OAXACA, MEXICO, 2000-2004
This project, developed with seed funds from the WK Kellogg Foundation, succeeded in transforming a heavily eroded site within a struggling community into a place for learning and a productive landscape. The learning center engages young people, and provides technical education and support for abating poverty through a better use of local resources.
The WK Kellogg Foundation launched a Latin American Network of Eco-Learning Centers here in 2001, and there are now eighteen centers in twelve countries in operation.
DESIGN TO CHANGE LIVES
The campus design is aimed at improving environmental literacy through direct experience: design solutions were derived from context, students and staff participate actively in a transparent energy consumption and waste recycling scheme, technologies are highly visible, and workshops and courses always involve hands-on experience.
Several hundred people from Mexico’s many regions, as well as dozens of international participants, have been involved with this center which is a valued institution in its environment, and an evolving example of sustainable design in the semi-arid tropics.
WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE: KEYLINE DESIGN AND RESTORATIVE EARTHWORK
A keyline analysis helped determine best sites for runoff storage in earth dams, and siting of absorption ditches on contour (swales).
Access roads and paths were integrated with earthworks and planting zones. Building sites were placed to maximize the site repair that takes place in their immediacy.
The project has proved the use of r gabions, dry walls, cover crops, as well as machinery of various scales for drylands rehabilitation.
Water table levels have shown a 1.8 m average gain in the open bore well, resulting from water infiltration in swales and earth dams.
SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION AND SELF-BUILT HOUSING
Structure protoypes for improved living and social conditions were developed, using pattern language design, mainly local resources, minimizing pollution, and fitting within local culture. Food supply is integrated with settlement. These include dormitories, cafeteria, composting toilets, guesthouses, classroom, event hall, seed-bank, office, and sweatlodge.
Earth was the most readily available building material. Tests and structures include rammed earth, cob, adobe, Egyptian vaults, Earthship technology, compressed earth blocks, pisé, recicled waste materials, as well as strawbale construction.
Of special mention is a bamboo structure that was erected on site in a partnership with Studio Prix from the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Viena. Seven students spent six months building an environmentally performing high-tech structure that catches and stores water that falls from the sky.
A DESIGN CURRICULUM AND APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES TO SOLVE LOCAL NEEDS
A design curriculum was developed at CAISTT which includes:
* Theory and principles of design
* Methods of design
* Recycling and waste management
* Organic food production
* Water harvesting and management
* Ecological pest control
* Drought-proofing
* Soil rehabilitation and erosion control
* Livestock
* Catastrophe preparedness and prevention
* Windbreaks and fire control.
* climatic factor strategies for humid tropics and dry lands
* Domestic food security and production.
* Ecological pest control,
* Orchard and tree crops, forestry, plantations, and forages
* Soil rehabilitation and erosion control
* Livestock, green manures and farmers’ trees
* Wildlife
* Design for catastrophe prevention
* Drought-proofing property
* Earthworks
* Windbreaks and bushfire control
* Aquaculture, aquatic plants and fisheries
* Energy-efficient housing: site selection,
* Appropriate technology, recycling and waste management
* Whole systems design for human settlements.
* Trusts, legal strategies, alternative economic structures
