The highlight of this week was a visit by Barry Fuller, an expert on building with papercrete. Barry presented in the morning and in the afternoon a lot of heavy concrete work was done to prepare for the papercrete seat. This will be finished by a local artist in ceramics to create a “snake” sculpture. We formed Papercrete blocks and the papercrete was built onto the snake. In preparation for next week, forms were built for a terracrete wall. The week ended with an extensive building tour in Phoenix where students visited a number of innovative projects.
Above left: Barry Fuller with his tow mixer and form being filled. Above right: Troweling the papercrete.
Above left: Cleaning out tow mixer. Center: Placing pipes for voids in papercrete blocks. Right: First pour complete.
The footings being poured for the “snake” and footings for terracrete wall. Left: Vibrating the footings. Center: Filling the “snake” form. Right: Setting first blocks on “snake.”
Above left: Placing slab form on straw bale footing. Above right: Adjusting rebar for wood columns.
Above left: Urbanite fill for footing to reduce concrete content. Right: Screeding slab
Above left: Placing rebar for first course of straw bales. Above right: Finishing slab for storage area.
Above left: Working on terracrete form. Above right: Form ready and stored for next week's pour.