2009 Conference

Adobe Workshop
9:00 am - 4:00 pm Thursday, August 6.

Note: The bus will pick up workshop participants in the loading area on the North side of Pearl Hall at 9 am

Join us for this pre-conference workshop, where you will be introduced to the ecological benefits, structural capacities, and construction processes of adobe.

Through restoration projects already underway, this workshop will give participants hands-on construction experience in stabilizing adobe structures, learning how to make adobe blocks, laying adobe block, and applying a traditional plaster finish. With this workshop, you will see all of the components of a traditional adobe wall section, and will understand the design details necessary to construct adobe and earthen buildings.

After spending the morning working with adobe, participants will be treated to a traditional New Mexican lunch at the famous Range Café. After lunch, participants will visit another restoration project constructed from sod, or terron, and at the end of the workshop participants will visit completed three adobe buildings.

Learn why earthen construction is the most sustainable choice for the American Southwest.

Click here for detailed schedule

Francisco Uvina Contreras

Workshop leader Francisco Uviña has been constructing and restoring earthen structures since 1994. Since then he has been involved with Cornerstones, a non-profit organization that teaches New Mexican youths the traditional building and sustainable construction of adobe. Mr. Uviña is now the Architectural/Technical Manager for Cornerstones and is the co-author of Cornerstones’ Adobe Architecture Conservation Handbook. Mr. Uviña has presented papers on earthen construction both nationally and internationally, including Yazd, Iran and Bamako, Mali. He also has the distinction of being the only North American representative to participate in a five-week training program for the restoration of earthen structures, sponsored by the Getty Conservation Institute. Mr. Uviña’s experience and expertise includes both adobe and terron construction methods. Mr. Uviña earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture with a minor in Art History from the University of New Mexico. He is currently completing his Masters of Architecture degree with a Masters Certificate in Historic Preservation and Regionalism at the University of New Mexico.