Wednesday 27 May 2015

Group Tadelakt on The Family Farm

My little sister is currently working at The Family Farm in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand and she sent me some photos of the recent tadelakt art installation which takes pride of place in their new eco lodge. I love these pictures because of the group effort; adults and children from around the world coming together for an act of eco building. Tadelakt is not the most accessible form of plastering, it takes skill and patience and practice and yet these children can say they were involved in the creation of this beautiful art across a chimney breast which will last years, continuing to be beautiful and give them pride and pleasure.






Rendered in the News


My first clay plastering job with Het Leemniscaat has made the 'news'! I worked on the internal clay render of this gorgeous house in one of the first days in Belgium last year. (The 'before' pictures are in one of my early blog posts) Mathias let me practice clay plastering the kitchen shelves and niches before letting me loose with a trowel and pallet knife on the upstairs bedrooms. I also worked on the external lime render with red pigments during the last days in Belgium. It rained so hard that the red pigment went everywhere and the team looked as if they'd been in an abbatoir all day, my boots didn't dry out fully until after I'd already got back to England.

The house is one of 4 houses and an art space occupied by a community in the countryside outside Antwerp. This house was the first to be renovated from its dilapidated state and was designed by Peter Voss of Barchi Architects. It has a timber frame which sits inside the stone work of the original barn, a suspended floor which is insulated from below with sea shells and hempcrete. Underfloor heating is imbedded in the hemp and bamboo flooring is laid on top.  

A glass section has been incorporated into the new roof to provide natural light and a glass section of floor gives the impression of a double height atrium at the entrance. The inside walls are hempcrete and straw bale sections with clay plaster. The downstairs ceilings have been lime washed and preserve the original arches of the barn. Externally the walls have been lime rendered to protect the hemp and straw sections from weather. 

This house provided the template for the other houses which needed renovation on site and the home owners took on much of the work themselves following days spent working with the Het team.  

In the pictures below you can see the gold glints of straw in the plaster. This occurs when the clay has been sponged several times with successively drier sponges which transforms the walls from wet brown plaster to smooth, hard, glimmering gold. 





Saturday 16 May 2015

Capability Noble

The brief for this garden was to provide as much planting space as I could, create a curved path to the back gate, remove the white doors and design an alternative entrance and if possible, save the apple tree. The design we arrived at involved moving the shed, finding a place for the bins and making the most of the sun traps.

I have taken up the old decking, removed the patio bricks, demolished the old back wall and free-cycled the unwanted back gates.

I have laid a new patio and curving path, built new raised beds and a new back wall with an arch around the apple tree and another for the new gate (which arrives in a few weeks, fingers crossed it fits). I had help with some of the bricklaying from Marius at MG Brick Specialists based in Reading, and support from my family and friends for the long days.

The planting will happen over the summer, the lady of the house is very excited to spend a few months ordering fruit trees and plants, I hope to get a proper 'after' photo in September..

Before, view from the house

Before, view towards the house
 The family with their secret trapdoor

Classy lunch

My mum helping with paving
An ants nest hiding in the old mortar
Demolition

Getting started on the new wall


Apple blossom
Arch detail around the apple tree


Marius of MG Brick Specialists
When he heard the deadline for the job and
looked at the list of jobs still to do, he asked 'Are you from the tv?' 


Happy worker into the last 36 hours..
we left site at 10pm that day after completing the beds
The curving path
8.30pm Just need to load the car for a final tip run.
Trumpet vine