Tiles are essential to the image of historical buildings and sites, creating the Dachlandschaft – the scenery of the roofs - and representing an important component of local identity and heritage. This course gives an overview of the production process of manufactured tiles and bricks, nowadays used in restoration projects.

The proliferation of inadequate large-scale industrially-produced materials has led to the disappearance of handmade tile roofs that have populated Transylvanian towns and villages since the 18th Century, when the transition from wood and straw to ceramic roofing took place. Requiring years of experience and difficult labor, traditional tile and brick making is currently an endangered craft in Romania.

Hence, the course focuses on some of the few artisans still practicing it, in the recently reestablished (2013) roofing workshop from Apoș, in the Saxon territory of Southern Transylvania – possibly the only one still employing exclusively traditional techniques in Europe. The endeavor has been initiated and supported by the Monumentum Association, an association comprising architects and restorers focusing on the preservation of rural heritage, whose members also contribute with the theoretical background for the course. The artisans introduce the practical steps to be undertaken, illustrating each operation, from the extraction of the raw material from the clay pit, to its processing, molding and modeling, drying, firing, and fixing in place.