Green Building

Saligaros (Snail) group created a green roof, a green snail, in the centre of Athens. “We are making the shell that will protect us from the Bad Wolf,” a little child said pointing to the grey city buildings! The group made the substrate of the green roof using plank, spacers densely bonded with wood glue, OSB instead of plywood, and coating with flaxseed oil and wax. Joints were puttied with stucco and wood glue. Finally, (underneath the plants) a mixture was created with hydraulic lime NHL5, tile powder, quarry sand, gravel, ceramic fragments and goat hair. A layer of pumice was applied over this mixture.

In the context of the activities organized by Summer Hill, Hill School’s summer camp, the group Architecture Without Borders used straw-bales and loam to construct a maze in cooperation with the little campers (aged 6 to 12) in their camping site, in Salamina. The goal of this activity was to familiarize kids with the collective work of building things with earth, going through all the stages involved in this process – sieving, mixing and plastering – and to create a place suitable for playing and participating in events that will form part of Hill School’s summer activities. The base of the above structure was formed with cinder blocks placed upon a layer of gravel, with iron rods fixed in-between so that straw-bales could stay securely in place. Next, the straw-bales were covered with chicken wire to ensure better adhesion to the first layer of earth, a watery mixture consisting of earth, sand and water. Two layers of cob (earth, sand, straw, goat hair and water) were then applied. Following the application of two layers of lime water, the construction was finally covered with the last layer, which consisted of pozzolana, sand, goat hair and lime powder.