Bóveda—the perfect detail for your home
By Atención staff

Workshop 
Building Mexican Bóvedas 
Ramón Aguirre Morales
Thu–Sun, Oct 22–25 
Info: monicahealy@tierraycal.com 

The bóveda is a highly valued detail of homes built in San Miguel. Although it may appear to be a local tradition, in fact it gained popularity here during the late nineties and actually is derived from a construction technique used for thousands of years.

Bóveda is the Spanish name for a vault, a construction that originated thousands of years ago. The vaulted ceiling has seen modifications over time, with an increased sophistication in design and technology, especially in demanding architectural form for shaping large interior spaces, such as temples and cathedrals.

Creating space in your home

In Mexican homes, one sees bóvedas on a smaller scale at times, but they perform the same function—creating a large interior space without spending excessive time or money in construction.

Building your own home often results in people looking at conventional options, without exploring alternative materials and technologies that would be more satisfactory.

The advantages of bóvedas are many: low cost of construction; time saved in execution; flexibility in drawing up, applying and getting results from plans; spaciousness; aesthetic quality and comfort; eliminated use of wood beams and reinforced concrete and light weight.

The general objective of the workshop is to offer a tool for construction that is economical and easily implemented, which contributes to better community development through the diffusion of popular knowledge. Specific objectives are to share experiences in building Mexican bóvedas, to emphasize the structural value of the bóveda, to draw attention to the importance of using this construction technique, to highlight the historical and cultural importance of popular knowledge transmitted from generation to generation, and to facilitate the efforts of builders.

Ramón Aguirre Morales leads a four-day workshop on their construction and the use of local materials. The Mexican Bóvedas Workshop will explain the convenience and low environmental impact of using bóvedas made from compressed earth.

Ramón Aguirre Morales is an architect with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNAM. He has spent 18 years investigating and constructing Mexican bóvedas. His workshop will include lectures about the background, benefits and structure, as well as construction of a bóveda. Contact Monica Healy at monicahealy@tierraycal.com for more information about the workshop.