Empordaguia

He works with clay, the most accessible and natural material. With clay he builds houses that are like his own, different, comfortable, and welcoming. He believes in sensual architecture that uses natural resources and causes minimal impact on the environment and its inhabitants..

We spoke with Lluís Auquer (Verges, 1951) at his clay house in Rupià. It has thick walls that arise out of the earth that surround it, with wooden beams and panelling. It is a very special house in which light falls from all possible angles and which welcomes relaxed conversation. But Lluís doesn’t relax; he gets angry and exalted when he speaks of architecture. For this architect who once was a hippy and lived in communes, building has taken a wrong turn. His path is different. “Location comes first for me, surroundings, climate, and biology. This you have to relate with the absurd and wrong rules set up by municipalities, and with the wishes of the client. Mixing all these elements, you end up with a project. Actually, I am only a mediator between the client and nature.” It seems so logical, yet this is not the norm in present-day construction that seeks profits above all else. But Lluís champions bio-construction. “Actually, we don’t have to invent anything new. We must preserve our traditions, learn from our ancestors, and improve them with modern technology.” Lluís has done ample research; he travelled throughout Northern Africa to see how they build houses there, but also wrote a wide-ranging study on the original Catalan masías. “From the Stone Age to the 13^th C. houses in the Empordà were built with wooden framework filled with trodden clay. This mud construction technique is still used the valleys of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Here, we analyze the mud in a laboratory to make it more stable for construction, adding sand, gravel, or lime to achieve the required solidity. This is a very sustainable technique regarding climate change as well as employment. Materials are local, there are no transport costs, it is dried by the sun, and it creates jobs.” Lluís’ own house is a good example. It is surrounded by small patios, some of them with ponds, some with greenery, that create a biological balance that makes the house more comfortable. In winter, the thick clay walls guarantee a comfortable atmosphere (temperature and humidity). In summer, the precisely located windows and doors allow for drafts of fresh air. And the water and greenery outside play their part in cooling down the area. Of course the house has a filter that allows grey water to be used in the garden, as well as a rainwater catchments and a cistern for 50.000 litres. Solar panels provide hot water. Luís’ ideal is the self-sufficient house, and beyond that the self-sufficient village. “We have so many resources: biomass, solar energy, wind power, rivers, the sea. With all of these we could create energy without needing large corporations. Networked power plants could free self-sufficient towns from the humiliating bills we have to pay to monopolistic companies. But nobody seems to be interested in such a solution, because large corporations are being paid with money from the taxpayer to build solar- or wind-driven power plants. If an individual tries to do something, he only finds difficulties in his path.”

According to Lluís Auquer, in an ideal world, man and his works would be smoothly integrated in the environment. That is why he defends the vegetable gardens that surround villages in the Empordà, as they fuse town and country. “Nowadays, there is no regard for landscape, it is brutally attacked without any logic but with environmental reports that lie and greenwash projects. This must stop, the 21^st C. deserves something better.”