ARQUITEKTURA
El
Temazcal | Montopolis | Cal
Earth | Links
In Winter 2003 I began construction of a temazcal in a small fishing village on the Pacific Coast in the state of Michoacán, México. I chose to build a temazcal as my first superadobe project (outside of Cal-Earth) for several reasons. Preliminary research told me that few, if any people in this area knew of or about temazcales. I wanted to make something small and manageable for a first project, something of a small scale in which I could safely involve children. My research and temazcalli took me to Palenque, Chiapas, to a temazcal constructed by my friend Alonso Méndes, and to Temixco, Morelos to participate in a temazcal with Hilda Malacara.
In Michoacán, I recruited from among my neighbors several amazing youth ages 6-16 who volunteered their time and energy and in return learned fundamentals of superadobe construction and had a lot of fun. In winter 2004 we finished construction, and the building has remained covered and awaiting final plastering and finishing touches, which I hope to finish Winter of 2006-07.
MONTOPOLIS:
A collaboration with the Rhizome Collective
(Spring/Summer 2006)
In March 2006 I was invited to lead a workshop on superadobe at the RUST (Radical Urban Sustainability Training) Workshop hosted by the Rhizome Collective in East Austin, TX. They are currently cleaning up and stewarding an 11.8 acre former brownfield and dump in the Montopolis area of SE Austin close to the banks of the Lower Colorado River. I put forth as a design, a simple three-ring circular adobe bench, to be covered with earth plaster, then mosaic tiles. They liked the idea, and we moved forward.
During the workday in March, with 40 helper/apprentices, we completed two thirds of the first phase of the building, which is the most labor intensive, mixing a few tons of soil with shovels and in tarps. After two more workdays, with much smaller crews, we finished the last ring of the bench. Until the weather cools off, we'll be gathering materials--tiles and appropriate materials for our plaster and cement mix, and planning the actual visual design of the bench and the round plaza inside of it.
California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture is located in the high Mojave Desert, 85 miles east of Los Angeles. For nearly 20 years, my teacher Nader Khalili and his assistants and apprentices have been blazing forward in the field of earth architecture. They have had so much success that NASA and the United Nations have solicited design advice and plan to copy certain approaches and techniques developed by Khalili and the Cal Earth team. In 2004, Cal Earth won the Aga Khan Award for innovation in architecture.
In the fall of 2002 I completed an apprenticeship program in Superadobe construction and in January 2005 returned to Cal Earth for further training and to continue working on various prototype structures.
These are some links to other sustainable architecture and cool projects going on. Please feel free to turn me on to some of your favorites.
Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (MaxPot)
Updated 15 June 2006 / Created and maintained by Ocote Soul Media