Documentation: 2019 Sino-French Built Heritage Preservation Workcamp in Pingyao

Documentation: 2019 Sino-French Built Heritage Preservation Volunteer Work Camp Mugua Village, Pingyao

Documentation: ssss 2019 Sino-French Built ssss Heritage Preservation ssss Volunteer Work Camp at ssss Mugua Village, Pingyao

Location: Mugua Village, Pingyao County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province, China

Yijia RUAN 阮一家

Volunteers: CANTAVE ADRIEN, Liu Ziyuan, Yang Yuhuan, Zhu Wenhan, Gao Geer,DEMANES FANNY, Liang Xuenan, FUME PALINE, Li Ruyu, LAN SAN AUDREY, Bao Yun, HUMEZ MARION, Liu Xiaoshou, Yang Zhi, Zhao Ran, Zheng Shizhe, Yan Chang, Ke Man.

Gps: 37°07'39.5"N 112°17'33.2"E Time: 03/08/2019-15/08/2019

Organizers: Shanghai Ruan Yisan Heritage Foundation(China), Union Rempart(France) Leader: Yijia Ruan, Pierre DENOU, Qu Tiecheng

Brief history of Mugua village Mugua village, named by a papaya tree used to locate in the village, is well-know for its fort, architecture and a high official in history.

Hundreds of years ago, with the help of a local high official, Mugua village were a wealth village. With the modernization trend in the last 50 years in urban area, Mugua village was declining like other rural villages in China.

Fort of Mugua Village The original settlement of Mugua village

Through the strive of the local, the village has already get rid of poverty by developing its apple planting industry with the advantage of its soil nutritions and quality.

The original settlement of Mugua village was on the hillock, For the lack of household water caused by the topography of the old fort, local people has gradually moved to the bottom of the hillock to live and it eventually formed the two entirely different space layouts of the old and new settlements in Mugua village.

The old settlement is still remained while most of the architecture were demolished in the last 50 years without any inhabitants. In 2014, the village committe decided to start the conservation project to preserve it and adaptive reuse as a space for hostel, cultural exhibition for the villagers.

The new settlement of Mugua village

The Fort gate

Bird's-eye view of Mugua Village Photo by: Pingyao County Jinzhao Architecture & Garden Design Institute (Co, Ltd.)

The fort gate and its restoration project Made by the wood, bricks and soil, the fort gate in Mugua village used to be a two-storey architecture according to the recall from local people, the firststorey functioned as a gate for people and horses while the second-storey was a small temple for blessing. Like other forts in Pingyao county, the fort gate is one of the significant symbols of the settlement fortification system.

The Mission of the Work Camp The work camp mission is to preserve our heritage through the public participation, and arouse the awareness of conservation of cultural heritage in local community.

The Objective The north elevation of the fort gate

For the man-made damage and years of disrepair, the fort gate was nearly collapsed. To prevent it from demolished, the fort gate is transformed to a onestorey architecture after simple repair.

With the future development of the old settlement, the project of fort gate restoration has been started. Followed by the professional design and traditional construction methods, the fort gate will be restored to an old-style two-storey gate. Without any retained photos, drawings and other documentations, the referenced was taken from other forts gate in Pingyao county. The first storey will remain the current situtaion and a new houses will be built on the existing part of the fort gate.

- Learn the knowledge of the vernacualr architecture in Pingyao County.

- Learn the traditional construction process in restoration of the vernacualr architecture.

- Practice to understand traditional embodied knowledge from the local craftsman.

Technical support

The south elevation of the fort gate

Craftsmen from Shanxi Chaojie Historic Architectre Construction and Engineering Co., Ltd, China.

The design drawing of second floor of the fort gate Photo of volunteers and craftsmen in Mugua village

The process

During the 12 days, the work of this project contained material preparation, bricklaying, earth ram, wall rendering,etc.

Passing bricks

Wall rendering groups work of laying

Earth ram

Mix mortar

Layer bricks

Clean bricks

Details of the construction Material preparation

How to choose good blue bricks?

The information below is truly documented from the practice of this workcamp, although some methods are not in line with restoration standards for historic monument.

Since blue bricks are normally resued, so it is significant to seriously choose the good quality ones from all the blue bricks at the resellers', here are some tips from the craftsmen to pick good blue bricks (here the tips were taught by the local craftsmen)

environmental protection laws in China, the traditional Chinese solid blue bricks is strictly prohibited to produced nowadays. In that case, old blue bricks removed from other old vernacular architectures or some abandoned ones are normally reused in the new restoration project of traditional vernacular architecture.

In the case of same size for different blue bricks, normaly the heavier the better.

blue bricks mortar 砍砖DueClean 拌灰As theMixbinder to the of the blue bricks, normally 2 kinds of mortar is used in the project: Lime mortar and ordinary mortar.

Lime mortar, the traditional binder in China, is still used in most of the restoration project for its good porosity, durability and its good appearance. Here Lime mortar is mixed with only lime and water which proportion To keep the outer surface flat, is determined by its viscosity clean and water-permeable, level according to craftsmen's lime, cement and other binder experience, and is used as the remains on the reused blue binders of the blue bricks on bricks need to be removed the architecture elevation. with bricklayer's cleavers.

Ordinary mortar, mixed with water, sand, cement and soil 水 Water blue bricks is used at the invisible place To keep the moisture to strengthen the structure content of the blue bricks without conflicting the so that they will not absorb traditional appearance of the moisture from the binder, the architecture, and, to save costs blue bricks are placed neatly as well. on the flat ground, then use a water pipe to water the bricks from the top and wait for the all the bricks to be wet.

浇

a blue brick in Weith a single blue 掂Weith 看 your hand brick in your hand a blue brick 听Knock by the back of bricklayer's cleaver Clean blue bricks

Tap several bricks at one time to make a comparison.

The clear and sharp sound symbolizes the good quality of this blue brick, while the muffled sound means it is a bad blue brick.

Water blue bricks

To check is the size fit the architecture you will build. （Normaly a blue brick should be 26 or 27 or 28 or 30 cm long, 12 or 12.5 or 13 or 14cm wide and 5.5 or 6 or 6.5 or 7 or 7.5cm thick for architecture in Pingyao)

the bricks with 立Lay differnt kind of shape There are different names for each side of a brick:

肋 Rib 面 Face

To check there is not any weathering on the blue brick.

To check no raw stones are in the blue brick.

To check the colour of the bricks to ensure they are neither over-burnt nor underburnt. When a blue brick has glazed surface or cracks, it means it is over-burnt. When a blue brick is little bit red or black outside or inside, it means it is under-burnt.

头 Head

Qualified blue bricks should be stack and stand firm as: （立三、侧五、平二七）

27 for rib 3 for head 5 for face

Good quality blue bricks should be stack and stand firm as: （立三、侧七、平二七）

Mix mortar * The white dot is the raw stone in a blue brick

27 for rib

3 for head 7 for face

Details of the construction

How to apply mortar to the blue brick?

To meet aesthetic requirements and to ensure functionality, mortar must be perfectly attached to brick, this kind of work needs a lot of practices and patience.

How to distinguish the right direction for a blue brick and put mortar when lay it?

For our master Ji, it took him 3 months to learn how to apply mortar to the blue brick when he was an apprentice. So this kind of embodied knowledge is tough to described by the literature, the pictures below are used to demonstrated important steps.

Since the blue bricks here are mostly reused, it is hard to ensure each part of a blue brick is intact. Before you start to put mortar and layer a blue brick, you must to distinguish the right direction. Here is some tips.

查大面的表面和棱角 Distinguish 区分大小面 检 the large and small Check the of quality

faces

Although a blue brick seems to be a cuboid, the sizes of the two faces are actually different.

of the surface, edges and corners on the large face

When the large face is not in good quality with cracks or other damages on the surface , edges or corners and there are not enough good blue bricks, the small could face outward, but it needs mortar to adjust.

This difference is made to let the gap between two bricks more narrower from the facarde, and more mortar coul be filled in the inner part of the gap in to let the 大面 Large face attachment more stronger.

To distinguish the large face from a blue brick, it is easier for a newbie to grab the brick and feel by hands.

Theoretically. the large face normally needs to face outward to the exterior, while the small one should face inward.

After the distinguishing, then it is needed to check the quality of the faces and edges.

Large face

Moment trajectory 01

小面 Small face

03 Check the oriention of the blue brick. Ready to put mortar on the edge.

04 Turn the wrist and the cleaver at the same time, apply the mortar to the edge.

06 Chech the shape of mortar on both the cleaver and the blue brick.

Moment trajectory

07 Adjust again to make the mortar into a good condition.

Good example of the shape

Broken edge

Examples of a bad large face

If the person is right-handed, put the stone on the left hand and make the large surface of the brick face to the left.

Good example of the shape 02 Chech the amount and shape of the mortar on the cleaver.

schematic diagram

Uneven face

Utilize the inner surface

The first step is the most important one. Utilize the inner suface of the bucket to apply mortar properly to the cleaver.

05 Turn the wrist and apply part of the mortar back to the cleaver Broken corner Good example of the angle

08 Adjust the wrists and let the cleaver nealy 90 degrees from the blue brick.

Good example of the shape 09 Pull back the cleaver fast and apply mortar to the edge

10 If necessary, repeat the motions and apply lime to other edges

How to build brick arch?

Where to apply mortar to the blue brick?

1.Build the brick centre To hold the arch of the door, a centre needed to made.

This temporary centre were made by bricks, mortar and soil with the tools of temporary"compasses", cleavers and leveling string.

Since the blue bricks here are mostly reused, it is hard to ensure each part of a blue brick is intact. Before you start to put mortar and layer a blue brick, you must to distinguish the right direction. Here is some tips.

The downward rib( 肋 ) surface and rightward head( 头 ) surface should be applied to mortar to make the bricklayer stable and have a good attachment to with other bricks.

Take this one as an example

Step 1(01,02)

Make the basement for the centre, keep also level the brick on the top in the picture.

There are 2 kinds of choices of mortar shape on the downwar rib surface close to the small face: the integral mortar or separate one. Normally these 2 choices are resulted from the different preference for craftsmen, while the choice of the shape will determinded by the flatness of the downwar rib surface.

01

02

Step 2(03)

Two choices for applying mortar

To check the radius of the arch find the centre of the circle.

Fixed point

Tie the nail to the iron wire and make the compasses for the arch.

Fixed point Fixed point

03

Step 3(03)

Start to build the upper centre.

04

1.Build the brick centre

1.Build the brick centre

Compass 2

Compass 2

Compass 1

Centre of the circle for the arch

The temporary bricks and morter to fix the "compass"

Fixed point for the string

05

06

07

Step 4( 05,06,07)

Fnish the upper part of the brick centre.

Step 5( 08,09)

Use the clay to rendering the arch of the brick centre.

08 Compass 3 Compass 2

Compass 1

Diagarm of the "Compasses"

09

2.Build the brick arch

2.Build the brick arch After finish the bricklaying, use the fluid mixture with cement and lime to reinforce the brick arch.

Utilize the compasses and start to build the arch.

The first thing is to lay the inner ring of the arch, the diagram shows to steps to build it.

Step 1

Build the inner ring of the arch from both sides.

Step 2

Build the base ment of the outer ring of the arch.

Step 3

Finish up the middle part of the arch.

Step 1

Step 2

Diagram of making the inner ring of brick arch Step 3

2. Build the brick arch Skills to apply lime mortar

2. Build the brick arch Skills to apply lime mortar

With its "V" shape of the gap between two blue bricks on the brick arch, the skills will be different from the basic wall's.

Step 1 Test before apply mortar.

Step 2 Apply the mortar to the blue brick.

Ord r

orta

ym

inar

The lower gap should be filled with lime mortar to prevent the leak of the ordinary mortar when you pour it in the gap.

rtar

e mo

Lim

By skilled using the cleaver, the The bow-shape mortar will attach on the blue brick, it when form the v-shape mortar after layer it.

Lime mortar should also be applied to the gap between two ribs. There exists two kinds of skills to make the "V shape" lime mortar.

Step 3 Layer the blue brick and use the compass to check.

Here is another kind of skill to make the V-shap mortar.

Firstly, mortar is applied normaly on the blue brick, when it is layered, push the brick from up to bottom and extrude the mortar onto the surface, the V-shap will be formed.

Practice: Build a experimental round window embeddedd in the bricks wall Objective:

-Apply the knowledge learnt from assistance and observation to the practice.

-Understand each construction process.

-Practice the embodied knowledge.

-Reflect the theoretical knowledge through the local practice.

Step 1 Make a temporary compass for "drawing" arch

To accurately measure and locate the window and its arch, a wooden board is installed with 3 nails tied on the iron wire to function as the temporary compass to measure radius of the arch.

Step 2 Build the bricks foundation

Bricks foundation is made by blue bricks(typical traditional bricks in China) and red bricks with lime and clay as the adhesive.

Step 3 Finish the lower outer ring of the lower part of the round window

Step 6 Try to place the bricks on the mold without adhesive

To accurately measure and locate the window and its arch, a wooden board is installed with 3 nails tied on the iron wire to function as the temporary compass to measure radius of the arch.

Step 7 Finish the inner ring of the upper part of the round window with lime only

Step 8 Filling the gap with fluid mixture of soil and cement To increase the strength of the arch, liquid mortar mixed with soil and cement is used to filled in gap of the bricks the he arch of the round window.

Used nails tied oniron wire as compass to determine the radius for the outer ring of the round winodw.

Step 4 Finish the inner ring of the lower part of the round window Step 5 Make the brick centre for the upper part of the round window Use the bricks to make the main structure of the centre, and use the clay to cover the upper part of it.

Step 9 Finish the inner ring of the upper part of the round window and other parts of the bricks wall Step 10 Remove the centre and do the rendering of the lime