Casa Eterna. Vivienda de tierra, cal, corcho y madera
A part of the property, descendant of a family of potters and ceramists who preserved that tradition in the construction stage, proposed building their house with the work material of their ancestors: clay and artisan work. The location of the site next to the family ceramic workshop facilitated the production of the adobes, updated in modern blocks of compressed earth or BTC. The land would be extracted from the usual location available in the area, located in the nearby municipalities of Puente del Arzobispo and Alcolea de Tajo. They themselves would produce the blocks to build their walls.
The property manufactured a manually operated mechanism to press the blocks of soil and used some of the machinery and tools it had to process the natural soils and make them more workable. Experts from the sector were involved in the study and testing of the proportions of earth, sand and lime, as well as the work process; Some of them were retired bricklayers who were familiar with adobe construction, which they had manufactured and used in their works during the years of their youth.
Land extraction has shaped this landscape for centuries, generating ponds where animals stop to drink and rest. The lands have been used to build walls and walls, using multi-millennial techniques that are now regaining their validity. It can be said that the land is the historical material of the landscape, which allows it to be shaped so that it is inhabited by both humans and non-humans. The construction is based on capuchin walls made of compressed earth blocks – self-fabricated a few meters from the site with earth extracted in the region – with its chamber filled with natural cork chip insulation from nearby Extremadura. Both this basic construction system, and the rest of the materials and techniques used in the work, are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 Agenda. Thus, the building is completed with a ceramic tile roof from Alicante, a wooden structure, artisanal lime, plaster or ceramic mortar coatings and is heated by ceramic floors tempered by underfloor heating with aerothermal energy and self-produced electrical energy. Aided by good orientation and high-performance carpentry, the efficiency achieved is very high and the carbon footprint minimal.
Builders and local trades and ancestral artisan knowledge, together with current technologies, come together to welcome a new hybrid way of life, between urban and rural, which came to the towns to stay thanks to the displaced habits of urban life, such as teleworking or online shopping.
Utopia and dystopia, past and future, earth and technology are thus integrated into a hopeful and eternal technology of the earth.
