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III International Drystone Workshop  Deià 2010
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( Miquel Ramis)

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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...

...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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Soon the wall begins to take shape: From left to right: Damiá, Pierre, Donna, Boris, Miguel Angel, Lluc.

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)

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.

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.
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.
The "bloody" transport delivering the load to Donna and Boris. Behind, the mediterranean sea, the Mare Nostrum.

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.

 

 

Nearly finished wall.

From left to right : Miguel, George, Boris, Edward, Lluc, Donna, Angela, Toni, Damiá.

Finishing the "braó", the inner side of the marge. Miguel , Damiá, Boris.

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)

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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See second part



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