Consulting on a project in Hungary:
the monastery of Tihany    1 2 3

This technical mission of the Ecole d'Avignon came as the final step of an entire series of training missions with the Hungarian Historic Monuments contractors and with the entire body of Hungarian Historic Monuments Inspectors. The goal was to combine a technical project, the utilization of traditional local materials, the transfer of the techniques used to the local contractor, and the creation of a large work sample (full height, two wall-spans).

The objective was to rediscover the ancestral techniques used prior to the use of Portland cement and to the artificial perfection of modern smoothed facades. So as to retain coherency with the brick base and with necessary repairs (broken tile and brick), the Ecole worked with:

• mortars with a very rich proportion of broken tile (20% of the aggregate on the higher parts, 50% on the lowest level)
• A local aerial lime putty, of very high quality.

This technique both permitted the application of occasional thick layers, and also brought to the mortar the hydraulic characteristics necessary to hold up in a rigorous continental climate.The smoothing of the plastering was accomplished with short rules, 60cm in length, so as to preserve the irregularities of the wall.

The final finish of the plastering was constituted by a very thing layer, with a fine white aggregate offering a granular volume of 0-2mm, that was smoothed with a trowel.