Casa Em Arruda dos Vinhos

A little hors sujet to fill in whilst awaiting the first 'charpente'. A little plug for a blog recommended to me by a Portugese architect whose current hobbies include target practice with a 'sarbacane' or blowpipe. This fact has no relevance to the subject of the blog in question but serves as a useful warning to anyone brave enough to venture out into the streets of the 20th 'arrondissement' of Paris. Beware, apparently, small darts tipped in a poison paste mixed from the sap of plane trees and dried pigeon shit are being used to great effect for culling the local Bobo population.
Casa Em Arruda dos Vinhos tells the story of house project situated in an idyllic wine growing region. In the words of the man who has commissioned the house, Rui Pedro Lérias;

This projects deals with the reconstruction of a small building in ruins in an area classified as green belt. The project uses the same materials of the ruined building (stone, earth and wood) but re-ordered: a wood structure filled with local earth (wattle and daub); the stone coming from the demolition will be used in the foundations and surrounding area.
Otherwise, the architects associated natural materials (wood, earth and cork panels) with industrial ones (concrete, metal, glass and polycarbonate).

The experimental configuration of traditional materials suggests adventurous architects and a courageous client. They are both to be applauded and encouraged. As for blowpipes - I will not be plugging the youtube video link. Small children might be reading.

Window

Window negative on final lift for textured concrete stair wall.

Put up a façade

Before and after.
If you're going to love your house you've got to love it in the morning without makeup.

Ugly ducklings and cranes

We are entering the ugly duckling phase of the project. The bare clay blocks and gaping holes that will be the windows, are remarkably ugly, and it will be some time before the timber cladding and insulation finish the job off as The Architect intended.

The masonry is coming to completion and we have entered into a negociation with the roofing contractor over the nature of the roof structure. The original design consisted of three main rafters in steel and a secondary structure of purlins in either timber or steel 'Z' sections. The steel seems to be problematic because of the weight and the necessity of involving a crane. The roofer has suggested a timber solution for the main rafters using a product that consists of a vertical laminated beam 'Kerto'.

The beam would be much lighter than the steel solution but deeper by a factor of 1.7. Being the amenable guy that he is, The Architect is redrawing all the sections and details to take into account the new rafter depth.

In the meantime, thanks to the input from The English Neighbour, we are being kept up to date on local popular opinion. There is nothing like a building site for livening up the evening stroll with dog and significant other. Various comments are overheard, the most common concerning the diminutive size of the windows that give onto the street. The Client is now worried that it will be dark and dingy inside, despite the large openings at the rear of the house. Who should she trust, Monsieur Dupont with his Rotveiler or a building professional with 25 years experience?

Le pont

Back on subject again. Yesterday the second floor slab was poured. The electricity conduits and central heating network were integrated into the structure so we had the pleasure of the first visit from The Plumber. Activity is intense as opportunities to work in May are few and far between. This year the bank holidays, which in France, unlike the UK, are not conveniently magnetised to the nearest Monday, fall on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And there are a lot of them. Wars, religious happenings and workers spring rites are all celebrated in the month of May. This gives rise to the traditional spring pass time known as faire le pont. Simply translated this means bridging between weekends and bank holidays using a judiciously placed day off work to give yourself an extremely long weekend. The Builder, who confides in me that all this means he is loosing even more money on the job, has an apposite comment on the subject:

'Sarko's going to change all that. Soon, there will be no more ponts for the French'.

I'm pretty sure he was joking. What is true, is that everyone has their own very particular idea of what the next 5 years has in store.

Croft 3

In the style of giving it all up and dropping out of society, two work colleagues decide to continue their globe trotting careers in a croft in a far flung corner of bonnie Scotland. More braving Scotland than 'Scotland the Brave', their new life must seem a million miles from urban France. Undaunted by the rigours of Highland life they have embarked upon building an extension - now that really is brave.
With such a multitude of media stories on families from middle England giving up fluff job careers to buy abandoned garlic farms in La Creuse it's good to know that someone's going in the opposite direction. The blog is called :

3 and 1/2 of 4...and a bit more

I presume this is a reference to the renaissance of algorithm generated organic forms in current cutting edge architectural projects.....
Anyways here's wishing you good luck.

Footnote:
On seeing the above photo The Client, for whom anywhere that doesn't have a handy 6 lane motorway and large expanses of concrete and asphalt conjures up images of dueling banjos, simply said 'how far is the nearest hospital?'.