BATON ROUGE -- In a small, enclosed area on LSU's campus, a group of architecture students built a tiny one-room house with concrete walls, a tin roof and a dirt floor. It has about 80 square feet of living space and cost less than $300 to build -- far less than the average backyard tool shed.
But for many in the town of Reynosa, Mexico, it's a dream house.
To the people living in Reynosa's squatter settlement known as Roma, any house with a roof that doesn't leak is a dream house. And some LSU architects are trying to make dreams come true.
Six second-year architecture students enrolled in an independent-study course last fall called "The Mexico Project," taught by LSU School of Architecture assistant professor David Baird. Their assignment was to build a prototype of an inexpensive house, using a concrete-panel wall system, that could be replicated in Reynosa. Their finished product, made of concrete, wood and tin, cost about $270, and after evaluating the house, the students believe they can bring the cost down even more.
"It's hard to convince people in the U.S. that this is an improvement for the squatters in Reynosa," Baird said of the model house. "But their houses are made of cardboard, tin -- anything they can find. And they are constantly having to repair them."
The house will remain standing for several months, with Baird and his students evaluating how well it holds up over time.
The independent-study course was the latest phase in a project Baird has been working on for more than four years. His quest -- to develop building technologies that can help the people of Reynosa to build decent, affordable housing for themselves -- has taken him, along with several colleagues and students, to Reynosa to study the environment, culture and building materials available there. It has also taken them through a series of designs that were sketched, built and analyzed to determine whether they would be applicable in Reynosa. With each different design, something new was learned. For example, one of Baird's students in 1997 came up with the idea of using concrete panels for the walls -- an idea that is still being tested and refined on this latest model home. The fact that concrete is accessible and inexpensive in Mexico, as well as sturdy, makes it the perfect building material for Reynosa.
Baird hopes he and his students can come up with a building system that will reduce the cost of a home to less than $300, which is the average cost for houses in Roma among the population group that Baird is trying to help. Once the building system is refined, Baird and his students will travel to Mexico to build the house and conduct workshops to teach the residents of Reynosa how to build similar houses themselves. Baird hopes to return to Reynosa after six or eight months to see how the building system has been used.
"This is different than just building a house," Baird said of the project. "We want to develop techniques that empower the people of Reynosa to build for themselves. It's a self-help mechanism."
Baird said the strategy for creating an appropriate design is to utilize the materials that are available in Reynosa and to focus on the needs of the people who live there. The residents of Roma are mainly concerned with having a roof that doesn't leak, he said. On his first visit to Reynosa, most people had water standing inside their homes. And with little furniture, many were actually sleeping on the wet ground. To help solve the problem, Baird has reached an agreement with the Lamar advertising company. The company will donate its used billboard coverings to be used as roofing materials. The vinyl-like sheets, which are waterproof and do not easily deteriorate, would make excellent roof coverings, Baird said.
But thinking in terms of what will work for the citizens of Reynosa is often difficult for architects, Baird said.
"Our standard of living is so high that it's hard for us to put ourselves in the position of these squatters and design appropriate technologies for them," Baird said. "Architects are not used to building homes for $300." Baird said Reynosans also tend to add on to their houses as the need arises and when they can afford to do so. Such random additions contribute to the architects' difficulty of creating the perfect design. The design must be inexpensive, made of available materials and adaptable to renovations.
"This project challenges the traditional role of an architect," Baird said. "Architects are often trained to design things that are complete, perfect objects, but we won't have control over these houses and how they will transform over time. But we will not have an impact on this situation unless we relinquish control over the aesthetic outcome."
Reynosa's population has doubled to more than one million since the North American Free Trade Agreement was passed during President Bill Clinton's first term. Located just south of the Texas border, the town became a corridor for American-Mexican trade. An influx of U.S. companies to the area created jobs in Reynosa, and people from across Mexico flooded the community in search of work. There weren't enough jobs to go around, and many were left poor and homeless.
"These squatters work in plants that supply us with goods," Baird said. "In a way, by working for such low wages, they subsidize our lifestyle. They contribute to the world economy. It's our moral and ethical obligation to help them improve their quality of life."
Baird has received funding for the project from two Baton Rouge churches -- the Trinity Christian Center and the Vineyard Christian Fellowship on Jefferson -- and from a Seattle-based company called TCom, which manufactures computer equipment. However, he is looking to other organizations to assist with the cost. He also hopes to bring an interdisciplinary approach to the project. He plans to have members of LSU's engineering faculty test the concrete wall panels for stability and make some general refinements to the overall structural system of the house. And architecture graduate student Edgar Gonzalez is preparing a bilingual booklet that will demonstrate how to use the building system developed by LSU. The booklets will be distributed at the building workshops in Reynosa, and the information will also be posted to a bilingual Web site that is now under construction.
The project falls under the umbrella of the College of Design's Office of Community Design and Development, which was created in August 1999 to assist faculty members with research projects, to extend the capabilities of the college statewide and to educate citizens of the state about the built environment.
Baird said he hopes the project teaches students not only the basics of architecture and design, but also the importance of a social conscience. And it seems the value of the project is not lost on the students.
"By doing the things we love to do -- designing and building -- we can help these people and put the things we learn into a real life situation," second-year student Chad Graci of Metairie said. "That's really important to me."
Contact Kristine Calongne
LSU News Service
225 388-5985
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