BUILDING with CARRIZO
Dried reed stems have been used for millennia as thatching and construction material, in basketry, for arrows and pens, and in musical instruments . It is similar to bamboo.
Historically, Mexican indigenous used common reed as a building material to construct a variety of items, including arrow shafts, musical instruments, mats and adobe houses.
Today, still, in the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca , river reeds, locally called CARRIZO are use for a variety of projects such as hand woven basketry.
Who was this project for?
Invited by la Montaña Espacio Para Yoga, a place for Yoga on the outskirt of Oaxaca City ...
For one month I worked exclusively with the local carrizo, the river bed plants ; the all process…
Cutting down with a machete, clearing, cleaning, cutting into the proper size to make the roof of a terrace.
The long pieces : used for the roof, medium : for the kitchen curtain, and the very thin residual for the lamp shades.
Benefits for the Montaña Espacio :
We have used a resource that is abundant, grows fast , with little or no water, and in the local area. One could call it a ZERO KILOMETER DESIGN same as the concept: zero kilometer food.
The technique used is knotting , the most ancient craft that exist, that requires no technology or machinery, so this is a LOW TECH’ realization.
It has been a zero waste process as every part of the reed has been used: the ticker part : for the terrasse, the thinner part for the lamp shades.
Benefit for me : I have learnt an entire new way of building, constructing home furnishing accessories that embodies my philosophy.
