( Miquel Ramis)
VER
EN ESPAÑOL
The Balearic Islands are a world wide known major destination.
The combination of sandy beaches, sun, landscape, urban
architecture and an international airport and maritime
port strong contributors to their success. But success
has a cost, and the old ( nice, honest, frugal, sustainable)
was frequently substituted by the new ( not-that-nice,
speculative, short sighted, unsusainable). Our towns
and villages are a combination of old and restored classic
vernacular buildings, charming streets and houses
interspensed with the "modernity" eagerness in construction,
easy money and the use of portland cement. The results
are deceiving.
Deià is an example of a success in the critical
stage of a transition from an ancient, rural economy
to a contemporary urban settlement. The restrictive
conditions of the past ( basic and poor economy, hilly
little village at the end of a long winding road...)
conditioned the type of construction: stone houses and
drystone retaining walls, made from local materials
readily available: stone, soil, lime, clay, wood and
canes.
Despite being a seaside settlement, Deià was
unable to offer sandy beaches ( only a small pebble
beach) and that had apparently marked its destiny, but
suddenly a young Robert Graves chooses Deià to
live in 1921. Graves was followed by a small but continuous
stream of English and North Americans. These new visitors
began to
1) frequent Deià
2) buy or rent a house in the village of Deià
or nearby.
Those new villagers, who came seeking a simpler and
easy lifestyle helped to change the perception of the
locals about their own heritage: suddenly those old
stone houses were an object of desire and admiration.
That was powerful: Stone+simplicity was attractive.
Thus, Deià , Valldemosa and Fornalutx are the
only Balearic villages that banned any construction
or renovationl work with "modern" materials. Only stone
can be the final skin of a house. The result, a living
experiment that silently but stubbornly vindicates to
anybody interested that another
development model is possible: Villages can grow
and evolve without losing their essence, and this
can be an economical success too: thousands of
visitors come to visit them and therefore contribute
to mantain a local economy based on services.
The new neighbors receive visits from families and friends,
a percentage of whom, also end up renting or buying
houses nearby. Some world famous people have settled
in these local villages.
Why a clarly succesful model that is so obviously
clever and reconciles old and modern needs has
not been spread throughout the Baleares remains a mystery
for many of us. But the facts are there: it is now very
expensive to buy a house in Deià, the decision
of compulsory stone building has raised the price of
real state and the assurance of maintaining the local
style continues to attract more and more newcomers sensible
to the rustic, honest textures of stone.
Some time ago, I was asked to explain to a Major of
another town what is the annual drystone Deià
Workshop the success of the workshop, and how people
from abroad were ready to invest time and money to learn
an old craft while contributing to a local council restoration
project. The Mayor, readily suggested "Well, let's do
the next one at our village!" The answer was that only
stone will attract stone lovers: the attendees of the
drystone workshops will come to Deià because
here we have a living, successfull example of preservation.
So, here we are again, a bunch of stonewallers
and stonewallers-to-be eager to learn the secrets
of mallorcan drystone, a distinct and proven style
of building walls without mortars or cement, that
lasts centuries and are easy to maintein. Perhaps
one of the best investment-yielding building techniques
in the world, a well built retaining wall will
easily oultasts its builders.
Technical challenge: teaching mallorcan drywalling
to a mixed group including experienced and amateur
stone wallers while building a high skill demanding
project, a battered round wall, within a period
of 5 days, a really tight schedule for such a
goal.
Thus, we developed an appropriate technology
(AT) device, using recycled water pipes:two giant
compasses turning around the centerpoint of the
future form... |
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...attached to a board serving as a guide for
the subtle curve we wanted, a parabola.
One of the interesting aspets of appropriate
technology is that it can be deceivingly easy,
so easy that one can be easily misleaded, as the
photo shows: The template form was placed by one
of the attendees upside down. |
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Now Miguel, one of the Artifex Instructors,
attaches correctly the template to the compass
and checks with the plumbline while instructors
Boris and Lluc look on. Behind them, Angela is
having her first contact with majorcan limestones
and hammers.
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Once the templates are fixed to the compasses,
the wallers can begin to place stones between
template and earth wall with utmost accuracy:
1) the compass ensures the upper circle geometry
2) the plumbline, the lower circle (larger)
3) and the template, the parabola curve.
Simple + cheap + efficient= AT . Nice. |
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Another AT "device": canes and greenhouse
shading net to make a mobile "arbor" that
provides some relief and shelter to the 30ºC
of the mallorca sun. |
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More AT. In fact Drywalling is a crystal clear
example of appropriate technology: some hammers,
baskets, a civera (stone sled) , is all that is
needed to make a durable and handsome wall.
Please note attached "luxuries", the
shading net and the beers inside the cooler...
( Img: Toni Font) |
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Soon the wall begins to take shape: From left
to right: Damiá, Pierre, Donna, Boris, Miguel
Angel, Lluc. |
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Two year after his first exhibition at the
drystone workshop
2007, Mestre Biel,79, majorcan drywaller since
12 years old, giving his master class assisted
by Miguel Angel: attendees and instructors alike
enjoy and learn from the old master.
The first AT shading was smashed after a windy
morning, so we switched to a second design: long
ropes from tree to tree across the place in such
a way that the shading can slip upward and backwards
according to the sun movement.
Mestre Biel, Miguel Angel, George, Edward, Toni,
Damiá, Pierre, Boris, Donna, Angela.
( Mallorca+USA+ Ireland+ Sweden+ Bulgaria = Stone
United Nations) |
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Soon too, the work attracted some visitors.
Among them, a pair of donkeys open to socialization
with international wallers and prone to inspect
the box with the sandwiches...
Damiá, Edward, donkey, Lluch. Question
: Who's the donkey here?
Above the group, the ropes holding the shading.
Easy and fine design. Failure is the key for success. |
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Lluc, Toni, George and Miguel Angel using the
"civera" to move a big stone to the upper
terrace. A traditional tool for mountain work, for
places where wheels are useless. |
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A magnificent landscape framing the effort of
the "blood"powered transport unit. The
majorcans used this term (blood waterwheel, blood
pump...) to specify that the energy came from a
beast ( horse, donkey) so the wheel or device impulse
came from blood (muscle) instead of a motor. |
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The "bloody" transport delivering the
load to Donna and Boris. Behind, the mediterranean
sea, the Mare Nostrum. |
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Every day, at 08,00 AM, the "inspectors"
came to see the evolution of the works. Since
they are used to a very high quality average of
drywalling all around, their "oppinions"
were very, very eloquent (manure). Nevertheless,
this hard review never diminished our enthusiasm.
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Nearly finished wall.
From left to right : Miguel, George, Boris,
Edward, Lluc, Donna, Angela, Toni, Damiá. |
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Finishing the "braó", the
inner side of the marge. Miguel , Damiá,
Boris. |
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Finished marge. The design recalls a rural
stone, the "era", still to be found
in the middle of the woods, used to make charcoal
from the lower branches and bushes. This sustainable
practice made the woods very clean and as a result
very fire-resistant. If a little taller, also
reminds us of the sea-watching towers used to
advise the villagers that the moorish pirates
were coming.
( Img: Toni Font) |
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In the next workshop ( September 2010), we
made this round wall higher, adding a continuous
40 cm high bench that will transform the "era"
into an open place to enjoy the sunset, and for
life music.
Registration for the : Next
June 2011 workshop |
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VER
EN ESPAÑOL
See second part
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