Rocío Merlos López (Proyecto Siendo Tierra)

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK

Rocío Merlos graduated in Fine Arts and specialized in construction techniques with earth. She carries out natural finishings and renderings using this material, realizing embossments, incisions, sgraffito, trencadís (broken tile mosaics), natural paintings, etc. She offers training, specialized work on site and advisory services. 

She is part of the team named “Siendo Tierra”, a travelling training project in decorative techniques with earths, which promotes learning via courses and theoretical-practical workshops. 

The work on-site is completely personalized. They carry out their own formulations with the soil of the place where the work is going to be carried out, which is stabilized with natural additives extracted also from the land. When they don’t have access to the optimal soils they make use of clays, sands, marble powders, etc. to achieve the desired composition. In other cases, they resort to specific businesses dedicated to the manufacture of those types of mortars. 

Rammed-earth plastering offers a better quality of life. They are breathable, and due to their hygroscopic capacity they control the room-temperature. They are also flame-retardants, work as excellent thermal and acoustic insulators, do not emit toxic substances and they neutralize unpleasant odours. They are mainly suitable for interiors but they can be basically applied on whatever sort of supporting element. They also enable artistic creation thanks to their great plasticity and malleability.