DEVELOPED AT KS Training BY JOAQUIM MELCHOR.
ANSWERING THE QUESTION: IS NATURAL MATTER VIABLE TO GENERATE LOCAL WEALTH BY BUILDING STABLE AND SUSTAINABLE FORMS OVER TIME ?.
The references that support this work are, my own field experience in the restoration of modernist heritage, which I consider to be the last time formal art focused on the optimization of matter and its language, and the examples found in archaeological sites.
Our job is to diagnose the characteristics of natural raw materials and mix them, looking for their compatibility. It is also our job to design the method that will allow us to produce complex designs as consumer goods. In this context, I put at your disposal examples of cases in which, not only is it demonstrated that natural matter is viable to create stable forms, but that it is possible to generate local wealth in terms of self-sufficiency.
Basic parameters on which to base each study:
- Km 0. Proximity of natural raw material deposits to the place where the products made with them will be used. The matter that interests us must be located within a radius of a maximum of 50 km around, as it is an adequate distance in which the products can be transported in three days by common transport without combustion engines or the like. Although not always possible, the absolute priority is the use of local resources.
- Energy. Minimum use of energy to produce products throughout the production chain from the exploitation of resources to the maintenance of the product. We consider as natural matter that which has not been synthesized by man, which has been processed or minced to make cold mixes and on which no heat energy is involved for its preparation apart from that necessary for the logistics of exploitation and milling.
- Specialization. Low specialization of users throughout the production chain from the person who diagnoses nature to find the resources to the effort made by the user to use the product.
- Method. For all tests, manual methods have been used in the first instance to, once the viability of the process has been demonstrated, implement technology that favors productivity.
Case Study 1. Girona. Printing buildings with clay.
The students of the program acquired knowledge on how to formulate the clay with different natural materials that provide it with structural capabilities, to print habitats.
Case Study 2. Málaga. From forest to water environment.
The special characteristics of natural fibers are viable in permanent contact with water, due to the use of geopolymers and/or fatty acids.
Case Study 3. Castellón. The silification of the earth.
In collaboration with the facultative direction, we demonstrate how to petrify the earth to improve the constructive quality, reducing sections and costs.