Casas Que Cantan -
Houses That Sing
Eight women in a community called Xochitl
("Flower" in Nauhuatl) on the outskirts of Cuidad Obregon, Mexico,
have been working together to build each other's houses.
Responding to their invitations to help, we
co-developed a building system that used easily available, inexpensive
materials and improved the desolate living conditions of these people. We
have kept the process as simple as possible so they could eventually learn to
build it all themselves, as they are.
Each house costs $500. Donations from many generous people, several of
whom are building or dreaming of their own straw bale homes, have helped keep
the women supplied with the needed building materials. We hope to continue
helping them and other such communities.
 The Canelo project
Below: This 5,000 sq.
ft. office building for the Sonoran branch of Save
The Children, in Cuidad
Obregon, Mexico
was built to demonstrate the use of local, natural and low-cost materials
such as straw, clay, carrizo and lime. It's construction exemplifies a way of building that is
unlike modern commercial construction.
Designed organically, new ideas and
experiments were regularly incorporated during the entire process. Built
using only a sketch of the floor plan, the building evolved to meet its own
particular conditions and was not dictated by a fixed set of plans.
Save The children
©2004 St.Clair Foundation,
All Rights Reserved
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