Voices
Design That Withstands the Test of Time

March 13-15, 2006 [Mexico City]

Armed with knowledge, tools and creative ideas, we went to work…below are a few of the many drawings of designs for our self-sustainable Mexican dream house.

SEED Students and Teachers in Mexico City Explore Sustainable Architecture Using Energy-efficient Home-building Materials, Practices and Technologies to Launch New SEED Theme.

by Eva Gómez

As a SEED volunteer based in Houston, I am always excited to participate in SEED activities. I was thrilled to contribute to the development of a three-day SEED school workshop for 35 students and 4 teachers at the Salvador Gracidueñas School in Mexico City on March 13-15, 2006. The challenge for participants: to explore Mexico City as archaeologist, architect and engineer from the perspective of energy use and climate change, then design and build a three-dimensional model house using sustainable materials and energy sources.

Mexico has proven to be one of the most active and creative countries for SEED activities. This made it a natural choice for this workshop, which introduced the new Climate Change and Energy theme for the SEED web site and educational activities around the world, together with a workshop in Malaysia.

Mexico, with it long and rich history, was an ideal setting. As I made plans with the other workshop leaders—Angela Barrionuevo (SEED Mexico Coordinator), Carla Gómez Monroy (SEED Core Team Member) and Sylvia Sunqvist (Schlumberger Volunteer)—I knew this was going to be a special event. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Day One—Archaeology
How Dwellings Reflect How We Live

SEED, like its parent Schlumberger, makes QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety and Environment) best practices a priority, so we kicked off the three-day workshop with an overview of workshop standards and requirements presented by Bernardo Cuadros, QHSE manager Mexico, whose message was clear: success depends on safety. It was a solid foundation on which we would base our activities to come.

A section of map of Mexico City showing the Zócalo. and the path followed during the field trip.

A brainstorming session followed. Carla and I led the participants in a talk about how modern houses look, what materials are used to build them and what conveniences people like to have, like running water, bathrooms and air conditioning. We asked the children to draw sketches of their houses to show how they lived.

After the brainstorming session, we gathered everyone together and boarded a bus headed to Zócalo Square in downtown Mexico City (see picture at left). We were going to see the Templo Mayor (the Great Temple), a superb example of Aztec architecture from the 14th-15th centuries.

Workshop participants visit Templo Mayor—at one time the heart of Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec civilization.

At one of the biggest public squares in the world—Zócalo (Mexico City’s main square).

We presented some history and explained that the Templo Mayor had once stood at the heart of Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec civilization. The temple complex was almost destroyed by the Spaniards during their conquest. The pathways on which we walked through the excavated remains had been buried for many years and only unearthed in the 1970s.

Everyone looked at the temple and its surroundings with new eyes, studying the building’s details and imagining the way the Aztecs had lived.

We found, next to the Templo Mayor, a water monument on which is carved a relief map of Tenochtitlán in its glory. It was a great opportunity to explain the concept and purpose of three-dimensional models to start taking about scale and proportion. It also helped us envision how towns were laid out, what homes were like and how the people lived in those ancient times.

After a short discussion, we headed for the next stop on our field trip: Mexico City’s main square—La Plaza de la Constitución (Constitution Plaza)—commonly known as the Zócalo. One of the biggest public squares in the world, the Zócalo is a perfect place to study the city’s history and architecture. Surrounding the square are many different and important buildings, including a cathedral (1525-1813), the National Palace (16th century) where the president lives, the Supreme Court, and the former City Hall. The buildings reflect a patchwork of architectural styles that range from colonial churches and mansions to an art deco theatre/gallery to a mid-20th century skyscraper.

Students take a break on the tiny patio of the Cartoonist Museum.

One of the sketches of the Luis Barragán house.

Among the sights we took in was the former Colegio de Cristo, now the Cartoonist Museum. It has an intricate and finely preserved Baroque façade and is one of the best remaining examples of an upper-class 18th-century dwelling. Originally conceived in the 17th century as an educational foundation for poor students, it was rebuilt in the 1740s, and later became a private house. A tiny patio and broad staircase with a low, stone archway are among the highlights.

Our next and final stop for the day was the former home of the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Luis Barragán. Tucked away on a sleepy street, the house appears stark and unassuming from outside. Inside, the Barragán House reveals a vibrant display of color, form, texture, light, and shadow that were trademarks of the architect.

Barragán's style was based on the use of flat planes (walls) and light (windows). The main room of the house had a high ceiling and was partitioned by low walls. A skylight and windows were designed to let in plenty of light and to accentuate the shifting nature of the light throughout the day. The windows also had a second purpose--to allow views of nature.

Barragán called himself a landscape architect because he believed that a garden was just as important as a building. This belief became clear as we reached the back of the Barragán House, which opens onto a garden, making the outdoors an extension of the dwelling.

Barragán continually remodeled the house until the last year of his life. It was a work in progress, a sort of architectural laboratory where he used to experiment with concepts of space and light.

Heading back to the bus and listening to the excited chatter among the students, Carla and I recognized clearly that the Barragán House was a great place to end the day. Its unique design had given the group many ideas to inspire their understanding of how housing reflects a way of life and how form and function, light and space can be used creatively.

Day Two—Architecture
Exploring Our Living Spaces

We began Day Two with a review of our first day’s experiences and impressions, after which we plunged into our next activity. We asked the group to imagine they are architects designing their dream house. It was an amazing exercise. What was most fascinating to see was how the children had changed their approach to design. They used color and structural elements like arches and columns in creative ways that were absent from their initial designs. As the students shared their projects with the group, it was clear that the field trip had made a strong impression on their thinking.

After the presentations, we were almost ready to start a new adventure as architects. First, however, we needed to learn about the important concepts of scale and proportion, important tools for our work. I have to admit that I was concerned that these abstract parts of the workshop would not capture their attention, despite their importance, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was amazing to discover how I underestimated their level of interest in and grasp of architectural principles. It was really easy to explain how scale works and how architects design space in proportion to human life. They eagerly played with the measuring tape we gave them to take home for an assignment--to document the layout of the rooms and furniture in their homes.

The group worked together to complete the house design. Like a puzzle, all the pieces had to fit together.

On to the day’s project, to design a house by dividing into small groups each responsible for creating a space within the house, as follows:

• Entrance and garage
• Living room and dining room
• Kitchen and laundry,
• Bedroom,
• Bathroom,
• Garden and pool
• Game room (transformable).

Something clicked after two hours of creative exploration—thinking, discussion, measuring and drawing—when the group reassembled for a discussion. They immediately realized that we all needed to work together to complete the design. It was like a puzzle, and all the pieces had to fit together. Everyone had to understand the size, scale and proportion of the various pieces and how to connect them to make a house. They were using their critical thinking skills.

LIVING SYSTEMS

The students hung their individual group drawings of the spaces so they could study them together. Then they asked themselves a lot of questions, such as:

• Why is the bathroom is bigger than the bedroom?
• How can we get into the bedroom if we put it in the middle of the house?
• What happens to the living room if we connect the kitchen to the dining room?

As the day drew to a close, imagine how touched Carla and I were to see how the session had taken its own course and naturally become a true collaborative effort and an example of the power of Learning While Doing, which is at the heart of SEED activities. We were proud and very excited to see what developments the next and final day would bring.

Day Three—Engineering
Understanding Energy and How We Use It

From the start, it was clear that the excitement of Day Two had carried over to Day Three. No one could wait to get started.

Above: One student takes a rest while charging his solar-powered backpack.

Below: Exploring the devices that can be connected to the packs—motor-driven propellers, light bulbs, and other devices.

As always we began with a brief review and discussion. The students were more than anxious to know the assignment and to find out what it means to be an engineer. Sylvia was wonderful at leading the activity. An engineer and geologist, she was able to ask questions that helped the students gain insight and understanding into the structure of the house that we were about to build. She also created additional context for the project by recalling for us the memories of the devastating Mexico City earthquake that took place on September 19, 1985. (We will develop the earth science theme, “Shake-it Architecture,” in future SEED Lab projects).

We spent the first part of the day doing research to learn about energy and water systems to use in our house. It was a tougher task than we thought it would be, and it took more time, but we had some valuable inspiration from the new solar-powered backpacks we introduced at this workshop. Our brains leaped into action. 

The students ran to the patio adjacent to the classroom, which we called our “sun-lab,” as if they were going to a swimming pool. In their excitement, many of them lay on the ground soaking up the sun with the backpacks, while they discussed how the packs and solar panels worked. Before too long in that hot sun, they decided to leave the backpacks to absorb the sun’s rays, while they went to get some shelter and play under a tree.

When the batteries in the backpacks were charged, they kids explored what devices they could connect to the packs— propellers, light bulbs, and other devices—to get ideas for the ones they could use in the model house. They also put together all the data they had collected to understand the house’s environment, including its location, climate, building materials, architectural options, and alternative energies.

Armed with knowledge, tools and creative ideas, we went to work to design our self-sustainable Mexican dream house. The house was to be located in the Valley of Mexico (Valle de Mexico), a large valley in the high plateaus (altiplano) at the center of Mexico, about 2,240 meters (7,349 feet) above sea-level, surrounded by volcanoes towering 4,000-5,500 meters (13,000-18,000 feet) above sea level. The wind speed was variable from the North-Northeast at between 8-24 km/hr (5 to 15 mph).

The completed model combined the ideas of all the students in an energy-efficient design.

The house we created in the workshop is a one-story structure with a square base, clay tile roof and colorful walls on a 300 square meter (approx. 350 square yards) parcel of land, typical for a four-person family in Mexico City. Each room was designed to use natural light, cross-ventilation (there was no air conditioning to cool the house) and solar energy sources (due of the lack of wind speed necessary to create energy). Among the home’s special features that relied on solar power were lighting, a water pump that fed the bathroom recycled water stored in a pool in the backyard and an automatic garage door.

When all was said and done, everyone was pleased with what they had learned and created in this workshop, both individually and collectively. Our three days as archaeologists, architects and engineers had provided not only an understanding of our urban surroundings and history, but also a sense of confidence in our own abilities to evaluate, design and construct structures that meet people’s needs in the context of their environment and society. What’s more, everyone left wanting to learn more and to have opportunities to work on projects like this again.