Studies and publications
Train on how to intervene on heritage building lead l'Ecole d'Avignon to change the rule : the rewriting of the DTU (Document Technique Unifié), about binders was an important step, for the companies and for the prescribers, to re-introduce the traditionnals materials (lime, plaster) forbidden until then.
The multiplication of training course regarding facade, confronting us to a lot of differences in the construction, lead to focus on the knowledge : first with a guidebook (more than 10 000 copies sold), then with a work on binder typologies in France, between a culture and the technologies. Follows a strategy in the campaign of facade cleaning who take into account what we find (historical referencement, techniques, heritage) and studies (sample suitcase, specimen), that are a count and a recipe document, a prescription and training support, and most of all a common tool for white and blue collar worker. We are looking to reduce the loose of information between the planning and the acting.
On the question of carpentry, the logic of preservation guided our works, with the idea that an ancient building possessed an architectural value and that it could be protected, repaired and recycled while holding up to the modern requirement of comfort.
Same problematic for the large architectural surfaces : how to conciliate preservation of the historical substance, matter of the restorater, and parts that needs reconstruction, matter of the building company ; how to assemble them on the same scaffolding ?
With 15 countries neighbour of the Mediterranean sea, a large text corpus about the traditionnal architectural stock, its state, its usage value, its future in the strategy of rehabilitation was created, describing its forms, building arts and the health of the associated knwoledge. The book "Traditionnal mediterranean architecture" has been published in 3 versions : french, english, spanish. It contain a CD Rom, describing database of thousand of illutrated pages.
