So what are Bóvedas anyway?
Bóvedas is Spanish for Vaults, used to cover spaces with curved surfaces forming the roof or ceiling of a structure. The most famous example of a Bóvedas is Duomo in Florence, Italy.
The structure when build may or may not use forms underneath it, and once built it can be danced upon with a tune of your favorite EDM artist(verified information).
There are many types of Vaults and that and how it works might be a story for another time.
So how does one learn to build such a thing?
One fine day, I came across a post on youtube about building arches. At the time I thought it was mind bending how someone built arches without any modern tools. I was amazed by the skill and the laying of bricks in such a way without falling seemed to work against physics. I was curious to know how they do it so I started researching and found out about the person in the video. His name was James Anthony.
And I would eventually learn he is among one of the two major masters of vault building in Mexico.
Now one just doesn’t learn to build Vaults and Domes, the construction of such creatures is a closely guarded skill only shared among a few families of Bóvederos (Vault and dome builders) in Mexico. They mainly build two types of vaults – The mexican vault and the Cañon. Catenaries and Aristas (intersecting) vaults are uncommon. Well I was not a Bóvederos so the chance for me to find someone to teach me this skill was close to none. I however do not give up, so I stumble upon an email address from Colorado Earth Workshop. I reached out and after 20 days heard back that I should look up https://constructivearts.org. I followed through, I send a few more emails and then radio silence for months. Then one day a email arrives, saying something along the lines Workshop: Learn to build Bóvedas and guess who was teaching it, the man himself, James Anthony. Well I got myself signed up, drove 1000 miles from southern California Desert to Terlingua, Texas. I found myself in one of the remotest town I have yet seen and that is saying a lot from someone who has lived in Twentynine Palms, California. Between no cell service whatsoever, this is the first situation where I discovered climbing up the nearest hills gets you that one bar of service to text a faint msg to your colleagues or loved once.
The workshop was everything I excepted and more. I met not just James but younger folks like Nathan and Jake two architects working on classical construction. I had the chance to share ideas and learn from Mike McGuire who is staunch advisor for sustainable architecture. The host of the workshop Bob and Heather departed first hand experience to us of living the life sustainably, and improving quality of life not through consumption but through social interaction and bonding over meals while working as a community to build beautiful roofs out of bricks and some good old mud.
I plan to continue honing my new bóvederian skills and if you found this exciting, you are welcome to reach out to me.
My email singh4arjunyadav@gmail.com