Ecological old buildings: Trulli in Alberobello

In Alberobello there are the Trulli. The grandfathers of ecological buildings.
 "A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley, in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small proprietors or agricultural labourers. Their golden age was the 19th century." (Wikipedia)

It was a pleasure to learn more about material used in these particular buildings a lot of centuries ago.
It was very nice to have there all delegates of Leonardo-GIBB there in Alberobello!
You can have a feeling of the learning-visit by looking at these photos!

Why to use natural building materials?

In the project meeting in Italy we gave a short overview about the reasons why to use natural and local building materials. The main reasons are:

• local natural materials reduce transportation costs
• natural materials are more environment friendly
• using local materials is good for local economy
• using local materials enhances regional small production
• natural materials create a good interior climate and are good for health

So what are the most common local natural materials used in building? In Estonia we use:

• clay/earth (red, blue)
• lime
• sand
• different fibers (straw, bulrush, flax)
• reed (mats and boards)
• flax felt, flax tow, sheep wool and cellulose for insulation
• straw bales
• casein paint, lime paint, egg tempera, linseed paint, clay paint

You can read more about using natural building materials from http://www.ehituslahendused.ee/en/services and http://esb.wspoint.com/en/learning-materials.

Second meeting in Foggia: a visit to the museum

It was great for all delegates discover the museum in Foggia. There is a lot of ancient culture of the city there.  A lot of handcrafts of the ancient culture of Daunia and Arpi region are stored there. More information about the history of the city museum on wikipedia (italian only).

Here you can see a smiling guest entering the museum.

Here you can see just some nice photos of the event.

Together in the town hall of Foggia

The Major of the City of Foggia Dr. Prof Gianni Mongelli guested the delegations of Leonardo GIBB during the meeting in the city (November 2012) in the Town Hall of Foggia

Here there are some nice photos of the event. 

Wonderful.

Astonyshine

It was a very interesting experience!

We went on 7 November 2012 to Bari to visit the house named astonyshine all together!

During the meeting in Foggia (Italy) for the Leonardo Meeting we had the chance to visit a wonderful house that was developed by the University of Bari-Faculty of Architecture and guested by Formedil Bari.

This is a house build with ecological materials taken from the materials normally used in the rural Apulia buildings.

We had a conference in Formedil-Bari on that day about the Project Astonyshine and Arch. Stigliano (from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Bari) illustrated the project and lead us to visit the ecological house that participated to the competition in Spain (Solar Dechatlon) representing Italy.

This is the website of the Project and below some pictures of our experiences!

Prof. Antonio Zito (IISS Notarangelo-Rosati, Foggia, Italy)