This remote village takes sustainable building seriously !! Probably more out of convenience and economy conciderations than anything else. But you do start to wonder if they have to learn anything at all when it comes to low impact building. In fact I think we have a lot to learn from them!. Beautifull and functional homes that keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. Locally the mud houses are known to also cure revmatism!! The downside is that you have to limewash the outside every Novrous(spring holiday). But that is very cheap to do and not so labour intencive. I truley loved the combination of timber frames and mudd. Rafael ,the owner and builder said they used to mix the mud with straw but without any particular reason they stoped doing that. I encouraged him to do that more and explained that it would provide a little bit of extra insulative value and work as structural reinforcement. The only major things that was brought from somwhere else to build Rafaels beautiful home was roofing tiles (of asbest 😉 and the glases for the windows. Quite impressive !! No plastics, no concrete, no hi-tech industrial products what so ever!! Stones from the river, timber from the forrest, mud from the ground. Isnt it beautifull?

When it came to a passive solar solution for hot water he was very interested, and when I explained about improoved wood-stoves and mass-heaters he was eager to do something before the winter. I hope I can come back and do a workshop with the village later. I hope you enjoy the views of the Talysj mountains, the tucked away treasure of Azerbaijan!! This is the area we want to protect from deforresting!

 

Rafael in front of his home that he builded him self!

Here you see the framework before the mudd is applied…

Still some snow left in the mountains at the Iranian border.

Deap Hirkan national forrest, the leopard was seen here as late as 2007

A closer look…

Beautifull and fertile !