[GSBN] Expo Zaragoza

[Rikki Nitzkin]

In ten days the world expo in zaragoza is opening and one of the most  
interesting building will be the Clay/wood/straw pavillion.  I managed  
to get in to visit it on tuesday. It cuts an impressive figure with  
its double towers, 33meter diameter and 20+meters high.

Inside its nice and cool, despite the 25 degrees Celcius outside. It  
has an impressive type of windmill in the roof which creates a flow of  
air to keep the building cool.

Unfortunately the clay plaster is a bit of a disaster. Most likely  
this is because it has been raining non-stop for the last two months.  
This is unheard of in Zaragoza. The last time there was such a rainy  
spring in Zaragoza was about 50 years ago; with the rain I don't know  
when/how the managed to apply the plaster at all! It is too thin, too  
irregular, and the proportions must not have been right because its  
has quite a few cracks...although maybe those are from movement in the  
wallas. I hope they manage to fix it in the next two weeks, although I  
don't know how.  I am glad they use Gabions as a stem wall because  
after so much rain, the river has risen and two days ago it was about  
3 meters from the base of the wall. They have made a sand-bag dike as  
they expect the river to rise a bit more until it reaches a maximum  
height tomorrow.

As I can't attach fotos to the list anyone who is interested in seeing  
photos can send me an email offlist and I will forward some.

You can see some of the construction process at: http://www.elfaro2008.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230&Itemid=345

I should point out that for personal reasons neither Maren or I have  
been involved or consulted about the job since last spring, so we  
can't claim any responsability (good or bad) about the building.


Rikki

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