Needless to say, as an individual embodying the entire supply chain of this proposed assembly using hand tools, I was not able to deliver a wall with the precision and reliability promised by the design details. But in its place I was able to deliver a wall which tells a story. This story is at once a fairytale about climate resilient futures and a hard reality check cataloguing the menial obstacles which stand in the way of that ideal. This tension exists, to some degree, at the heart of any architectural project, where strong pitches and convincing drawings omit the challenges encountered by workers on a site or in a manufacturing plant. But it has a particular flavour when applied to regenerative or bio-based building practices: one where an ethos of ecological and human equity lead us to work with materials which are unregulated, raw, heterogeneous and unpredictable. Honesty about the ways our projects have not fully succeeded – to be ecological, practical, equitable, beautiful, economically or socially sustainable – can humble us into fruitful collaboration with other experts motivated to build up new economies of care. *
top: the full model stands approximately 6 ft tall and features 6 thatch block units. The model is insulated in three layers: the exterior and interior layers feature straw in a clay binder (insulation with additional moisture control) while the middle layer is pure packed wheat straw (as a thermal break to the clay matrix). right: a close-up ofthe final prototype: cedar wedges with half-dovetail notches slide onto wooden rails, rather than recyclable aluminum clips as specified in the drawings. Blocks with black straps denote a native grass, tan straps are used for agricultural straw and grey straps signify invasive species.
OLIVE LAZARUS , recent M.Arch, Carleton University; their thesis was Biography of a Bale: Material Narrative as Architectural Practice. Foraging-aside, Olive spent this past year co-leading a community build project in Vanier, finishing an album of idiosyncratic synth lullabies and co-parenting a radiant and inquisitive baby named Shems.
all images Olive Lazarus
46 on site review 48 :: building materials
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