Posted on: 5th June 2018
ABOUT
The Valley House Summer Retreat offers an intensive full week program that includes cultural and
architectural tours, visits to internationally known architect studios, meetings, lectures with invited
architects and an architectural design and self-construction workshop with compressed earth blocks,
amongst other activities.
The participants will work as a team (with individual tasks) and develop a project that will be executed on
a 1:1 scale, supported by a team of architects who will provide support throughout the process using
natural inorganic soil found locally. The construction will use compressed earth blocks made manually
with a mechanical press.
Participants will develop conceptual design skills and work themselves it’s materialization on site. This
workshop is an excellent opportunity to meet and work with a team of renowned architects, that will
teach and support participants to build soft skills in each phase of a project, from initial concept, to
design and building. The hand as the instrument of thought and practice.
SITE
The workshop will take place at the Valley House, Vieira do Minho, Portugal. The house was designed
by Guilherme Machado Vaz and it’s located in a beautiful natural landscape yet untouched by mankind.
The participants will have the opportunity to stay in this isolated shelter and experience this unique
relation between architecture and natural space.
