Casa Bardicci & Gaston House

This is a portable camp made for use at a medieval event in North America called Pennsic. Pennsic war is run by a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA and held every July/ August at Coopers Lake Campground in Slippery Rock Pennsylvania. Pennsic was first held in 1972 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsic...
The camp, Casa Bardicci, was started by Bill Thorpe and James Lee Thorpe in the 1990's. Set 500 years ago, it’s a household of artists and musicians, inspired by the Medici family of the early 16th century, Casa Bardicci is headed by our patron, the mysterious Baron Guillermo Bardicci. The camp has become one of the must visit places at Pennsic.
In 2009 I was invited to camp with the household and was offered a prime camping spot on the lake. Being a 40 plus year old event, most camping at Pennsic is controlled by the households who have camped in the same spot for years, so the chance to camp in such a glorious location was not to be taken lightly.
I told Billy I would build something worthy of such a gift. I was very inspired by the atmosphere the members of the Casa had created and the structures were amazing for an all-volunteer group of people with other professions, then building temporary structures.
The first structure I built was my house (seen at the end of the video) which sits right by the Coopers lake. The house was designed with 4 rules I set for myself;
1. It must look as real as possible for a structure that could have existed in the late 15th to early 16th century. Any surface you would normally touch or lean against, needed to feel “real”
2. I need to be able to pick up, by myself, each piece of the structure. It needed to be lightweight.
3. A minimum number of tools and personnel for set up.
4. The entire structure, furniture and all needed to fit in one trailer.
The elements of the house where researched using European references from 1486 to 1510 (The household is set 500 years ago and my first Pennsic was 1986)
The house fits into a 22-foot race car trailer and can be unpacked and set up with 5 tools in 2-3 days with 2-3 people. (more info about the specific construction techniques can be found here in multiple posts: http://diligentdwarves.blogspot.com/2...
In 2011, I learned that some of the original Casa structures were damaged and elements needed to be replaced, I volunteered to build new structures in my Hollywood shop Global Effects. These are; front arcades, great hall structure, ceiling and loggias. The Sistine ceiling is printed on a heavy vinyl, normally used for billboards. The one main element missing from the video, is the Casa's amazing Chapel, set up each year, single-handedly, by George M. Cochrane, our Chaplin.
The Casa is set up over the course of 5 days by a volunteer crew of between 8 and 15 people. The crew, headed up by Dion Clark, busts their butts and gets this whole structure packed down in two and a half days. The main structures fits in a 24 foot race car trailer and the spare pieces and set dressing are stored in an old 40' tractor trailer box. All the elements are stored on site at Coppers lake.
Interested in becoming part of the fun, more info on Casa Bardicci can be found here:
  / casabardicci