西班牙馬略卡島　Can Monges永續住宅

Ideo arquitectura

The house is 200 years old and suffered from a huge problem of rising damp. After evaluating options, we took a risk and decided to use it. We are pioneers in the islands in the use of hemp, and we hope to be an example for other architects. The interesting thing is that hemp collects moisture from the ground and transmits it to the interior environment. （Does not stay on the wall）. We had a one meter high perimeter plinth that runs through the entire ground floor. When the house is closed, the humidity by capillarity that has passed into the environment through this hemp plinth disappears thanks to the strategic location of several ceramic vents on opposite facades that renew the air. We also use hemp on the roofs due to its very high thermal capacity (three times higher than conventional treatments), and in the walls separating rooms due to its extraordinary acoustic capacities (high density). We learned that the raw energy consumed in its manufacture is very low, fast growing and easy to cultivate. It is healthy and highly durable. We have to know that the use of hemp in construction contributes to sequestering, and even reducing, greenhouse gases during the useful life of the building.

To make this rehabilitation an environmentally effective place, first of all, we had to consider what to do with the rubble generated by the work. Two maxims to begin with; reuse and recycling. The rubble from the demolition has been used to consolidate façade walls. The existing, very deteriorated pavement has been given a second life, reusing it in the lintels of the new openings in the façade. Clay and ceramics supplied by local companies are present in downspouts, gutters and other elements. The fireplace in the living room is built with the inverted gesture of two curved vaults, the same ones that we have used for the new floor in the kitchen and for the lighting fixtures in the rooms. We have kept the northern pine (also from Mallorca) in mind for the doors and windows of the facades. We have endowed the carpentry with enormous personality with a new system of pre-frame-frame in a single piece in the shape of a "T" that Virginia del Barco has invented. The design responds to the lack of flatness of the interior facings of the 70 cm thick walls. Lime construction is an ancient technique in Mallorca. Until now, it was only used on facades and vertical walls. We have dared and have also used it on floors and ceilings. The result of aesthetic and plastic continuity throughout the interior reveals an atmosphere of peace and calm, one of the few customer requirements.