artifex : in inca

the workshop.

miguel ramis, the founder of artifex balear, gave us an introduction on the projects the stone masonry school has been working on. this includes mini domes such as this one, made with tiles in the catalan construction style.


on a typical day, the first half was spent listening to presentations by various architects, lovers of stone, masons, restorers, etc. structural engineers like santiago huerta spoke about the structural properties of arches and vaults, while architects like mit department-head yung ho chang and madrid's juan herreros presented projects showing how they've bridged the old and the new.

we were very attentive. here, flo (fellow mit-er) sits among the espanolas from madrid: elena, isabel, and paula.

in the second half of the day, we got to the nitty gritty with stone and mortar. at any one time, there were at least 3 projects progressing. flo slaps mortar onto the wall in one of our early exercises, prepping the wall for tile shelving.
(note: this is NOT as easy it as it might seem. see that layer of mortar on the bottom?
yeah, exactly.)

martin (mining engineer, originally from england) presents elena with a precious gift.
what is it?? a freshly-polished stone! how sweet.

next: the project.