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CAN THE GLOBAL HOUSING PROBLEM BE SOLVED?
Stone Floors. 
Floors were from local stone.
 
The structure was framed with the wood we milled on site.

 

Local materials.  Caña castilla.
Caña castilla.  The ceilings were framed with a wonderful local material called Caña Castilla.  The walls were also reinforced with this material.  It has the appearance of sugar cane and the strength of bamboo.  It grows rapidly and once established produces a new crops of canes each year.  One of its’ most important characteristics is that it is resistant to rot and insect attack.  We found adobe walls reinforced with this material that were 50-100 years old with the caña still intact.
Adobe.  Walls were made from adobe using a traditional Central American system with modifications.  Rocks and mud are placed between the caña.  Then it is plastered over with an adobe clay-sand mixture.  To gain the best methods and skills we sought out the best local craftspeople and also brought in outside specialists.

 

 

 
Whitewash.  The adobe walls were then whitewashed.  One of the features that distinguished the crude adobe houses typically constructed in the countryside from attractive adobe buildings was whitewash.  There is a world of difference between a black mud wall and one that has been whitewashed.  However, the campesinos could not afford a sack of lime to make whitewash.  Providing lime was a very small but critical piece of assistance that allowed these campesinos to create good quality houses.

 

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