More information and registration here.
About the Organizer:
CICADA
Cicada is a multidisciplinary design firm that works within the realms of art, architecture, interior, product, education, research and social impact. We strive for a design practice that is relevant and responsive to its time, people and place.
‘Cicada’ emerged as a friendship between us while we were exploring the wilderness and villages surrounding our hometown – Belgaum. Travelling through these landscapes and learning about them imbibed in us a deep admiration for our natural and cultural heritage. Our design practice is informed and inspired by our travels and the lessons we learnt from people and places along the way. Cicada creates spaces, objects, visuals and interactions that are meaningful and grounded.
The Cause
The project is being built under a tight budget for a social cause, your participation will be well received.
About Guruvarya Agjaonkar Pratishthan :
The foundation is named after a Gandhian educationist Shri Anantrao Ajgaonkar, Uttur, who dedicated his entire life for the field of education in the remote villages around Uttur village. The foundation works in the realms of education, social welfare, environment, women empowerment etc.
10 local masons will be trained free of cost as a part of this workshop, in an attempt to transfer a low-cost technology dependent on hands-on skills. Part of your fees will go towards complete scholarships to 7 local artisan students. Their food and training shall be free.
About Hunnargurukul
A centre for sustainable technology and innovation, is an initiative by CAUSE TO CONNECT foundation. This is a residential school for artisan students who have got intuition becoming an artist and maybe not successful in formal education. It is an employability education program for disadvantaged and low financial background youth.
Carpentry and civil are the two fields in which students get hands-on training. It is completely free for the appropriate students and located in Uttur district of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra.
About the Event
This is an advanced course, where we shall be working on a live project for 7-14 days. Minimum participation is 7 days.
Theory: History of Curves and Arches | History of Vaults and Domes, examples and aspects of design | Symbolism, Meaning, terminology | Materials and their properties | Adobe, Bricks, Blocks, and stone | Thermal mass, insulation, humidity buffering, climatic design | Types of mortars – Mud, Lime, Cement and gypsum plaster | Concepts of structural design of Masonry, limit state| Design of strength, Loading, slenderness, eccentricity | Control of Saftey and Reduction Coefficients | Control of drying and contraction of mortars | Structural Design and Calculations | Structural design using catenary method (Gaudi’s and Guastavino’s method) | Structural design using funicular method (Auroville Earth Institute) | Intuitive methods of construction using body as a measure and guide (system of mexican bovederos) | Concepts of foundations, piers, buttresses, beams and ties to receive Arches, vaults and domes | Construction and Organization of work | Tracing of curves, preparing of guides, forms and scaffolds | Site organization and management of teams | Basics of quality of workmanship and control of human error | Cost and time of construction | International codes and norms | Personal and shared experiences | Impermeabilization and waterproofing | Presentation of trials and errors | Presentation of work process of artisans around the world
Practicals: The practice of Mexican vaults with mud mortar. It is a cost-effective system of roofing, proving to be 20% cheaper than RCC slab, provided local skill is available, or that you are able to build it yourself. A roof over a bedroom can be built in a week with a team of 4.
The course consists of 20% theory and 80% hands-on work. In groups of 6, you will be building a dome measuring a minimum of 12 feet x 15 feet. 7 domes are to be built in 14 days. You will be joined by a team of 12 apprentices with prior experience. By the end of the course, you will gain in-depth intuition and a basic understanding of executing simple designs and organizing a simple project.
You will be included in the apprentice list of handmadearchitecture.org. For an in-depth understanding, apprentices can seek 2-3 day advanced workshops on each module in future. Prior practical experience is needed for advanced courses.
About the Facilitator
Brief Profile
Varun Thautam is an architect and builder, Ecological Building and Design Consultant, a Trainer and Researcher. He brings more than a decade of experience working in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and India. He has a post-professional Master’s degree in Housing and urban design from McGill University, Montreal (2012) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (2008). He was awarded the Second Award in Global Architecture & Design Awards 2019 in the housing category, a finalist award in World Architecture Festival 2019, Finalist – Completed Buildings: Civic and community category and the Small buildings category, the BUILD Architecture Awards 2019 – Design/Build Firm of the Year 2019 – Bangalore and the Young Architects Award by Indian Architect and Builder Magazine – 2014.
His work revolves around innovations in processes. He finds ways to give people the possibility to create and build for themselves meaningfully. His interest areas are permaculture, bioclimatic architecture, rammed earth, cob, wattle and daub, stone masonry, vaults and domes, natural plasters and finishes with lime and earth. His current research explores the work of traditional artisans in India, their didactics, ways and methods of designing and building.
Through his work and research, he observes and abstracts the essential lessons and didactic methods of the preserved vernacular cultures and artisans of the world to find creative and relevant applications in modern architecture. He strongly believes that such an approach is essential in the creation of economical and ecological built environments that are in tune with the rhythms, shapes, processes, and cycles of nature. He is an apprentice to renowned bovederos (vault and dome master masons) Andres Flores Castaneda (Mexico) and James Anthony (USA) and the master plasterers with Lime and earth Amel Kadic (Bosnia) and Dawood Ibrahim (India). As a budding mason, he has conducted more than 40 design-build workshops and volunteering programs on his construction sites in India and Mexico.
As a researcher and an Academic, He has been a full time faculty of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (QS Global World Ranking #158) in Queretaro, Mexico 2014-2018. He has been a visiting faculty of architecture to various universities in India and Mexico. His work can be seen on www.varunthautam.com. His workshops, courses and teaching portfolio is documented on www.handmadearchtiecture.org
His experience with Vaults and Domes
“My love for the art of building with vaults and domes started at the UNESCO Chair Earthen Architecture – Asia, Auroville back in 2008. Over the past 10 years, practising as an architect – dome builder, I have risked the enthusiasm and trust that several clients have placed in me to experiment in their projects. Several of these experiments were aimed to unearth some of the pieces of the lost art of designing and building with vaults and domes. Failures continue, vaults fall, material, labour, money and time is lost. Every time that happens in a live project, the trust of someone who believed in us is diluted. Yet we continue, as with each experience more of the lost art is unearthed, and more people understand the language of this art.
When I came to Mexico, I had a very strong foundation on the scientific methods and tools used to design and build vaults and domes. Imagining and calculating curves under compression was a mathematical and geometrical approach – pure mathematics and physics. The past 5 years here in Mexico have been such a spectacular unlearning and learning process. The master vault and dome builders here surprised me with the complete intuitive approach to this – pure art. I have been closely observing the masters of Ar.Ramon Aguirre defies gravity with his Gaussian curves. There is Maestro Andres Flores (a third-generation bovedero) who can build as effortlessly and imaginatively as an ant; as if his body and soul were connected with his creations. On the other hand, there are masters like James Anthony who treat this artistic profession as meticulously and religiously as a spider builds a web. Using the body as a measure has helped then evolve a form for intuitive building, that cannot be easily explained by rational science. As their humble student, I am privileged to have been growing parallelly in the rational and intuitive methods.
Maestro Andres says..sharing is the best method to learn and grow. I humbly take this opportunity to prepare myself to consolidate my learnings and seek opportunities to learn further through visits of artisans and learn from teachers who are willing to share. I would be keen on sharing through involvement in live projects, teaching short term workshops, or academic semester’s integrated with design-build teaching practice. I have a growing collection of information prepared for diffusion; in the format of presentations, interactive learning sessions and flexible modules of practical construction. Over the past 4 years, I have shared them in formats of lectures and workshops in Mexico and India.
This is dome number 60-66 for me. Join us to make it your first”