The Monterrey Experience

Design Altruism Project

2008-07-25T15:08:00.002-05:00

Back in Fall of 2007, David Stairs, a professor of Graphic Design at Central Michigan University visited our studio to talk to us about what he has been doing and to offer some comments about our projects. David began the Design Altruism Project which is a part of Designers Without Borders. When David visited us he spoke of some work he did in Uganda (the FDNC one) which was quite inspiring. While I was trying to determine what exactly to do for thesis as well as after thesis, we had some good conversations. When I completed my thesis proposal, David agreed to read it and offered suggestions. In return, he asked that I write an article about this past semester. You can find it here.

The Experience has Ended

2008-07-24T15:53:00.002-05:00

The end of July has come, and so has my stay in Monterrey; for now at least. Briefly, here are some thoughts that I had on the way home.

As a result of this past semester, remaining in Monterrey for part of the summer to continue working on some of these projects, and the search for a way to make a living I have many thoughts about what design and education should work toward. For the people who realize the need to be socially, globally, and environmentally responsible in our work, moving beyond titles and occupations is necessary. For architects, the norm is to become registered and continue to doing quality projects, ideally with repeat clients. However, being aware of local realities beyond the common architectural projects is a step that must be taken. The firm that I repeatedly interned with in Indiana is an expert in school construction. Recent cuts in the state budget and new guidelines in the way state funded projects will come about has caused the market for schools to "dry up." Predictably, the firm is looking to other markets and other states for more work to take the place of the void created in the local school market. But a socially conscious designer would look further than the obvious void in the usual workload. The lack of funds for schools has many roots. I do not claim to know them, but I am aware of the fact that there are about 8,000 abandoned houses in the downtown Indianapolis area, there are about 2,000 homeless people in Indianapolis on any given night, and there are many students at these schools who are classified as homeless. I know that a large scale low-income housing project was completed in Muncie, IN, but that the architect had trouble being compensated for the work and a similar project is not likely to be undertaken in the near future. I know that Indiana is a destination for many immigrants from countries to the South and that there are many inequalities that the people must deal with. I know all of these things because I search to know this information, and others have done the same. But what will this architecture firm, and others like it, do? What will students who are aware of these problems and would like to work in their home state be able to do to address these problems while still making a living?

In Mexico, the world of the common architect and the common person are very different. At ITESM, the university I attended, all students are required to complete about 400 hours of social service before they are allowed to graduate. But many of the students who have the opportunity to go to this school have jobs lined up for them when they graduate, often stopping the pattern of social work.

Ball State University architecture department has options for students to study and learn about global social issues. The CAP Asia program and the NASHCC program, which I participated in, are two examples that provide excellent experiences. But only a handful are able to participate in these each year. Several times I have had people say to me how so many people are talking about a paradigm shift in design education and the design professions and that it is great how I am doing something about it...but I still feel like I am just talking about it. The education system is full of factors that create so much impatience. In a world that revolves around four month semesters and grades, I strongly believe that it is past the time for education to not be in the forefront of socially responsible design work. It simply is not proving to be sustainable enough ("sustainable enough" sounds like an oxymoron, but I digress). However, doing something while being in the education system is one of the best learning opportunities there is, and these programs should be expanded by 1000% at the least.

To close, this thesis was something that theses should be moving toward: a personal learning experience that is more than a summary of the education process and is something that is much more than results based, especially in terms of images. And most importantly, making a change to do something you feel strongly about is not as hard as it appears and is very rewarding.

Now that school is over (until that doctorate study, maybe) I'm off to find some work. Wish me luck.

Friday Night Excitment

2008-07-08T19:40:00.004-05:00

I had a memorable Friday night experience on July 4, 2008.

The old section of town, Barrio Antiguo, is known as the area for nightlife. There are some really nice places that we sometimes go to. One of which is called Akbal. It's a cool place with a lot of nice stuff on the walls and ceilings (chandeliers and such) but no cover and good prices. We're there for a few hours and it gets to be about 2:30 so we ask for the check (there were 6 of us). We are also on a patio on the second floor.

All of a sudden one of the servers opens the door to the inside and tells everyone to come inside and be quite. Puzzled, I ask why we need to keep quite to a friend and he says he doesn't know, perhaps because of the police. So I'm wondering...is the bar doing something illegal that we didn't know about? Is there a noise complaint for the bar? Is that even possible? Also, Friday was the day that my visa expired, so if cops are involved, I'm wondering how long I'll be in jail.

So we go inside and we sit down on a couch and I start to tell myself that worrying is only going to cloud my thinking, so I start looking around trying to find out what is going on. After a few minutes, there is a loud crash from downstairs, some people scream, and a server runs up the stairs and tells us all to get against one of the walls. At this point I'm sure that the SWAT team has just busted out the barricaded door and the bar workers are trying to prepare us for a search. But this thought lasts only for a few seconds as I immediately recognize the smell of Kerosene, and it's thick in the air. I mention this to my friends and step away from the wall looking for a way out. Just then two servers run up the stairs with fire extinguishers, and even before they said a word I had put my shirt over my mouth and headed for the stairs. Sure enough they told everyone to exit the building as quickly and as calmly as possible. I was the third person down the stairs, being very selfish and expecting that everyone would make it behind me.

The downstairs was quite smoky, but I could tell that there was not a fire in the immediate area. As I stepped into the street, I looked at the neighboring restaurant and saw smoke pouring out of the windows that had been broken in the explosion (the crashing noise from earlier) and saw a faint reddish light inside. There were only pedestrians on the street, no cops or firefighters. I met up with the rest of the group (I found it humorous that all the girls were coughing loudly because their outfits didn't provide any clothing for covering the airways for smoke avoidance). Two of the girls were freaking out and said we had to get out of there immediately. My hand was grabbed and we literally ran to the nearest taxi.

I have no idea what happened to the building or how big the fire actually was. What I do know is that we each got a few free drinks from the excitement!

Also, if you are keeping up with photos, there are several new ones. "Photographs of Monterrey 2," "Visits to Rural Mexico 2," and "Studio Project Context" have been updated, while "Photographs of Monterrey 3," "We Climbed a Mountain," and "The Day there was Rain in the Desert" are all new.

Most Memorable Visit to the Desert

2008-07-07T19:22:00.008-05:00

On Thursday, July 3, I again visited San Felipe to do some documentation of the village so that we can have accurate information for the work we are doing and also to show the design proposals of the prototype house for feedback. But this visit was the most memorable one thus far for one simple reason: it was raining. It rained all day and I was there, a very rare coincidence. The rain brought good things, obviously, in that the tanks that collect the rainwater from roofs were able to be filled up so that drinking and washing water will be available. Also, the fields were able to be watered. But the rain also brought some bad things. It began raining the night before and two walls in two different houses collapsed. The first house was the house that demonstrated the loss of knowledge of how to build with traditional methods. The walls did not meet the roof very well, and in one room there were several centimeters separating the roof and the top of the wall.

The wall was not tied to the rest of the house well. The water from the rain simple took out the mortar of the poorly built wall and it slowly collapsed during the night.

The second house was a very well built house completely made of traditional materials and methods many many years ago. The owner of the house had died several years ago and it has been empty and abandoned ever since. This rain and wall collapse was simply the first step of the house falling down.

I'm surprised that no one has occupied and maintained this home, but it is interesting to me to see this process (since architects have such an infatuation with ruins). After several hours of being in the village and trying to write, sketch, and photograph in the rain I secretly wished it would start raining--a wish I'm sure was not shared by the people who live there.

Besides the rain, there was another interesting event that took place. The graduation party for the elementary school students was to take place in the evening. At about 5 PM, people from other towns and ejidos began showing up for the party. I always like being in the rural areas where there are large groups of people because there are so many styles that people have, especially with hair, cars, and dress. Most member able were some blue cowboy boots that a boy was wearing.

Since I return to the U.S. in just over a week, and my future is very much up in the air, this may have been the last time I visit San Felipe for awhile. But I'm glad I got to see rain in the village and see a glimpse of how the community comes together for celebrations (we had to leave before the party really got started).

Continuation into the Summer

2008-07-07T19:16:00.003-05:00

At the end of April, May 21st was a dark and looming date. That was the day I was to leave Monterrey and return to Indiana. I was not ready to leave Mexico for good. I was not ready to leave Mexico for more than a few days. I wanted to stay and keep working on projects and keep working on Spanish. After a long search, I finally was able to receive some funding to continue working on the design of the prototype home and strategic plan of San Felipe, the small ejido village that I have written about several times. So after a brief trip to my home state, I returned to Monterrey on June 1 and have been here since then.

The work I have been doing has mainly been focused on finishing the details of the prototype home so that construction can resume. This involves the design, determining which materials will be used and the amount of the materials, and figuring out ways to construct the house. This has been very interesting for me. In the semester of Fall 2007, I had a studio project which was to design a medical center for a rural part of Nepal which was very far from any major cities or building supply areas. The traditional walls of the area were stone and earth. I had the layout part of the design covered, but even after 5 years of school I could not understand how the thing would actually be built. These were materials that I had never worked with and had no idea how a wall made of such materials would actually stand up. Today the situation is different. After many visits to the village and after speaking with people who have worked with such materials, I can honestly say I know how 90% of this building will be constructed (there are a few more details that I will be working out this coming week). I have never been so confident in my knowledge of the constructibility of a building I have been working on as now. It has been very rewarding taking all the things I learned from working with details at Schmidt Associates in Indianapolis for three internships and applying that knowledge to new materials.

The second part of the summer work involves a strategic plan of the community in the next 10 years. My job for this is mainly to put together images which will start the process as five weeks (the length of my extended stay) is too short to do the construction details and a completed strategic plan. So this is what I have been up to since I last wrote many weeks ago.

Much ado about property

2008-05-04T23:34:00.000-05:00

The topic of property has been a back burner interest of mine throughout this semester. It began while I was reading Shadow Cities by Robert Neuwirth and continued with various experiences throughout the semester. First a brief discussion of what Shadow Cities says. There are three quotes from the book that really got my interest when I read them a couple of months ago. First Neuwirth mentions a quote by Joseph Proudhon, a French socialist who wrote in the middle of the 19th century. Neuwirth writes "[Proudhon] suggests that there's a difference between property and possession. Property turns land into a commodity: people own land not to use it or because they need it for survival, but simply as an investment. Possession guarantees personal use and control rather than profit. For Proudhon, property, not money, is the root of all evil" (page 289). Henry George, an American egalitarian theorist, is discussed with "Simply put, he argued that the things of the world were truly created by labor and could be bought and sold, while land was created by nature and therefore should not be turned into an economic value. 'The equal right of all men to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breath the air. For we cannot suppose that some men have a right to be in this world and others have no right'" (page 290). Finally the work of journalist Ambrose Bierce in Devil's Dictionary is mentioned. "'The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living'" (page 290).
These interesting quotes were floating in my head, coupled with the facts that I was labeled as a micro-communist last semester as well as my interest in putting the environment above human interests. So I was generally under the opinion that the idea of property had gotten out of hand. Then an interesting quote was made during a discussion in studio. Our project is in a housing subdivision named Colonia Hector Caballero which is largely composed of indigenous decedents that initially settled illegally in the Monterrey area and were moved to this neighborhood by the government. In recent years people have moved to the outskirts of this neighborhood and have illegally set up meager houses. We were discussing whether to focus on the housing needs of these illegal settlers or to take the bigger picture and do a neighborhood redevelopment program. During the discussion, which was in English (a little rare, but I was thankful), a classmate stated "why should we help the people who have settled illegally? Why should we give them a free ticket when they are breaking the rules?"
I found it very interesting that the approach taken to this problem was not the unfair economic circumstances that people face, or the fact that traditional agricultural practices are becoming nearly impossible due to development and disappearing resources, or the fact that these indigenous migrants probably did not speak much Spanish. The question instead focused on the concept of property. The idea that the system was above the human. I did not think of this at the time, but later I thought why do architects question helping out situations such as these but have no problem designing for a large corporation or factory which might harm the quality of adjacent properties or even practice shady business operations? Architecture rarely uses the word property, at least in the educational sense. It is always "the site" and property lines are simply borders with which to enforce or lessen. But in this instance property became the focus.
Changing gears, another property related observation I had was the types of housing that are in certain areas of the city. First was the stark difference between houses on flat, level, easily divided land and those on the rolling small hills that run throughout the city. The houses on these hills, which are a bit steep to develop, are covered with houses of the poor. They are similar to the favelas in Brazil that are described in Neuwirth's book and in the films Cidade de Deus and Tropa de Elite. These hills were first inhabited illegally and over the years have been developed with one house or wall, or roof at a time. I assume that most of these residences are legal now, but I'm not sure. The point is the stark contrast between the communities on these hills and the communities that surround the hills. Most people would never go up on these hills due to the perception that they are unsafe. Along the same lines are houses that inhabit Cerro de la Silla, the landmark mountain of Monterrey. On the side of the mountain that faces downtown, campus, and most of the Monterrey metropolitan area, basically the areas that wealthy or middle class people and tourists see, contain expensive houses. Building here is difficult and the land is expensive. And the houses are usually interesting to look at. Travel around the other side of the mountain, just a few kilometers away, and it is a completely different story. In earlier posts I have talked about 10x10 work that has taken place in a very poor community. This community is on the exact same mountain, but out of view of the downtown area. This side of the mountain is obviously less valued than the other. If this is the case then that means the view of the mountain from the Guadalupe and Benito Juarez municipalities is less important than the Monterrey, Santa Catarina, and San Pedro communities. This closely echoes the sentiments of the quotes I first mentioned.

Now, I agree that property has benefits. For example, in the sense of control and entitlement, it encourages people to make their property look attractive. Many housing communities even have rules which make each owner keep their property in an attractive state. But there are also many problems that come from property. When the property line ends, so does the care. Parks, streets, rivers all have a very good possibility of collecting litter and pollution because it has no definite owner. The lack of property creates a sense of disorder, which derives from the order of property. A few weeks ago I drove by a river and saw some people washing their clothes in the water. This same river is probably used as a dumping point for a factory and a runoff point for storm water. This shared property is used for good and bad, by rich and poor. To take it a step further: one Saturday I helped in collecting rocks from a dry river to be used as a patio for a project. Did the fact that this was no one's property give us the right to take those stones? They technically belong to everyone, why did we have the right to take them? In regards to property, we sometimes ask why should we help those who take property, but we have no problem taking resources from collective property to use on private property. (Technically the project was a community building so the project was still community owned, but the principle still applies).
One more aspect to look at. In Mexico there are different types of property that I have experienced. First there was the property of my host family. This was what I was used to, a family owns the land they live on and they control what happens to it. Next was the property of the school. The school is completely surrounded by a 10 foot tall metal fence to keep people out. A very exclusive property. A third is the apartment I currently live in. None of the residents own the property, but it is some off site owner. Small amounts of litter line the walkways occasionally and it takes awhile for it to be picked up. All of this was familiar. Then came the ejido, the place where the rural village is that I have written about previously. The ejido concept was set up in the 1930s in Mexico as a response to land reform needs. The land is owned by the federal government, but the people who live on it use it collectively. No one owns the property, but there are clear definitions of territory with fences. In the two months I lived with my host family, not once did I speak with a neighbor or did I see my family speak with a neighbor. In the apartment building we occasionally see neighbors and have brief conversations. In the ejido, where there is no property, but rather the concept of possession, there is interaction galor. Yes it is a small village, but people communicate vigorously. What is even more interesting is the fact that ejidos occasionally get together to have parties. Our neighboring apartment complexes do not get together to have block parties.
After writing all this I still don't know if it was worth it to anyone to read, but I feel that it is time to at least put it down in writing a description of some thoughts and observations I have had. Is there a real question I have to ask? I don't think so, but the idea of property is so quiet in architectural education, when it is precisly what we deal with. It is odd that I feel so out of my element trying to write about it logically. I feel I must come to a conclusion, but I'll leave that for another time.

To build with your hands, you must first use your feet

2008-04-11T02:15:00.006-05:00

Edited on April 18. Pictures added at the bottom that illustrate the adobe block making process.

Wednesday, April 9 was the latest visit to San Felipe, the small village in the desert where I am documenting traditional and non-traditional building methods as well as participating in the construction of a prototype house that makes use of traditional materials and methods.

The current progress of the prototype house

This visit included members of a class I am in with Pedro entitled Materiales y sistemas alternativos en construccion.

We arrived and we took a tour of most of the village with some of the residents, which was a good review for me as each time I hear things presented in the village, I understand more as I am able to comprehend a little more Spanish each time I go. Somehow I even saw a building I have somehow never noticed before. It turns out it is the church, but it is not Catholic, therefore it is not used much, from what I understood. Many of the houses have Catholic paraphernalia (is that the right word?) in several forms including portraits, beads, and even a poster of the former pope. One brand new thing in the village that we came across is a new resident. A U.S. American woman is moving into San Felipe as she has married a man from the village. Currently the woman is living in a tent and has her supplies set up around the tent.

The homestead of the newest resident

I did not get a chance to talk with her this time, but I will on the next visit. I can't wait to hear what she has to say about leaving her old life to live here and what their future building plans will be.

After the tour we headed to the prototype house. I have not had a chance to do any work with the prototype house as work just recently resumed, so I was anxious to do something, as Pedro had told me we would be doing some work. It turns out that the plan was to make some adobe blocks. I became very excited.

First I must explain the preconceptions I had about the adobe block making process. From discussions I had overheard, I knew that to make one row of the prototype house that six wheelbarrow fulls of soil were needed. I also knew that there was a master mason being paid to make the blocks and he hired some additional helpers. I had also witnessed all the modern technology that is being introduced into specific projects in the village, such as water collection tanks, a solar panel to power a water pump, and advanced agricultural methods. I envisioned some sort of a mixing bin to combine the soil and water and then some sort of a press to make the blocks. I was wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Damasio, one of the head men of the ejido, was the local expert to show us the adobe making process. He is also the man constructing the "competing" prototype house that will use concrete for the main structure and roof because he believes it is the correct method for future construction. Damasio filled and his son, Salvador (who graciously gave me his bed the last time I stayed the night in San Felipe) filled up a wheelbarrow of the topsoil and indicated we would be making about 4 or 5 blocks. After he filled up the wheelbarrow, he proceeded to dump the dirt onto the ground. Suddenly a bucket of manure appeared and was dumped onto the dirt pile. I immediately identified the poo as coming from a horse since I grew up in a part of the country where some people use horses and buggies to get around and leave the evidence on the road and in parking lots. At this point Pedro said we would take over the work. Pedro looked at us, the students, and said that we were no different than the residents that live here and that we are going to make the blocks the real way, and started taking off his shoes and socks. It was apparent we were going to be using our bare feet to mix the dirt, water, and horse manure. At this point I chimed in and asked Pedro, "is this really how they make all these blocks, with their feet?" To which Pedro gave an emphatic "of course." Now, I'm not opposed to troucing around in dirt, I recall going to my cousin's farm many times as a kid and walking barefoot in cow manure (quite warm when it's fresh). However, I was caught off-guard by how labor intensive this process was. It immediatly became clear why so many people in the rural areas are using concrete block to build their houses. Just as I often talk myself into paying using my car to get around instead of riding my bike for free or even order Jimmy John's after a stressful day instead of cooking my already-purchased food I can see why people would pay more to haul in concrete blocks instead of stomping dirt and water to make their walls. (Horrible comparisons for examples, but it's all I could think of at the moment. I hope the point is made.)

So after this initial mild shock of reality, I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pant legs, and joined the mud mashing party. All but one of the students joined in the work--earlier she had a cactus spike go through her shoe and puncture her foot, so it was excusable. While we were stepping here and there, trying not to slip and fall, Pedro would say "make sure you smash in all the brown clumps so they get mixed up." The brown clumps were the horse manure, so he was really saying "make sure you step on every single piece of horse shit you can find."

Soon the mixture was good and the time arrived to place the mud mixture into the wooden frames. The wooden frame was a simple 40cm x 20 cm x 10 cm rectangle made from 2x4 (inches this time) pieces. The frame was placed on the ground, the inside edges primed with water, and the mixture placed inside. Soon our hands and feet were covered with the mixture, which was cool until it started drying and the flies started swarming and you remembered what the mixture was made of and why the flies liked it so much.

In all, we constructed 5 blocks.

The five blocks we made

We then rinsed off our feet and hands with the water. The water comes from a pond near the village. The pond water is not suitable for human drinking or cooking, so it is ok to use for this instance. The pond is used for animal water and has some contaminants that make humans sick. Before rainwater was harvested, the residents would drink some of their water from this. This water is very dirty, so in addition to the contaminants, health was not good during this time period. While we were rinsing off a chameleon came to watch us. Either he wasn't very good at chameleoning or he just wanted to make his presence known. Either way, it was cool.

It was good to briefly see the process behind adobe blocks. It added a new level to understanding the tradition within the community I have visited several times. I am returning in just over a week to spend the whole day working, which may involve more adobe making or the actual placing of the blocks, or something I don't even know of yet.

The spot where we stomp-mixed the mud with the other students and Pedro in the background

The water barrels

And if you're wandering, the fibers used in adobe blocks are not added in. They come from the horse manure. That was another big surprise to me. I felt like a dumb city kid several times on this visit.

Mixing the adobe mixture with out feet

Reforming the pile

Forming the first block

I help to make a block with the form

Making the surface smooth before removing the form

Small talk

2008-04-07T21:44:00.002-05:00

Edit: Updated April 11. I forgot to include some things.

This post is to briefly describe what my everyday life has been like to those of you wondering. First is that at the beginning of March I moved. I started out living with a host family and it started out well. They are very nice people and very helpful. But after two months some things began to real wear on me. First of all there were 10 other people living in the house. Schedules interfere, some people are louder than others, and some people spend a lot of time using shared spaces. It was also a good distance from campus, as in 20 minutes one way on the bus, at a minimum. So I emailed my the international programs office here and told them how I felt and that my living situation was my least favorite part about being in Mexico. By doing this I unintentionally turned in my host family. It is a rule of the school that host families cannot rent out rooms to non-TEC students: there were 5 other renters who were not students at TEC. This was the second time the family had been caught. At the same time I emailed the school, I told my host mother how I was not really happy with the living arrangement. She realized that she had been caught again and began to cry, but realized that it was not my fault since I was not intentionally trying to get them in trouble. So by then I felt it was best to just move. And it was a great decision. I know live one block from campus, I get to make my own food, and I pay sooooo much less each month.

An interesting thing to note about my new living situation is that I am technically living unlegally in Mexico. I have not signed a new contract, so I just pay my roommate (Markus from Sweden) the rent and bills. Also, I am officially registered as living at my former host family's home with the government of Mexico. But the registration process takes too much time for me to want to attempt it again. I came to Mexico to learn about squatting, non-legal land occupation, and migration, and I now I am living illegally; though out of unwillingness to put up with red tape and not out of necessity.

I also recently got to drive in Mexico! While visiting casa Rosinda in the neighborhood where the 10x10 project is taking place to drop off some supplies, Roberto asks me, as we climb into the truck, "tu quieres manejar?" (do you want to drive). Sure that I misheard him, I said, "Did you really just ask me if I wanted to drive, because that would be cool." So we switched places and I drove down the rocky path of the mountain, avoiding all the big bumps and keeping a steady foot on the brake so as not to lose control of the truck and crash into someone's house. Residents of this neighborhood who drive must have to have their brakes replaced at least once every 3 months! After leaving the neighborhood I also drove on the regular roads and got to do a u-turn. After 3 months of not driving, I almost hit another car almost once. It was fun and I'm glad I got to experience what it is like to drive up in the neighborhood where the site is.

Other than that there is not much to tell. One of my friends was able to visit on her spring break, so we went to Puerto Vallarta and trekked around Monterrey. It was a fun week and a good reminder of home.

Spanish comprehension is vastly improving. Speaking is still not so good since I talk mostly in English on a daily basis. It’s a habit I have started here: often I am spoken to in Spanish but I reply in English because it keeps the conversation going. It’s bad and I need to take advantage of the Spanish while I can.

Also I am beginning to realize that in just over a month I will no longer be a student and don’t really know where I’ll be. I know I want to continue in this kind of stuff, but… Wow that’s coming up soon. I recently told a fellow student that I wouldn't mind staying in Mexico for at least a little longer and she replied "We send you guys thousands of people a year, and you return the favor by sending one. Sounds fair."

And for those of you really keeping up with this stuff, there are some new pictures and the albums about 10x10 have been updated as has the one about visits to rural Mexico.

Continuing 10x10 work

2008-04-07T21:15:00.007-05:00

Since first reporting my first involvement with the 10x10 program in First Dirty Work of the Semester, there have been some other experiences with this. March 29 I returned to do some volunteer work and we went to Casa Rosinda, which involves building a new house for a woman who works at TEC who lives in a very poor neighborhood of town. Pictures of this worksite can be found at 10x10: Work.

The day began by fixing up the area where work has been started. The digging for the foundation had been completed and there were small to semi-large rocks strewn about that needed to be collected into neat piles. Then came the making of the reinforcing for the concrete footers that were to be put in place. This involved cutting pieces of #4 or #5 rebar with a handsaw and arranging them into grid pieces. These two tasks did not take too long and were relatively painless. The cutting of the rebar was somewhat difficult, but there were several people to share with the cutting.

Cutting the rebar

Tying the rebar together

Then came the difficult part: bringing the sand and gravel for the concrete to the site. Casa Rosinda is located at the very top of the neighborhood and amidst some of the roughest street terrain. It is very difficult to drive a regular truck through here, much less a dump truck with a load of sand and gravel.

The road that Casa Rosinda is located on

The solution was to dump the pile about 150-200 meters from the site, which was down the street and up a steep hill. To do this job we had some 5-gallon buckets, a wheelbarrow, and some more 5-gallon buckets that some of the neighbors lent to us. The first few loads went ok; taking two ¾ full buckets, one for each hand, easing down the hill, and then trying to use the momentum of the hill to power through the straightaway to the house. After about 5 loads, my arms, which have not had any exercise for some time, began to weaken. The muscles in my lower arm that control the fingers began to give out and I’d have to set the buckets down. I didn’t feel so bad because some of the others had similar problem, plus it was a very humid day, so dehydration was setting in. It was hard work but it was also fun being a spectator for the neighborhood.

After the first few loads, I was approached by a neighbor who asked me something in hard-to-understand Spanish. I told him I couldn’t understand and if he could repeat it slowly. After a few more tries he resorted to “tu quieres?” and made a smoking gesture. I made a slightly confused face, at which point he opened up his hand and showed me a bag with some crack in it. I politely refused and kept going with my buckets. On the next bucket load the same guy had moved across the street and was smoking a joint while he watched us.

A few days earlier I had gone to the same neighborhood with Roberto and Fernando, the two students who are in charge of 10x10, and we had seen the police had just arrested a man and had hopped on some horses to go up into the neighborhood to round up some more people. The drug aspect is very important in the north of Mexico. In my Contemporary Mexico class, we had a discussion last Thursday about how the presence of drugs, drug corruption, and general “other” areas of society are acknowledged in Mexico, but they are not spoken of, outside of major politics that is. It is almost a taboo subject. The professor made it clear to us foreign students that although the class felt comfortable speaking about this stuff in the class, once they got outside it just simply was not done. This was due to violence that has occurred and the fact that you never really know what the person you are talking to is involved in. This can be explored more with the phenomenon that many of Mexico’s musicians, especially in the north, have been killed in the past years because of drug related disagreements. I really do not know enough to go on about the subject, but relating all this information to how this man who offered me the drugs somewhat fits together. In a part where tourists or outsiders hardly ever go, the person offering was not very blatant about what he was offering. He probably used a phrase that implied something, but it fell on very un-understanding ears. However, a few days later when I was in Puerto Vallarta, a very tourist oriented place, a guy from across the street yelled at me offering some weed in both Spanish and English. Is there any substance here (no pun intended) or am I just making random connections, I’m not really sure. But it is interesting how these things seem to come together.

The following Saturday I again joined in for some 10x10 work and this time it was back to experimentation and investigation. As mentioned earlier, the walls for Casa Rosinda are going to be constructed from concrete formwork. The structure is going to be metal, and some more investigation needed to be made to finalize the design. Another project is also going to be using the formwork as the material, but the option of a wood structure is being investigated. My job for this Saturday was to help construct a panel made out of wood. Overall it was a good process, although the sizes and measurements were not determined until after I made the first cuts based on the measurements on the drawing. So the panels were not perfect, but they were good enough for the test. The main test was to see what kind of connection to use, and during this investigation it became apparent how difficult a multilingual jobsite can be.

The connection in question involved a 2x4 butting up against a 4x4. The first option was to simply nail them together, but it resulted in an awkward connection. My friend Janet, who goes to Purdue and has started joining us, made a suggestion that I understood as using two angles to put the pieces together. Then I suggested using what I called nailing plates which are used to put trusses together (I guess they’re really called mending plates). It turns out this is what Janet was trying to describe to me in English. So now that we were on the same page, the challenge became to convey the idea in Spanish. Eventually I ended up going to Home Depot to explain what we meant. It was a good suggestion because it turned out being the cheapest method of connecting the pieces.

Traveling for a week

2008-04-07T10:42:00.002-05:00

The week before Easter Sunday is known as Semana Santa in many parts of the world. This week is when all Mexican universities have their spring break, and when many people go on vacation. In fact, on Thursday and Friday, almost nobody in the country works, from what I was told. I was also told that Thursday is known as Good Thursday because of the last supper.

A group of 8 of us set out to spend this week in a good fashion. It was a concensus that we all wanted to see Mexico City and see a beach. After some discussion and advice, we decided to spend 4 days in Mexico City and 4 days in Zihuatanejo in the state of Jalisco.

The trip began Friday night between 9-10 pm as the 8 of us all got on 3 different buses for the 11 hour trip to Mexico City. It may sound like an unpleasant ride, but they really know how to do bus travel in Mexico, especially if you ride first class. Plenty of room and easy to get to sleep. My bus started with the movie National Security, one of my least favorite movies, mainly because Martin Lawrence stars in it. After about an hour I had just begun to fall asleep when I hear a voice directly behind me shout "Necitamos los luzes!" I woke up wondering why the hell someone needed the lights turned on, just as the lights were turned on. I looked down to my left (I was in the aisle seat) and immediately understood: a woman had collapsed in the aisle and was unconscious. After a brief stop which involved a Coke and water, we were back on the road with everyone functioning correctly. The next thing I knew, I woke up and we arrived at the bus station in Mexico City 3 minutes later.

Many things were seen in Mexico City and pictures can be found in the links to the right. We stayed in a hostel that was perfectly located right on the main square and had a price of $15/night/person.

I could go on for awhile about what I saw, but there's something else that struck me; and you can visit Mexico City for yourself someday and see the same stuff. What really struck me was the amount of people who had informal means of income all throughout the city. I have heard several times about the high number of people in Mexico who have informal "jobs," and the even higher number within Mexico City. In Monterrey and the surrounding areas the only informal income practices I had seen were people getting on the city bus and selling snacks, people juggling at stop lights, and musicians performing outside in certain parts of the city--especially at night. But these home experiences were somewhat rare, maybe I experience them 3 times a week. Mexico City, on the other hand, had a more diverse collection of "jobs" and they were almost constantly visible.

First I will mention the people simply asking for money. In Indianapolis and Chicago, the two places I am most familiar in terms of people asking for money, they are usual men who are by themselves. Mexico City has mothers with their toddlers or infants sitting on the sidewalks, holding their child in one hand and an empty cup in the other. At night you could walk by some alleys and see families sorting through trash they had collected in order to find some food or possibly other things. In Wes's studio last semester, he emphasized several times the fact that 2007 was the first time in recorded history when more people live in urban areas than rural areas, and an average of 180,000 people are added to urban populations each day. Mexico experienced this rural flight in the 1980s as the economy suffered a crisis, and the move continues today. It is likely that the families we saw on the sidewalks were a part of this move, but have yet to find a stable way of living in one of the largest cities in the world.

One crazy idea I had while in Mexico City that stemmed from this observation involved an art exhibit that is currently in place on the Zocolo. The exhibit is known as the Nomadic Museum and is constructed of bamboo, shipping containers, and other materials that emphasize sustainability and reuse. The exhibit will end at the end of April, and the fate of the materials is unknown. Instead of moving all the materials to a new city or simply taking them to a landfill or scrapyard, why not explore ways of providing temporary shelter for the people on the nearby streets. Or better yet, a collaboration with the people to create a base structure from which they can build upon over time. I'm sure that some students in the nearby architecture schools would be happy to participate in such a project as there seems to be a fetish with shipping containers in architectural education these days.

Besides the people asking for money were people selling food and tourist junk in parks and on sidewalks. They would often yell at you to look at their stuff, especially at night which was a little unnerving.

The most interesting to me were the people on the subways. The first person I saw was a blind man leading his family from car to car with a speaker around his neck that would play snippets of a cd he was selling. This turned out to be a very frequent thing as nearly every stop your car was boarded by another person selling a cd or even dvds. There were also gum and candy sellers. What was really interesting to me about this was how many miles per day these people traveled all over the city. And I wondered if they ever got lost. But it got me thinking about other jobs that this type of transport could offer. Perhaps they are already in use? A "moving company?" A library book/movie rental return service? Dumb ideas? Yes, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

The most annoying informal job were the men at the pyramids of Teotihuacán. It was amazing how many of them there were selling blankets, carvings, stones, whistles, and more. Some parents elected to buy the whistles for their children. I remember the only 3 minutes where I did not hear any whistles during the 5 or 6 hours we spent at the pyramids.

After the 4 days in Mexico City the five of us heading to the beach again boarded a bus for an 8 hour trip. This time The Benchwarmers was playing. The movie did not impress me as it put to to sleep. We arrived in Zihuatanejo at just before 6 A.M. I called the hotel we had a reservation and was greeted by a sleepy voice in Spanish that clearly had the effects of years of smoking. It was a difficult call to get through, but I learned that we could not check in until 11 A.M. and we could not drop off our bags until 8 A.M. So we walked to the cab stand and headed to the beach nearest the hotel, which was only 5 blocks. There we sat on the beach with our baggage and watched the sun rise as the locals jogged by surely thinking we had camped out on the beach. Zihuatanejo began as a fishing village in the middle part of the 1900s and still has that type of feel. In fact, within the first hour we saw a man walk by with 4 fish dangling from some hooks he was holding in his hand.

Overall, Zihuatanejo was an excellent place to be in. I recommend the place if you ever want to go to Mexico and avoid the touristy areas. There is a major tourist resort 5 miles north if you're into that kind of thing, but only a small number of them come to Zihuatanejo. Also, there is a large central market that sells mainly food, but almost everything else as well. Our room had a kitchenette in it, so we were able to cook most of our meals.

The informal economy was present at the beach as well as many people walked from beach towel to beach umbrella selling sea shell necklaces, the service to cornrow your hair, sunglasses, and, the most disgusting one, ceviche at about 4 P.M. For those of you who don't know, ceviche is semi-raw seafood, usually something like octopus, squid, shrimp, or regular fish. At 4 pm on a hot day and being carried around on the beach it probably was not so fresh.

One more thing that made a very big impression on me was the guns that the police would carry up and down the beach. These things were huge, as in bigger than my legs. And they had huge bullets. I am not even close to a gun expert, but these looked like a cross between a stationary rifle and an AK-47. They were huge. And I don't know why they were there. But they were.

It was a good spring break, the most memorable so far.

The sunrise in Zihuatanejo

It's mid-March already!

2008-03-14T17:55:00.002-06:00

Time is flying bye and there is a lot of work to make it go faster, but it is enjoyable. Since I can't seem to find time to write a lot on here, this will be a sort of summary of what I have not shared.

I have been back to San Felipe, the small village in rural Nuevo Leon, twice since the first visit. The first time I went with Pedro, my professor. There had been some work done on the prototype house by some people in the village and Pedro wanted to look at it, and I went along to become more familiar with the people and to do some more documentation. On that day I did more of the familiarizing and less of the documenting. I spent the day riding a donkey while following an old man (I can't remember his name) and his grandson David as they guided their cattle to the watering hole. Then I sat with a family and made some small talk before heading home before it got too late. The third visit I went by myself. Going by myself involves taking a bus, being dropped off at a bus stop on the highway (mile marker 60 if you're curious) and getting a ride to the village. When I arrived at the bus station in Monterrey, I bought my ticket which immediatly became outdated as the bus informed the station that it would be 90 minutes late. The late bus then took a different route than I expected, and the 3 hour trip in a car turned to a 5 hour trip in a bus, plus the 90 minute wait. I was not thrilled, but I was back in rural Mexico; a place without pollution, a place with scenery I'm still not used to yet, and a place I just simply enjoy being in. This trip was for documentation. One of the goals of the San Felipe project is to produce a booklet that documents every house in the village (there are about 30). My task is to document 2 traditional houses, two houses with mixed techniques, and one house that has no traditional techniques at all. So I spent several hours drawing, talking, photographing, and walking which ended with kicking a soccer ball around and eating two dinners, (both very good). That night as I laid in a bed that was offered me, my body decided to be awake from 12:30-4:30. A bit annoying, but had I been asleep I would never have heard the coyotes that were just outside the village, if not inside. It was very cool to hear, and when I asked about them the next morning I was told that they sometimes are able to grab a careless chicken in the night.

Going back to the second visit. One the way to San Felipe, Pedro told me about some of the things outside of school that he has done, especially in his neighborhood. These stories were interrupted by a cop pulling over Pedro who was doing 30 km/hr over the speed limit (about 18 mph) and getting a 500 peso ticket, which would be reduced to 250 pesos if paid in the next 15 days. That is about $50 and $25 respectively, a bargain price and unheard of for speeding tickets where I'm from. Pedro told me about a park in his neighborhood that was being taken over by semi-bullies who liked to play soccer in the park. As president of his neighborhood association, he came up with the idea of putting semi-large rocks in the ground which added character to the park, and made it very difficult to play soccer. Another problem with the park is littering as people who don't live nearby do not have a problem leaving trash on the ground as they pass through. Besides a candy-for-trash-pick-up day with the kids, Pedro also involved some children in the construction of a bench made from found plastic bottles made from sand. The children loved the project and signed their names on the bench. Unfortunately the bench was destroyed the next day by someone, but the community involvement part is nice.

Besides the part, Pedro has had other problems, security problems. His neighborhood is near a neighborhood that contains many of what are considered illegal houses. This other neighborhood, known as Nuevo Almaguer, is built on the bottom of Cerro de la Silla, the signiture natural landmark of Monterrey. This can be described as a squatter neighborhood. I went into this neighborhood a few Saturdays ago while doing some work in the 10x10 program mentioned in another post. This neighborhood is rough, there is no other way to describe it. Not to be too sensational, but all the romantic notions of squatters fending for themselves and the fascination with the fact that such communities exist are quickly dashed when entering one. It was a rough area to be in. Apart from the lack of proper building materials and infrastructure that the rest of the Monterrey area is accustomed to, simply getting around is difficult. The neighborhood is built on a mountain. Mountains are giant rocks. Giant rocks are impossible to reshape without a lot of money. This neighborhood did not have roads, they were paths of rock. We were in the 10x10 pickup truck and it was difficult getting around. Driving to the construction site involved some turnarounds, big bumps, and bottoming out about every 200 ft. Trying a different way out of there was worse.

Anyway, back to the Pedro story. In this neighborhood on the mountain that is near Pedro's house lives gangs. Our plan was to meet at 6 am on campus to head to San Felipe and Pedro was a bit late because the window on Pedro's car had been broken by someone. Pedro suspected it was gang related as there had been a lot of gang activity in the previous days. In fact, the previous day was the day I was in that neighborhood and I heard a story about a gang fight that had happened the night before. I couldn't tell you details because it was in Spanish, but I can tell you there was a gang fight and it was fairly big. This window incident was not the first time Pedro has seen violence. His house has been broken into as well. Every house has some sort of a wall around it, but Pedro, being an architect with ideals, refuses to put a wall up for security, and he has paid the price a few times. He says he is trying to design a solution to the problem not only for his house, but for his neighborhood. He pointed out that the walls actually attract the gangs because they become places for graffiti and to get their name out.

Apart from the experiences above, the last few weeks have mainly been campus based. The studio project has been focusing on the current amenities and state of the surrounding area and we have met with the urban growth secretary as well as others.

As for now, the week of March 17-21 is Semana Santa here in Mexico and that means spring break. So in a few hours I am heading to Mexico City via bus (11 hours) and spending a few days there. One thing I don't look forward to is the pollution. Monterrey has a decent amount of pollution and I, and others (actually it seems almost everyone), have a bit of a constant small cold from it. Mexico City is in a low spot where strong winds can't blow away the pollution. So apart from the wonderful sights and sounds, there will probably be a lot of tissues (not Kleenexes, Greenpeace is boycotting them, haha). After Mexico City the group (3 from the U.S., 1 from Canada, one from France) are heading to the state of Guerrero to a town on the coast named Zihuatanejo (the place mentioned Shawshank Redemption) to enjoy the Pacific Ocean for a few glorious days. Then we cap it off with an 18 hour bus ride back to Monterrey!

Been away too long

2008-02-29T16:28:00.003-06:00

It's been exactly 20 days since I have posted anything here, and I don't like it. The past few weeks have been quite busy with required work and extra-curricular stuff. Sitting down to write a fairly-intelligent grouping of words turned into several attempts not amounting to anything, and then realizing I had a deadline to meet for something else. But this time I'm back.

Apart from time restraints, I believe the biggest reason for not sharing much publicly is because I am, and have been, chest deep in the 2nd stage of culture shock. Until a few days ago I thought my culture shock was over with when I realized minor differences and somewhat accepted the fact that communicating would be difficult for my stay. But then someone informed me that culture shock is a much longer and complicated experience. To verify, I checked out Wikipedia, and she was right. The 2nd stage is a bitch. The "Negotiation Phase" as it is called is described as "After a few days, weeks, or months, minor differences between the old and new culture are resolved. One may long for food the way it is prepared in one's native country, may find the pace of life too fast or slow, may find the people's habits annoying, etc." This sentence is too nice. Currently, I cannot believe how I find myself disliking some aspects of this city. It does not help that Monterrey really is not a nice city, really, that's not culture shock talking. I even found myself starting to write a blog post describing the things that I did not like, but realized that I did not start this thing to complain or make blanket statements, but rather to put some intelligent (maybe) thoughts out there so that I can organize my thoughts and to hopefully get some good responses. Therefore I will not publicly state what I find annoying or what I currently do not find appealing. I'll save that for emails and instant messages when I can also brag about the nice weather compared to the snow I would normally be in at this time (I still can't believe I get to miss January-March in Muncie, so truly happy about that).

But today I received an email from Bryan Finoki from Subtopia about a little book quote chain that is happening. And I'm using this as a spring board back into writing. And it's working. I keep jotting down notes for several more blog posts in the near future. The rules to the blogtivity (can I claim that word, Google?) are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Well, the nearest book was a tough call as I had a neat stack of three that was impossible to determine which was closer to me (feet, head, hands?). So I opened each to find the most interesting, and I was quite surprised to find a common theme between all three, and even more surprised at how they directly related to a major goal in two of the projects I am working on.

The first book, Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World, by Robert Neuwirth has page 123 in a chapter about Mumbai, India and states "[Sunder] guesses that Dharavi is home to 5,000 small printing businesses, and that there are more than 1,000 businesses related to the clothing industry with more than 50 sewing machines, and perhaps 3,000 businesses with fewer than 50 machines. Although it's impossible to know exactly, since all of these businesses are technically illegal, and therefore don't report income or pay taxes, the total turnover of all these firms probably amounts to $1 million a day. But, of course, even as Dharavi has developed, Mumbai has developed, too." This slice from the book kind of distorts the point of the chapter. In the last sentence, if Dharavi and Mumbai are switched, it would make more sense. The point to be made is that all parts of a city will adjust to survive. This part of the city is viewed by the legal city as an eyesore and a tax burden, but there is a huge amount of money being made here, which is what the legal city is based upon. We do not know if the operations of these businesses are efficient or were planned well, but we do know that they exist, and will continue to exist, on their own. Just because something is ignored does not mean it will simply go away. The ideal situation is to have this area acknowledged and to have it become part of the overall planning process. This is where the other two books step in.

The next book was Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service Through Architecture, edited by Bryan Bell. Page 123, which is a piece written by Mark S. Goldman titled "The DreamTree Project: Forging Community Relationships," offers us "On the day that I assisted an elder from the Taos Pueblo, a sustainable community since ca. 1200 AD, in a ceremony blessing the DreamTree Shelter and its future residents, I reflected on the enthusiasm of the multicultural staff. Not only had we really created a place for homeless teenagers to be safe, but we had also built a home in which they could live with genuine pride." This is only two sentences because the chapter ends, but it is a good excerpt. The final 3 sentences comes from Studio at Large: Architecture in Services of Global Communities by Sergio Palleroni and Christina Eichbaum Merkelbach. Page 123, which describes a straw-bale house project, tells us "This house changed her life. She has been instrumental in getting several other straw-bale buildings built in the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations, and she has become a more vocal advocate for other issues on the reservation, such as cultural heritage and children's education opportunities. Trailers now form a courtyard behind her house where she runs an after-school study and reading center and a Crow cultural heritage center."

This idea of designing and building something as a catalyst for other things, more than just buildings, still seems like a cool and almost innovative idea; and it upsets me a bit. My fellow students at Ball State and myself have all had this goal in our projects, but it is often not the first step in the design process. Allow me to explain. Early in our education, the idea that your design is the culmination of all the surrounding contexts and functions is very common. Your project will solve any problems in the immediate surroundings. This may have happened in real life a few times, but really it's a design-ego building exercise, and it is difficult to put that aside--that feeling of fixing many problems with one design. The idea of a god working hard for several days and then stepping back and resting as she watches the creation function like clockwork. Well not even the God that is credited with the original creation had a screaming success, so how can a person who has 5-6 years of "superior education?" do better? My point being, it's difficult to alter this approach and to think of your project as a step in the process of many steps.

The studio project I am working on (group project) involves a nearby community that is in an area of constant development. These communities are not necessarily ignored, although there are several informal communities (either placed there by the government after illegally settling somewhere else, or actually settling illegally). But their unique, individual characteristics are not being thoughtfully considered in the master plan, nor are the individual characteristics of the land they are on. The goal of this studio is to start a master plan the evolves from conversations with social workers, urban developers, the people in the community, and with site visits. The project will actually be about 3-4 years, or 6-8 studio projects. We are just the beginning. Now that does not mean that we are half-assing it or anything, but it is a very appropriate and realistic approach to a project that will allow us to monitor what happens next. This is similar to what the book excerpts describe; that the projects had results that extend far beyond AutoCAD or trace-paper. Ideas are born by the people who use the result of the project, and they evolve naturally, not forced from a master plan. Also, the community is not left by itself to fend for itself, as is described in Shadow Cities. The community in the book is successful, but they are still illegal and can be stopped at anytime. It is not the ideal solution.

Another project that has a very defined goal involves the community of San Felipe that I have written about before. The goal of this project is to reintroduce traditional building methods and materials to the community. This reasons are to provide houses that are more comfortable, are sustainable, and have a true sense of place. This prototype house is a clear example of a catalyst for future development.

Well this simple book-quoting-chain thing turned into more writing than I expected, but it is good to be able to share more thoughts. And to finish the deal, here are five blogs that I find interesting, ranging in subject matter: bldgblog (very interesting stuff discovered here), Design Altruism Project (interesting thoughts and work), A Matter of Life and Death (blog of someone that lives in Monterrey), Slums: The Problem (A semi-blog by Lebbeus Woods), Inhabitat (a site that generally has good environmentally-friendly product news).

Getting my hands dirty for the first time

2008-02-09T21:36:00.000-06:00

Saturday the 9th was the first day where physical results could be seen. It started with me wanting to get involved with the volunteering organization here at Tec. There is a project entitled 10 casas x 10 familias, where employees of Tec are provided decent housing, as some of them do not currently have it. The architecture department designs the houses and then student volunteers build the houses later in the semester. All students at Tec have to complete 400 hours of social service, so the volunteering program is very popular. The situation of one woman who is a part of the program was briefly explained to me. She is currently living in a house made of corrugated metal pieces on a very uneven surface of rocks, and one room cannot be used as the sewage from the neighboring house has begun to seep into the house. It is good that Tec is doing something, but I wonder if other situations are being missed.

Then I remember some situations in Indiana. The houses may not be in as crude a state, but there is a lot to endure, especially now with the temperatures at night and the flooding that recently took place. Does BSU know about the living conditions of their employees? Are they doing anything to find out? If so I have no idea about it. But everyone in the architecture program here in Monterrey knows about 10x10. And what is so cool about this is that the homeowners are involved from the beginning. With every decision.

I chose this project because it is a very good thing that is happening, but also I want to improve my knowledge of building within the community, learn Spanish words for building related terms, and simply to get out of the house and do something memorable. When I signed up with the volunteering organizers, I found out that 10x10 was being headed by a graduate student I had met a few times, and actually works with Pedro (my professor) quite a bit. So I sought him out on Friday and he said to meet up the next morning at 9:00 am to start working. First he showed me some of what has been happening.

Let me first say that some of the facilities at ITESM are amazing. There is a whole part of one of the buildings, a very large part, that is full of student experiments in sciences, computing, construction, and stuff I haven't even seen yet. The coolest thing I have seen is some students working on an earthquake-proof house. This is an adobe house with many layers of wire, but the entire structure is built on a platform that can mimic the motion of an earthquake. There are also sensors being implemented into the construction for further data. It looks so cool. They were working on it on Saturday and I asked when the shaking is going to happen. One of the students told me 7-10 days. I hope I don't miss it.

Well, with such a nice place to work and plenty of room for storage, many ideas are being born. With 10x10, the goal is to make good houses that are easy to build, do not cost a lot, and have principles of sustainable actions. The wall materials that are being investigated are fiberglass form work that was used to pour concrete in the construction of the Tec parking garage as well as refrigerator doors that came out of the factory with small defects. Pedro has actually put refrigerator doors on part of his house.

Right now there is a small experimental structure that is completed that used the concrete form work, but the house using refrigerator doors is only about 1/4 done, and there are many issues to work out, namely keeping water out. Two photos can see seen below. More can be found here.

Saturday morning began with some loading of materials and then heading to the job site, which is a piece of land on Tec property where agriculture research is also being done and there was a pen of chickens too. Some time was spent on the job site, with some of the new students debating strategies with Roberto, the graduate student who is in charge of the operation. The conversation was in Spanish, but I believe it consisted of Roberto telling the younger kids that the goal was not to complete the house as soon as possible, but to investigate different ways to put the materials together. And also to use safety on the job site. After the discussion we dismantled a section of 6 doors that had been assembled to a steel frame with the expectation of somehow putting the assembly onto the roof. They realized there was no feasible way to do it, so we took it apart and started carrying the doors up to the roof and installing them. After awhile, Roberto took me to see some other things.

His thesis project is similar to what my studio project is this semester. A studio from a year ago went into a community very near Tec called Alfonso Reyes. This community used to live illegally somewhere else but was relocated by the city to a piece of land that borders a canal that is occasionally the overflow area for raw sewage. The community originally wanted a church built, but after some discussions, they changed their mind and wanted a classroom for children to learn computer skills. The structure is 90% done and further development of a master plan is in the process. This last part is Roberto's thesis project; studying the outcome of the work done so far and finding out what to do next.

When we arrived at Alfonso Reyes, it was determined that the plan was to collect several semi-large stones so that a concrete pad could be constructed. In order to save money and amount of concrete, the area to be paved is covered with rocks and then the concrete fills the gaps and binds the rocks together. Not only does it save money, but it looks more unique than a regular concrete pad. The problem is getting the rocks.

I soon learned that we were going into the adjacent canal to get the rocks, the same one that has been used as raw sewage overflow. The canal was fairly dry, but the underside of the rocks were not, and every time I touched something gooey, a little part of me said "stop, this is gross." But I gritted my teeth and kept on, making a mental note not to touch my eyes or mouth. We worked for about 1.5 hours and searched in two locations. It was actually kind of a fun activity, despite the smell. There were 4 of us students and 6 men from the community.

At one moment, one of the men, Moya, collected a few corn-cob looking things that were growing. Roberto told me that they were used for showering. It is amazing at the little things that one can learn from simply getting out of the cushy university environment. A shower sponge from just a few hundred meters away instead of paying for one at the store and having to wait in line with snotty-nose kids all around. What is to be noted from this observation is not the fact that Moya is overly intelligent for making use of this natural material, as it is required due to the fact that money can not be spent for such things, but rather the fact that it is surprising to get something very useful without spending money. When we need something, we give someone else money to get it, a simple process. Many people do not know what is growing in their back yards, or their back yards simply exist to show others that they know how to drive a lawn mower in a straight line for an extended period of time. I am thankful that I grew up in a house that grew a lot of it's food during the summer months, but there is so much about our 4-acre property that I never really knew. 3 of the 4 acres were pretty much left to grow wild. What kind of things grew and lived in these unknown acres? Without straying too far, the point is that such a simple act of collecting a plant to shower with struck me as unique. And it would strike most people the same way.

A similar event happened during the first visit to San Felipe. When some of the men were showing me the water collection areas in the desert, they showed me a plant that they chewed that made your breath fresh. It did not taste great, but it was not horrible. After a few minutes, they told me that it was also a digestive system cleaner. I stopped eating it immediately as I did not want a surprise reaction to some desert plant during my first night in rural Mexico. Some of the guys laughed at me when I spit out the plant after finally deciphering what it was they were telling me.

I want to make it clear that I'm not attempting to romanticize these actions. In the case of Alfonso Reyes, the people do not have a choice whether or not to use found materials for everyday life. But I find myself asking myself, "what gives me the right to come in thinking I know about sustainable design when I don't even know the environment around me?" William McDonough has said (paraphrased) that most architects don't even know how to find solar noon. It's true, I have no idea, and it makes me uncomfortable that I don't know. I'm sure this was taught to us in one of the 9:00 sessions of Natural Systems back in 2nd or 3rd year, which is also the least favorite class of anyone in the architecture program. Anyway, there is a big disconnect between ideals and reality. And the sad part, this has all been said before. Now I'm saying it like it's a new idea. And someone else will say it again. I want to blame education for not teaching me this stuff, but I know it's more my fault, perhaps not a conscious fault, but a fault nonetheless in the sense that I have not made a big effort.

The subtitle of my thesis proposal: "Working with and Learning From ignored communities." Both objectives started and somewhat completed this weekend. I may miss the concrete box in the sky back in Muncie, but it is good to be here.

Getting to, and being in Real de Catorce

2008-02-08T15:07:00.000-06:00

I awoke at 7:00 am in San Felipe, the small village where one of the projects is based. Actually I had woken up many times earlier because the roosters were very loud. I stepped outside and was able to watch the sun rise over the mountain.

The plan for the morning was to get a ride to the main road at 7:30 and wait for a bus that was supposed to show up at around 8 am in order to go to Matehuala (30 miles away), and from there catch a bus to Real de Catorce to meet up with the rest of the tour group.

My ride arrived on time and we had a little discussion on the way to the main road. It turns out he has worked in several states on roof construction, as was planning to go back to Minnasota this coming Summer. We arrived at the main road and I went and stood beside the sign with a bus on it. There was another woman waiting, so I asked her if this was the bus stop to get to Matehuala. She said yes, but did not appear she wanted to talk any further, so I left her alone. Several minutes passed, about 15, and judging from the other woman's demeanour, the bus was late. Just then a good-sized tan van pulls over and motions for us to get in. I was hesitant for a split second, but decided to jump in after making sure the driver was headed to Matehuala. Inside was the driver, his wife who was seated on a makeshift seat between the two front seats, and another women who had been picked up earlier. We headed on down the road listening to traditional Mexican music. After 3 more bus stops, we had 12 people in the van. It was designed to seat 9, but it was not too crowded.

Soon we were in Matehuala, I paid my 30 pesos ($3) and asked how to get to the bus station. The driver told me to go around the block to a taxi stand. I did just that and got a taxi to the bus station for 25 pesos. I could have walked, but it's ok. I went to the desk and found that I had to wait 3 hours for the next bus. I spent the first hour in the bus station failing miserably at crossword puzzles, then I wandered around and sat in a park for awhile, then I got some food. Before I knew it, it was time to make it back to the station and I got on the bus. We took off and Spiderman 2 began playing with low volume and Spanish subtitles.

After about an hour there was a sign for Real de Catorce and we turned onto a narrow road made of bricks. This road lasted about 15 miles. Then we arrived at the entrance to the town, which is a 3 km tunnel. Real de Catorce used to be a mining town, but now it is mainly a tourist attraction, but it still has the feel of a real town. We switched into a smaller bus like sardines, and headed into the tunnel. Just as we entered the tunnel I saw that the school group was just arriving, so I was just in time.

The rest of the trip consisted of typical tour stuff. We rode horses up a mountain and explored old mining buildings and went a few meters into an old mine. While on my horse, a water bottle in my backpack opened, so both the horse and I got a little wet. Another story about the horses, they did not like to passed by each other, so when one horse tried to pass another, the horse in front would usually just cut off the other, but there were times when biting was involved.

Than night we were encouraged to attend a wedding reception being held in town. It was interesting for a few minutes. The groom's friends had a tradition of completely soaking the groom with beer, soda, water, anything in a bottle. And they did a fine job, then paraded the groom around the room on their shoulders.

We left the wedding and were led to an old arena where we were told we were going to watch a cock fight. I said no thanks and started to leave, but one of the tour guides said there were no blades on the feet, so I was able to justify it by saying that mild rooster confrontations occur everyday on farms all over the world. The roosters actually ended up becoming friends by the end of the "fight."

The night ended with the tour guides telling us to go find beer and bring it back to the hotel (which we had rented every room) and we would have a small party. It was a fun time.

The next morning was spent learning from some Indians from Jalisco who taught us a craft involving tiny beads. The tradition is to eat peyote, hallucinate, then draw the visions you had with the beads. We were not provided the inspiring peyote, but were given the craft materials. Most of us did not do so well with the tiny pieces of plastic, but some people did a good job.

The same Indian gave us a blessing ceremony for the trip home involving blowing smoke on us and splashing water on us. I wonder if he made that part up on the spot.

We left the town by piling into the back of two pickup trucks and being led out of the city like a bunch of livestock be hauled to the slaughterhouse. I found it funny.

The trip was interesting and I'm glad I got to see the town. The best part was getting there on my own. I now feel comfortable taking the buses from town to town, which is actually very common as not nearly everyone has a car. Pictures of this trip can be found here.

My first experience with rural Mexico

2008-02-05T14:28:00.000-06:00

One of the most memorable moments thus far took place on the 25th and 26th of January. Some quick background: I have three classes here at Tec. One is studio, one is a Mexican history class (fascinating stuff and is actually helping to explain and give depth some of my observations), and a class entitled Viviendo (dwelling or living). The purpose of this class is to study the vernacular architecture of the rural Altiplano region of Mexico, which is basically a desert area in the northern part of the country. (This class takes the place of ARCH 526, Fundamentals of Historic Preservation). This class is focused on a very small village (20 families, less than 100 people) named San Felipe. San Felipe is an ejido, or communal village, and traditionally relies on local resources for survival. In recent years, the people of San Felipe have begun using materials such as concrete and corrugated metal from distant places. These materials are easier and faster to build with, but they cost more, are uncomfortable in cold and hot weather, are harmful to the environment, lose the sense of place that is San Felipe, and simply are not as pleasing to the eye. Most of the people in San Felipe have relatives in the United States that send them money, and some of the men in the village have (and continue to) spent time in the United States working, usually in the summer and usually in construction. This foreign influence has two noticeable affects on the construction of the village. First is the idea that using concrete and metal, which go through many steps of transportation and manufacturing after raw materials are extracted from the earth, have a higher social standard than a house made of elements that are very close to their natural state (i.e. earth blocks, reed ceilings, thatch roofs, etc.). Second, the construction techniques of buildings in the U.S. are learned and implemented into San Felipe. The purpose of the class, other than documentation, is to continue work on a prototype house that uses vernacular and traditional building materials and methods as much as possible, while using new materials when needed.

Earlier I listed problems that arise with the use of concrete and metal. I first struggled, and still do to a degree, with justifying some of these problems. I felt like we were imposing problems onto the community. The idea that the materials were removing the sense of place from San Felipe and the fact that they were not pleasing to the eye seemed judgmental. But that is what architecture often is, making judgments about built structures, judging the proposed work of others, and judging our own decisions. I realized I was hesitant to recognize some of these problems because I did not want to come across as condescending. But by being afraid to be condescending I was not putting this community on a level playing field, in the architectural sense. Because the people of San Felipe have a different lifestyle that I am not familiar with and because I had the impression that they did not have a lot of resources to choose from, I felt bad being critical of their choices. But not being critical and standing by while someone makes a bad or uninformed choice when I am in the position to be a source of information or a resource of labor, than I will not be able to do any good and will not be able to gain true understanding. As long as I am approaching the situation in a top-down/people-in-need-of-help style instead of an approach that has the future condition, stability, knowledge, and sustainability of San Felipe as the focus than I might as well have never gotten involved in the project. But realizations like this (no matter how ashamed you sometimes feel having them) are great to have, and I'm glad that the last year has been full of them.

So these were the thoughts in my head going into this project, most of them before I had made my way to San Felipe. At 6:30 am, I arrived at the campus of Tec to meet up with Pedro Pacheco, my professor, and two others who were going to San Felipe on the first visit of the semester. (Side note: There are several projects headed by Tec that are focused on San Felipe including capture and storing of rainwater for human drinking, irrigation, and animal consumption; better agricultural methods; improved latrines; production of biofuel; strengthening of the ejido (communal) system; creation of business opportunities from agriculture; and the building of a sustainable prototype house.)

We began the 3 hour journey in a good sized pickup truck, the four of us. We soon stopped for coffee (why everyone has to drink coffee I will never understand) and I was unfortunate to discover we were also meeting another person who would be joining us in the truck. He turned out to be quite large, which means he automatically got shotgun while I got backseat, middle, feet on the hump. But after tons of beautiful scenery, some breakfast that included green eggs (due to the salsa verde), a cd of a Mexican comic which had everyone cracking up (except for the non-Spanish speaker), and a short nap, we were soon there. And by there I mean a 4-mile long lane just off the main highway leading off into the distance. The lane was dirt, had several ruts, and not-so-subtly suggested not traveling over 10 mph.

After a few minutes on the lane we came to the crest of the hill and looked over a small valley, and in that valley in the distance began to appear some earth-colored one-story structures in a near-grid pattern. This was my first glimpse of San Felipe. We entered the village and parked in front of the community building known as Casa Vida. Within minutes nearly all the men in the village made their way to the the building (it is hard to enter the village without everyone knowing it). I had two surprises immediately. First was the dress of the men. I wasn't sure what I was expecting exactly, but it was not what I saw. They were dressed exactly like my uncles do on their farm in Indiana. I wasn't expecting primitive rags or anything, but I was expecting something somewhat Mexican or traditional. But why would they wear the kind of clothes that requires either special ordering or actually making them rather than wearing clothes that are easy to get. The second striking thing was that only men showed up to the building. In fact, that entire day I only came within speaking range with seven women and girls.

The conversation in the Casa Vida went on for 2 hours. I know this because I recorded it on a digital recorder with hopes of listening to it later to better understand what was said, the length seems daunting, however. From what I understood, the directer of Tec programs gave a summary of the progress that had been made and then some of the people of the community voiced concerns or thoughts they had.

We then took a short tour of some of the village including a prototype house the people of the village have started on their own, the prototype house that Pedro has started, some of the houses that people live in, a house that has been abandoned after the owner died, and just walking through the paths between the buildings.

Pedro & Sergio discuss the height of the community prototype building.

A traditional ceiling. This is not able to collect water and also can be full of dust and insects.

A traditional chimney that houses the cooking area.

While visiting the prototype house I saw a demonstration comparing two types of blocks made from local earth. The comparison was dropping them from chest height. One retained its original shape, the other chose to become many smaller earthen pieces and dust. There was a larger stack of the later block type, I don't think that is a good sign.

Block that survived the fall.

Did not survive the fall.

It was interesting to see the current state of the prototype house as there are construction methods I am not familiar with and will get to experience first hand as I begin to work on the house later on in the semester.

We made our way to what I consider the most elaborate house in the village (paint, details, garden layout, respect that people seemed to have for the owner) for lunch. It was delicious.

The hand-washing area just outside the kitchen.

Pedro then showed me some of the details of the abandoned house, which was falling apart, which is very nice as it allows us to see the layers of a traditionally-built house. I will definitely be spending more time in that house. He also showed me some failed attempts at recent building. The residents of San Felipe have forgotten some of the aspects of traditional building and have tried to mix traditional building with concrete. The results have been unfinished corners with rebar skeletons reaching up into the sky and un-roofed walls.

Another thing Pedro had me notice were the different fences. There were the usual chain-link or barbed wire, then there were what he calls "living fences" made of cactus and plant fibers, and then a mix of of the two ("half-living" or "comatose" fences perhaps?).

By this time it was about 3:30 in the afternoon and the men from Tec were ready to leave. I was signed up for a trip organized by the school to Real de Catorce, which was 2 hours further south. Rather than travel the 3 hours back to Monterrey and then travel 5 hours the next morning to Real de Catorce, I planned to stay the night in San Felipe and then catch a bus to Real de Catorce on my own in the morning. Pedro insisted that this plan would work out. I was skeptical but went along with it. Before the others left we made sure that I had a place to stay by asking the men at the meeting if anyone would be ok with letting me have a room. There was about a 15 second silence, then a man named Sergio said it would be ok. Also, Damasio and Jesus agreed to show me around the village for a while.

Immediately after the others from Tec left, I went to look at the water collection tanks that are fed by the roof of the Casa Vida and began asking some questions in bad Spanish.

Damasio must have grown bored because he wandered off. San Felipe receives all of it water for drinking, cooking, and bathing from rain. The groundwater in the area is contaminated with arsenic, from natural practices. For awhile the people were getting their water from a nearby pond, the same pond that local animals were drinking from. The result was serious and common stomach problems. Tec got involved and helped to set up a rainwater collection system. Now the people have a fresh supply of water, but they must use it sparingly. Jesus told me that the tanks were currently about 1/3 full. I asked Jesus how much it rained, but he was hesitant to tell me an amount or schedule. He said it rains when it rains, it's very unpredictable. The last time it rained was about 4 months ago.

We then wandered over to the primary school, which is one room. It was made of concrete blocks and a metal roof. I asked why these materials were used, and Jesus told me that the government has paid for and built the school, therefore the government picked the materials. There were also 3 empty buildings within the school lot that were once the houses for the teachers, but are now unused. From what I understood, the teacher comes from outside the community now, and I do not think that there is class every day of the week.

I then suggested we visit Jesus's house, he seemed pleased that I wanted to see it. We neared the house and I saw that it was made of concrete blocks and a metal roof. I asked about the temperature in the summer, and he said that it was not bad. He left two sides of the common room open air to allow for air flow, and he explains that this keeps the house cool. He made it very clear that only half the house was finished, as one side did not yet have plaster on the inside. I thought it was funny how there seemed to a chicken on every piece of furniture, until Jesus chased them out. Compared to the traditional houses I was in earlier, this house did not seem as inviting. It seemed like a shelter, not a home. But Jesus seemed happy that he had chosen to use concrete and metal.

Roof detail on Jesus's house.

After the short tour, Jesus explained that he wanted to be with his family and excused me. I had no idea where to go next, so I headed to the house where we had eaten lunch since it was my favorite house so far. As I approached the house I saw that there were 5 men sitting around the table in one of the rooms. I asked if I could join them and they offered a seat. We spent a few moments talking about the meeting earlier and I also learned that two of the men, who were just a few years older than me, were from Monterrey and could speak decent English. This was helpful so that when I did not know a word in Spanish I could ask for a translation instead of fumbling around for another way to say something. We also started talking about the rainwater collection and they asked me if I had seen the storage tanks outside the village. I was not aware they existed, so we jumped in a pickup and headed out into the nearby desert.

There were 4 water collection areas near the village that was used to water the cattle and goats, some of which are semi wild. Each storage area has water filtered by gravel and is surrounded by a chain link fence and meter-high berm to protect from contamination.

After the tour of the water storage areas, the two visitors from Monterrey left for home and the other men excused me. Not knowing what to do next, I discovered that the village teenage boys were playing volleyball. By the time I reached the court it was minutes to dusk so the game was winding down. I asked them what people did at night, and they told me that sleeping was popular. They all decided to go elsewhere, so I hit the streets again. As I was looking for something to do, I noticed that a popular activity of the late teens was to simply drive around and kick up dust just outside of the village. Realizing I could be hit if I stayed in the street, I wandered to the small store beside the Casa Vida where I saw a few people sitting. There were 3 men and two boys sitting and listening to some music playing from a parked car. We made some small talk then it was time for the store to close (8 pm) and they all headed home. I did manage to ask them if every weekend was like this, and they said they have fiestas with nearby villages at least once a month. So there is a regular dose of excitement.

With nothing else to do, I went to Sergio's house were I found him working on the back axle to his truck. He invited me to sit down and watch some TV to improve my Spanish, which I did. He soon invited me to eat some dinner, where I got to taste some of the water collected from the rain. All day I was contemplating whether or not I should risk drinking the water, but once it was offered to me I thought, "what's the worst that could happen?" and went for it. The worst that happened was a moth fell into the glass and drowned, and I got a fresh glass. I then returned to the TV and become re-acquainted with a Mexican soap opera I had seen a few years ago. It was so horribly dramatic, but it was entertaining.

I went to bed somewhat dreading the experience with finding the bus stop and waiting for the bus that was supposed to come. I also reflected on the high points of the day. I hoped I made a good impression on most of the people by giving my best attempt at Spanish and by asking questions. The people are not unfriendly, but they are not really outgoing to strangers either. When I started a conversation, they were happy to talk. I will be visiting again soon to continue documentation, and then work on the prototype house will begin in late-February or March. Much will be learned.

Everyday Life in Monterrey

2008-01-31T12:05:00.000-06:00

Not all of these posts are going to be reflections on architecture related topics or trying to analyze things. That would become boring. This particular post is to share with you what a nearly-typical day in Monterrey has been for me.

I think the first thing I have to mention is the odd relationship the school has with its students, especially the international students. ITESM is very paternalistic (they use that word themselves) in the sense of personal lives. For example, if you live in a dorm room, you can never have a person of the opposite sex in your room. Ever. The best you can do is be in the common room on their floor, and if you wanted to see the room I suppose you would have to take pictures or rig up a system of mirrors that make a visual link from the common room to the dorm room.

So with the rules the way they are, one would think they would be paternalistic in the sense that they will help you with administrative stuff. Incorrect. Signing up for classes was a hassle for every single person. Registering your student visa is completely on your own, unless you hire a legal firm to help you. Printing in a computer lab is the hardest thing I have had to do in several years. But with all these experiences you learn a lot. I don't know what I've learned, but I feel more comfortable being here knowing that I have been able to do things on my own. Do not get the impression that people are not helpful here; rather, organizations are not helpful. Individuals are extremely helpful. You can stop anyone on the street, sidewalk, in a store, wherever and they are more than happy to help you, even if you sound like a moron in Spanish. Organizations like to confuse you, so that they do not run out of work, so that they always seem busy. And I swear they purposefully hire people that do not know any English in the computer labs just so international students do not go to them for technical help. Not that they have to speak English, but I find it suspicious that it is the only department on campus that does not speak any English. I have so much more respect for international students in the USA, since expecting an American to know your home language is laughable.

One really cool thing about campus is that there is wildlife on it. And I'm talking more than squirrels and rabbits. There are 4 deer, many ducks, and 1 peacock.

There are also many stray cats, and occasionally you get to see a security officer chasing around a stray dog (I believe there are about 2 billion stray dogs in Mexico. I am not exaggerating when I say you can see a stray dog every hour if you are looking for one, no matter where you are). The entire campus is surrounded by a fence, therefore the animals stay inside. Also there is security at every gate, so outsiders are not allowed in. It is a snooty private school.

I do not live on campus, I live with a host family. They are very nice and helpful. There is the mother and father, Martha and Julio, and their two sons, Ober and Alan. Alan set up my cheap-ass cell phone since I couldn't decipher the Spanish electronic voice telling me what to do. Martha took me to Tec the first day to show me around, and she showed me the bus system (more on that later). They all live on the first floor. I, along with 5 other guys, all Mexican, live on the second floor. We each have our own room on the second floor, so that is nice. Also, I get fed 3 times a day, except Sundays. And the arrangement is cheaper than the dorms.

The upstairs, outdoor terrace that leads to my room. The window is not my room, unfortunately

Movement. The bus system. My roommate told me that there are 4 million buses in this city. I think he meant to say 4 thousand (mil is Spanish for thousand, thus the possible mix up). Either way, there are very, very, very many buses in this city. And it is the best and cheapest way to get around (in the day). At night cabs are the way to go, and they are cheap. I haven't paid more than $6, and I've gone somewhat far. In Muncie, it costs $8 no matter where you go. Back to buses. Not only do you get places fairly quickly, but the drivers are bred to be extremely aggressive and always take the right of way. Also, stop signs are for decorations, and the stop signs with blinking LED lights that mean actually stop only serve as prettier, more festive decorations. Nearly every bus has a custom horn. Some are trolley sounds, some are sirens, some are whistles, the rest are various noises. All drivers use their horn, custom or not. And all drivers probably go through 5 clutches a month (the buses are all manual transmission). Another person's perspective on the Monterrey buses can be found here. I haven't gotten on the wrong bus yet, but I have missed my stop once and had to walk beside a major highway with no sidewalk to get to a safe place to call my host family to pick me up.

That brings me to the roads. Monterrey is all sprawl, but they have found a pretty good solution to traffic. Each major road through a city (like McGalliard in Muncie or 86th street in Indy) has the usual 3-4 lanes of traffic per side, but it also has a secondary road running beside it for local traffic and buses. There are constant on-and-off exits, so traffic keeps moving.

There are occasionally mild back-ups on the secondary roads due to buses taking both lanes of traffic at a bus stop or the occasional mandatory red-light.

Nightlife. The first two times I went out it was with other international students: some other Americans, a Canadian, a person from France (Frenchian?), and we met up with other countries at the bars. Theses experiences were what I expected. The places were meant for students and were tourist friendly. Although the bartenders like to bring you surprises, like the 2-liter plastic beer bottle I received complete with a bucket of ice. Then my second weekend I experienced a real Mexican club. I had a lot of reading to do and I was expecting to stay in so that I could meet up with people the next day. It's 12:30 am, I'm getting ready for bed, and one of my roommates says to go out with him and his friends. I remind him of the time, and he states that 1:00 am is the normal hour to go out in Mexico. Not wanting to miss out on what sounded like a good learning experience, I put my contacts back in and jumped in the car. The place was huge. More than half of the guys had on cowboy hats. There were hundreds of people. The music was all live: reggaeton (which I don't particularly like), Norteno, other styles I don't yet know the name of. It was a fun experience. I finally talked my roommate into leaving at just before 5:00 am (the place was open until 10:00 am). One new thing for me was that you have to get a ticket from the bartender before you can leave. I think it is to make sure you paid. This took about 5 minutes for me to understand due to the foreign language and loud music.

I've also done a few days of sight seeing. Photos of those can be found on the right hand side of the page. Last weekend I spent in a very small rural town and then in Real de Catorce, an old mining town. Tonight (Thursday) I am leaving on another trip to Guanajuato (10 hours away, hooray bus rides!) and we will be gone until very early Monday morning (which is Constitution Day, no school!). Some posts on those will be upcoming.

Why am I here? This is the real first post.

2008-01-29T22:34:00.000-06:00

The actual first post was a response to my first weeks. It is a bit harsh, but the first weeks were stressful. I was on the way to see some caves (my first cave experience) and I saw these pockets of bad housing and it ruined my day. But this is the real start.

WHY AM I IN MEXICO?!?!?!?

Well, I will start with an excerpt from my thesis proposal. I end my "World View as an Architect" section with:

"Critical thinking of architectural education leads to the realization that people in the architectural profession have been taught to ignore many parts of society. Due to lack of a better term, these can be called ignored communities and include the homeless, homeless children, illegal immigrants, legal migrant workers, deportees, women in difficult situations, and even whole nations. The lifestyles of these people are unfamiliar to most architects. The building types and methods, if their rudimentary stacks of materials are even granted the title of building types and methods, are unfamiliar to most architects. The needs of these people are often misinterpreted by most architects. As a result they are simply ignored or forced to accept wrong solutions and the negative results are ignored. It is not that architects are bad people, but currently there is no time in a form- and recognition-based profession to fully address these issues."

I follow this paragraph with my "Statement of Inquiry" which is the heart of the proposal:

"As a student who has had many years of formal architectural education and many months of formal professional architectural experience, what is there to be learned from these ignored communities? And how can an experience in working with people of an ignored community go to influence architectural education?
To clarify a bit more, what I find troubling about current architectural education is that we spend several semesters being taught about theoretical and historical figures and movements in architecture. This is crucial to our education, but we are at a disadvantage when we are not taught the realities of the current world we live in. How can valid and interesting theories be correctly implemented into a world that is not clearly understood? We can continue to discuss for several semesters about whether modernism, Eisenman, Gehry, and new urbanism are good and bad, but should we not also include the rest of the world that has no obvious connections to those topics? If our studios train us to have the ability to make design inferences in the traditional way, can our skill be improved in the non-traditional way? And can others benefit from this process?
I feel that these questions must be included in the education process for the same reasons that historic preservation, environmental sustainability, new urbanism, and others are included: there is a need and a desire to study and work in this area. Many students are not interested in historic preservation and do not agree with the approaches of new urbanism, but they are covered in education. In the same way, the building methods and building needs of ignored communities must also be addressed for the architectural profession to become socially responsible and to make socially responsible contributions.
My concentration for graduate school has been sustainability. In regards to the triple bottom line that sustainability is often taught from, I have noticed that social equity is lacking while economical and ecological factors dominate projects. Working with ignored communities will allow for more of a balance within the triple bottom line and also creates a simple integration into the traditional way this concept is taught in architectural education.
The most apparent way that working with an ignored community can highlight social equity would be to witness first hand the actual inequality that takes place within these communities, or even regions..."

As my fellow students at BSU know, there are 30-something other pages that support these ideas, and if any of you would like to browse or read the rest of my proposal, it can be found here. I suggest checking out the "World View as and Architect," "Literature Review," and "Case Studies" sections.

So this is the gist of it; the sneak peak with the deep voice and bright flashes of light. Stay tuned for more as Jesse describes his brief first visit to the community that the studio project will be focused on where he saw firsthand true slum conditions. But nothing will prepare you for the story of spending the night in rural Mexico, drinking water collected from rain, being forced to communicate broken Spanish as he is left behind by the rest of his companions, and catching a ride in a van on the side of the interstate when the bus fails to show up.

But really, I'll put some experiences and thoughts up very soon. In the meantime I'd love to hear from you all. I'd prefer emails over IM chats as I can choose to read emails at anytime and I usually do not go into detailed talks with IM. My email is jesse.alan.miller@gmail.com So tell me how things are going with you!

Twenty-something naivety ready to take on the world

Before the work begins: my first impressions.

2008-01-21T23:39:00.000-06:00

Hello all. This is the first record of my semester in Monterrey. First off is a view of part of the city.

The school I attend is in the lower left corner and I live up near the upper right corner near the bottom of the mountain, Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Hill).

This week the actual introduction to the studio project will take place and a visit to the community will be arranged. On Friday I am taking a trip to the very small community (less than 100 people) of San Felipe, 3 hours south of Monterrey, where I will be working with another community to fulfill my ARCH 526 class. But this is much more than a requirement. This is a huge project that reaches beyond architecture. In San Felipe the climate is changing (less water), the lifestyles are changing (traditional farming is harder and money is coming from relatives in the US), and the building methods and materials are changing. To put it very briefly, several departments of ITESM are working with this community in areas of rainwater harvesting, greenhouses, restoration of native plant life, and mixing traditional building methods with some modern materials; the later of which I will be participating in. The goal of this University involvment is to empower the community with knowledge and allow them to spread this knowledge (for a small price) to other similar communities. This is already happening in regards to rainwater harvesting.

With that introduction I will get right into what thoughts I have had in the past week regarding thesis and architecture in general.

One of the points I make in my proposal is that I want to remain in contact with the work I do this semester--that may mean revisiting something that might actually be built/implemented or keeping in communication with people who may continue the work, or maybe even staying to finish the job. The method is not what I am focused on at the moment, rather the knowledge that I will be paying attention to whatever results in the future. This past week I noticed a public project that did not appear to consider future implications.

On a trip to the Grutas de Garcia (Garcia Caves) north of Monterrey, I traveled through some of the industrial metropolitan areas of Monterrey. I passed large industrial parks; I passed abandoned centers where poultry was once raised; I passed individual factories; and I also passed unusual groups of housing. These groups of housing (there were probably around 10 of them that I saw) each covered an area of about 4-5 square kilometers. These groups appeared as massive megablocks in the middle of the desert landscape. There was a small number of access roads that led to the walled in megablocks. Viewing over the walls led to the site of hundreds, if not thousands of identical living units. They may have varied by size according to street, but from a distance it was a perfect grid of identical houses all connected by hundreds of power lines held together by hundreds of telephone poles.

The World Bank: "Wolfowitz visits Mexico"

This was affordable housing, there was no other explanation. My first thought was disgust at the lack of design effort that went into these megagroups. There did not even appear to be areas of landscape or parks within the city walls. Just dead mirror-imaged streets. The neighborhoods were clean (for the time being) but they did not look happy. I thought "This developer never had any intention of revisiting this spot to see if it was a success. This was just a pure efficiency job." But then I had other thoughts...

I couldn't help but relate these massive blocks to the factories and industrial parks that they were nearly adjacent to. Were these the houses for the workers of these factories? They were pretty far from the city center, but they looked low-cost, so it was possible that people lived here and commuted to the city, just like in the U.S. But I couldn't help relating these blocks to other similarities: the slave barracks of the plantation homes in the South; the relationship of the mine owner to the mine workers; the projects.

Were these homes sponsored by the industry that probably employed a lot of the people? The slave barracks image is extreme, but is it not a similar principle? Do these houses exist because of these factories? What happens when these industries pack up and leave for for another region, such as Asia? If these were sponsored in part by the industries, did they make regulations for the areas? Do they have some sort of control over the private lives of the people that live here? Even if the industries did not have any influence in these housing areas, the fact that they are in walls suggests that there are regulations to these areas. There is the feeling of the gated community of keeping people out, but it is reversed here and feels like it is keeping people in.

On the immediate border of these megablocks were a few stores. Since there was a sizeable distance to other stores I couldn't help but relate this situation to the old Mining Company Store stories. Not that these stores jacked up their prices, but did the people that live here have many other choices with their location? Was a multi-use strategy developed for this area? If so, why hasn't the commercial area phase begun?

The above question really bothered me so I did some research. It turns out that a developer named Homex has been doing a lot of low-income housing in the Monterrey area, as well as the rest of Mexico. The company is making incredible profits making cheap houses for poor people. Their business practice is to build the house as simple and as fast as possible (has that ever been beneficial to the consumer?). Currently 90% of their business and 85% of their profit is from low-income housing (homes with a cost of less than $60,000), but they plan on building more for middle and upper class people. An article (poorly translated) can be found here. Homex has amassed a fortune providing cheap, nearly identical residences for people who do not make a lot of money. Now, with a nice selection of funds and designers (who can justify and design with a good salary) they get to diversify their design portfolio by building for rich people. Even home-owned and founded companies are exploiting the people here.

But there's more. This article reports on a deal between Homex and my favorite place to shop Wal-Mart. The article states that each new Homex development with more than 2,000 units gives Wal-Mart the option to open up a new store to serve the complex. It goes on to say that current developments that grow beyond 5,000 units gives Wal-Mart the option to replace stores that may currently be there, which the article makes it appear are most likely Bodega Aurrerá. A quick look-up of that chain shows that Bodega Aurrerá is actaully owned by Wal-Mart, but just a cheaper version (believe it or not). Therefore, more people = a more expensive cheap-ass store that erradicates any local competition. AKA the Mining Company Store. I find it disturbing that the people who live in these low-income housing developments are mostly likely forced to shop at a store (due to lack of other feasible options) that buys from manufacturers who exploit workers, many of whom may be in Mexico.

Continuing with the observations, these superblocks had WALLS. Why? This just screams housing project. I really do not understand the walls surrounding each individual complex. These seem like prototypes for other areas. Or perhaps this was born from a prototype. Either way the sense of place appears to be missing and a sense of repetition and economic efficiency is abundant.

To sum up a long rant, this idea that was made for poor people really never considered the physical, spacial, visual, and moral feelings that would result. Completion was the only factor. Now I'm not worried that I will make a mistake like this, but it really inspired me to remember that as I go into the introduction of the work part of this thesis ther is the importance of leaving a project in a good way.

Another quick reference to my proposal: there is a framework I mention in my proposal, design as a learned skill, that I have thought about in a small way. To briefly explain design as a learned skill, it has to do with the fact that a design will be influenced by the culture in which the research/design is being done in. We (the students at TEC) have not begun designing for this specific project, but I was shown photographs of some work that has been done in another community by other students. In two weeks of being in Monterrey, I have noticed that 90% (I've only seen a few exceptions to this) of the houses have the same basic construction elements. They have gates or some form of security, they have flat or near flat roofs, and there is some sort of color added to some part of the house. The photographs of the project that worked with a community within Monterrey looked like an architectural student project for a poor community, complete with the inclined corrugated metal roof. It could have been nearly anywhere in the world and fit in, as long as it was in a poor community. I'm sure that this building (a classroom) is very good for the community, but what culture is this building really in? The culture of Monterrey or the culture of global poverty? Perhaps I am being unfairly critical of a project soley on appearance, but somehow my brain made a correlation to this research framework and the photographs of this project.

Just this morning I was briefly introduced to the other project I will be working on, the one within the small rural community of San Felipe. Pedro described that he has been facing a problem with the roof system. He explained that the community must use corrugated metal roofs in order to collect the rainwater, which is all they can use for water as the groundwater has a high level of arsenic as a result of natural processes. The problem with the metal roofs is the temperature problem. To summarize the discussion, I became aware of a reason and an investigation of how to use corrugated metal on this project. It was not used because it was cheap, but because it is a known method of collecting the rainwater the people use to survive. Therefore this method is a result of design as a learned skill. But even though this method was used on some buildings, there is still investigation into other materials and methods.

This project is a very good example to learn from as it continually looks toward other options for each structure. This is completely the opposite of the superblocks that pissed me off so much. Even though San Felipe has less than 100 people in the community and a massed produced "solution" would be incredibly easy, each structure is given equal attention and become unique. Similar to how the evolution of cities has been happening for years. The result is not an constantly mimicked set of drawings that CAD defecated onto roles of paper.

In the case of San Felipe vs. Homex-style-housing, natural evolution easily beats out "intelligent design."