Please note this document is currently a work in progress.
Introduction
Our 10 week long project is a combination of social service and a comprehensive experience with natural building, We both began with very little experience with adobe
Project Participants
Summer 2006:
Purpose
Our final goal is to provide Parras DIF (Desarollo Integral de la Familia) a refuge for homeless senior citiczens to find shelter and companionship, while using a natural building matereal which is a common part of the area's culture. Our purpose for the Parras 2006 group is to provide experience working with adobe.
General Description
Ideally, the building will consist of a kitchen area, a living room or social area, and sleeping quarters. The projected number of adobes needed to complete the shelter is aproximately 1,300 which we will be making off site and transporting to DIF when completed.
Plans
Proposed Location
The adobes will be made at the home of our friends at DIF where there is sufficient space and water to meet our goals. The shelter will be built in the far back right of the Parras DIF headquarters on calle Ramos Arizpe.
Justification
Proposed Materials and Budget
Image:Adobe_materials.JPG
Process
-
Fig 1: Here the students of the Parras 2006 program are clearing the area where we are going to be making adobe bricks. It is important to remove the majority of organic mater so that it does not get mixed into the adobe and level the ground so the bricks have a flat surface to be cured on.
-
Fig 2: To clear and level the area we used hoes, shovels, rakes, and pick axes.
-
Fig 3: During our clearing process we made separate piles of the organic mater and trash. At this point we are not sure what the home owners are going to do with these piles but we will suggest that the organic mater be composted.
-
Fig 4: This process took 18 people only two hours to finish. Now we have a large enough area to dry 250 bricks per day.
-
Fig: The adoberas must be soaked in water over night so that they are easyer to use and so that they don't stick to the adobe when they get pulled off.
-
Fig: After the pile of dry dirt is made into a crater it needs to be filled with water and soaked over night so that the hard chunks of dirt will be easyer to break up and so that most of the dirt becomes wet and ready to be made into adobe.
-
Fig: When the dirt is ready to be made into abobe we pile the dry dirt into the middle where there is a pool of water.
-
Fig:
-
-