me know where I can find more information about calendar events, course dates, sign up, fees, auditing, workshops, etc. There is some information on your website, but I am not sure of what would pertain to a grown person like me or where to go to actually sign up. The regular "registrar's office" at the University of Texas? Any chance of being a part-time student or auditing a class?

I saw a notice about your program in the current issue of House & Garden magazine, Feb 2007, which I picked up at the airport on my way to San Antonio. Excellent!

Sincerely, Catherine Todd


Catherine S. Todd,
6754 Leaning Oak Rd. Oxford NC, 27565 and San Antonio Texas USA,
Tel's: NC 919-693-0853, U.S. cell 919-605-0727, GUA cell: dial from the U.S. 011-502-5382-4694, ctodd1000@gmail.com

*** Traveling:

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship." - Louisa May Alcott

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." -- Konrad von Gesner

Thursday, July 3, 2008

"Jewel Box Houses"

Dear Sara,

"Are you going to try the plastic bottle construction? "

Oh, yes, that's the whole point: to make at least ONE "ecological" recycled / solar / renewable / etc. etc. etc. BEAUTIFUL "jewel-box" house. I'll start with this one since it will cost the least, practically no money... a few thousand dollars, anyway ($5 - 10,000 tops?) and that fits my budget. The one good thing I can think of about being (almost) broke. No money to go to Lowe's (yes, they have one in Guatemala City along with Office Depot and more!) so this time around I will HAVE to figure out ways to "make do" in beautiful, ecological ways. People have been doing it for thousands of years, so I figure so can I. And there's lots of indigenous living almost exactly the way they have for those many long years, and they get along fine. So it seems... and they seem as much or even happier and content than I. So I am happy to give it a try.

What is a "jewel-box" house? You asked me that and I've been thinking about it ever since. It would have to be something of exceptional unexpected beauty, with a beautiful surprise inside!

Lots of polished dark, native woods mixed with lighter tones, lots of skylight areas, many built-ins and closet / storage areas half hidden from view, rich tapestries and glowing windows with clear and rippled glass, with stained glass arches over windows and doors... a thatched or tile roof with lots of shade and sunlight patio space, and everything built "just so." Even the furniture should come "made to measure" to fit the spaces just so. Then add the gorgeous colors of Latin America, the roses, golds, brick and blues... hand painted adobe tiles and adobe, bamboo, palm, flowering vines and scarlet bougainvillea blooming outdoors, keep a tree growing through a roof in the patio area, et voila: perhaps this fits the criteria for a "jewel box house do you think?

I'll send some photos of a beautiful little place I photographed when I went to San Marcos. It's a little cafe next to one of the many spiritual retreat / yoga centers you would love if you were here. Susana from Pura Vida uses it as her "outdoor office" so that is where we met. That pretty much is where I've taken this description from!

How are you doing? Your friend, Katie

PuraVidaAtitlan.org

I went with Rojelio by launch, and he and I met today with Susana Heisse and her two young assistants, from PuraVidaAtitlan.org across the lake in San Marcos. We went over all kinds of things to do with the Pura Vida recycled bottle/ building program and what I want to accomplish on my lots. I will start in November when she gets enough eco-blocks ready by the school children, and I will donate money to buy school books. What a great day.