It would seem we are all booked for Sunday morning! (Yes "morning").
They are expecting us at the brick factory about 10:00. The official address is:
Munlab Ecomuseo dell'Argilla
via Camporelle 50
10020 Cambiano (TO)
tel.e fax 011 9441439
www.spaziopermanente.it
but you can also follow signs or look for Fornace Carena at the same address. The visit will cost €6.50 per person. Remember to "dress-down" with boots or a change of shoes! We are booked for a lovely lunch at the Trattoria del Centro, Via Martini, 34 in beautiful downtown Cambiano (about 1 km from the brick factory). www.trattoriadelcentro.it Lunch will be all inclusive with house wine for €24. Menu based on asparagus but with a few surprises. If anyone has any special dietary needs, please let me know so I can arrange things. See you soon!

A sunny (hopefully) Sunday in May. If you're a local, instead of sleeping in, why not join us in an outdoorsy exploration of bits and pieces of the past, present, and future of this area. If you're coming from a distance, you may decide to make a weekend of it and see nearby Torino, or Alba, or Asti while you're in the area.

Slip into your jeans and wellingtons for a walk in the old quarry of a brick factory that has since been restored to nature. We'll be getting both our feet and hands dirty while playing with the clay in the Munlab (see below).

After whetting our appetites, we'll head back into town for lunch at the Trattoria del Centro, where Marco and Andrea are planning a special seasonal menu based on locally-grown asparagus accompanied by other Piedmontese culinary taste treats and fine wines. Total price per person should be somewhere between €30-36.

an ecomuseum tells
a tale
of its area,
munlab tells
the tale
of the Pianalto

The Pianalto is a 400sqkm area of clay soil which divides Turin from the Roero and the Langhe. Over time the use of clay has given rise to numerous clayworks and the creation of hundreds of fisheries.

a place where
clay
water
people
meet

Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla transformed a century-old factory and the clay caves in the main interpretation site to read the territory and to try to be “a data base for the community, a workshop, a meeting space for new projects, a place which presents the community and the local area to its visitors”
Hugues De Varine 1988

VISITING MUNLAB

Munlab guides visitors to discover the new brick factory and the century-old one, the clay labs, and the renaturalised clay quarries, the rooms prepared to narrate the history of clay, this territory, and men.

The brick factory reveals the connections between men and material and guides to discover the signs on the landscape.
Technologies have changed: from the hand made bricks to the automated production line.

In the lab, everyone can try making bricks with the original tools and their own hands and can appreciate the way to make clay architectural decorations called, typical of the Middle Age buildings of the towns in the area.

Where: Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla, via Camporelle 50, Cambiano (TO)
Tour duration: 2 hours

un ecomuseo racconta
del suo territorio,
munlab racconta
del Pianalto

Il Pianalto è un’area di 400Kmq di terre argillose che divide Torino dal Roero e dalle Langhe. Nel tempo la presenza della risorsa argilla ha dato vita ad un’intensa attività di fornace e ha stimolato la nascita di numerose peschiere per l’ allevamento delle tinche.

un luogo dove
argilla
acqua
persone
si incontrano

Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla ha trasformato una fornace d’inizio ‘900 e le sue cave dimesse nel sito d’interpretazione centrale per leggere il territorio con l’intento di essere un archivio di conoscenze per la comunità, un laboratorio aperto, un punto d’incontro per dar vita a nuovi progetti, un luogo che presenta la comunità e il territorio ai suoi visitatori. (da Hugues De Varine, 1988)

PERCORSO DI VISITA

Ai visitatori Munlab propone un percorso guidato che esplora la fabbrica in attività e la fornace d’inizio ‘900, i laboratori e le cave rinaturalizzate, le sale attrezzate per raccontare di argilla, di territorio e di uomini.

Una fornace di laterizi svela il legame che lega l’uomo e l’argilla e guida a scoprirne i segni sul territorio.
Nel tempo le tecnologie cambiano: dalla lavorazione manuale alla linea completamente automatizzata.

In laboratorio è possibile cimentarsi nell’antico gesto del mattonaio per realizzare un mattone utilizzando la tecnica manuale e le attrezzature originali o provare a realizzare formelle in cotto che riproducono elementi decorativi di edifici medievali del chierese.