Earth, Stone & Wood
Beqaa, Lebanon, 2017
Organizers: Gilles Perraudins _Academie de la pierre, Houda Kasatly and Pierre Issa_Arcenciel (Lebanese non-profit association), Fadlo Dagher_Dagher Hanna & partners.
Objectives: To familiarize architects with the construction of traditional eco-sourced materials such as stone, adobe, and wood, with the aim of promoting their use in contemporary architecture.
The vernacular architecture in Lebanon is known for its extensive use of locally extracted limestone. However, there is another forgotten technique that is also part of the country's building culture: raw earth brick or adobe. This technique was widely used in the Beqaa Valley, a region characterized by its dry climate. As this material has long been forgotten and replaced by reinforced concrete, the specific expertise in this technique has also nearly disappeared. Hence the immense importance of this workshop that revives vernaculare techniques with locally sourced matérials like earth, stone and wood.
The eucalyptus wood for the ceiling structure was cut on-site, in the Jesuit domain of Taanayel, where eucalyptus trees were specifically planted for use in construction. The straw mixed with adobe clay came from the region known for wheat cultivation. The stone was also extracted from the Bekaa. Two types of earth were used: red earth for making the adobe bricks extracted from site and a white clay called "houwwara," coming from the hills bordering the plain traditionally used for plastering.
Link to publication revisiting the experience of this workshop:
