This summer, Nour Jafar (MSHP ’25, PhD student in Architecture) and HSPV lecturer and paintings conservator Cassie Myers spent a few weeks expanding the historic finishes collection of cross-sectional samples for teaching and research. Drawing from students’ theses, seminar case studies, former CAC projects, and Myers Conservation projects, they added some 15 new cross sections to the collection.
Photomicrographs in visible (left) and ultra violet/visible (right) light show that two layers of clay plaster render were applied to the adobe brick structure, suggesting that more than one generation of inhabitants occupied this period of construction. Attesting to their sensibilities, together with their access to local resources and knowledge of paint making, is evidence of red ochre paint bound in an unknown medium, possibly a type of plant gum or animal glue on the most recent render. Previous renders showing soiling, may have also been painted but lost over time.
