The Grands Ateliers, part of the "UNESCO Chair in Earthen Architecture, Constructive Cultures and Sustainable Development", put women at the heart of their action by launching for the first time in 2020 the event "Terre, Femmes et Savoir-faire (Earth, Women and Know-How). This cycle of professional exchanges will take place from 2020 to 2022 and offer a new meeting place for dialogue and experimentation between the traditional and contemporary worlds.

Under the patronage of the Grenoble National School of Architecture, the Labex AE&CC and the CRAterre Laboratory, this event is the concrete expression of a new partnership led by Sylvie Wheeler, master craftswoman, which brings together artisans from all over the world, the AsTerre association, CRAterre association, amàco, the German NGO MISEREOR and the CAPI.

Faced with the profound need for sharing and collaboration, Terre, Femmes et Savoir-faire aims to promote international transdisciplinary meetings and exchanges between professionals, practitioners, researchers, artists from different cultures and students.

This event highlights the remarkable work carried out by pioneering and passionate women, master craftswomen whose skills and experience contribute to building tomorrow's world. Its objective is the discovery and dissemination of the richness of traditional know-how, most often ancestral, and of the born know-how of contemporary experimentation and research by women from different cultures on earthen architecture and construction techniques as well as on wall coverings.

The Terre, Femmes et Savoir-faire event is organized around several activities, in particular two professional training courses supervised by craftswomen, aimed at all those who wish to learn or acquire new practices and know-how on the art of building with clay. These courses are to be followed by a seminar, Place aux bâtisseuses, which is organized by the collective of the same name and composed of several professionals registered, between 2018 and 2020, with the DSA - Architecture de terre - (Earthen Architecture Department) of the Grenoble National School of Architecture. It will present a series of debates, screenings and workshops, and will exhibit numerous portraits of women, allowing visitors to discover the works and reflections of today's female artists.

To learn more about the event, click here (in French).