Bio-construction courses

At Iscles, we have opted from the outset for natural reconstruction, using mostly the materials offered by the immediate environment (earth, wood, stone, straw) and adapting the designs to the human needs of our community in real time, always from the perspective of self-construction. It is an attempt to reinvent vernacular architecture, recovering the know-how of our ancestors and taking advantage of advances in sustainable and bioclimatic technology.

We have been working from this approach since 2013, soaking up the old crafts that are now almost extinct in the area and sharing them in the form of professional training courses, which since 2019 have been part of the Master’s programme in Bioconstruction Project Management of the Okambuva bioconstruction cooperative.

The courses are aimed at self-builders, architects, designers, construction professionals or anyone who wants to learn about natural construction, as we start from the basics to gradually go deeper into each subject, always from a practical perspective.

In addition to a large number of practical sessions, we complement them with theoretical classes to better assimilate the key aspects, discussions, sharing of case studies provided by the participants or proposed by us and a dynamic open to new possibilities that each group may offer.

The teaching team is made up of all the members of the Iscles Association, which is a multidisciplinary group, covering the areas of construction, architecture, engineering, art, nutrition, pedagogy, health, Chinese medicine, taichi chuan, chi kung, anthropology… We will also have collaborators in subjects such as geology, dowsing and traditional construction to make the content of the courses more complete and interesting.