DESIGN AND BUILD

Of course, I could never have taken on such an ambitious project without Ed. His ability to take a design and transform it into a physical reality is well known to our friends and family. But this is the first time we will be working as a team to build ourselves a home and a business. We have spent many hours walking the land, looking at the rise and fall of its contours - the position of the sun at different times of day, the direction of the prevailing wind. Evenings are spent researching adobe architecture online, earth building construction techniques, doodling on drawing pads, and brainstorming eco-friendly ideas that will keep our carbon footprint on the land as small as possible without compromising comfort.

   

The stones that cover the land will be used for stem walls to support the adobe bricks that will form the structures of the buildings and the perimeter wall. Adobe, or mud, is a common building material in regions that have low rainfall, and is also more able to withstand seismic shocks. Although the countryside is dotted with small mud houses, adobe has also been used for some of the most architecturally complicated and grand colonial architecture in the city of Sucre. Our intention is to use passive solar heating as a natural resource by positioning all the buildings to face the sun. One of the main attractions in building with adobe is for its ability to absorb heat from the sun during the day and store it at night. We will have an unlimited supply of mud from excavating the foundations of the buildings and perimeter walls, underground water cisterns and the swimming pool.