Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Basket vault with pumice concrete laid over burlap and chicken-wire

A cluster of houses for large families, with a builders yard, built by the families themselves with the help of students from the Universidad Autonoma of Mexico, and a team of builders from the Center for Environmental Structure. Each house ...

Two pages of construction details regarding a) Perimeter beam and concrete roof vault connection and b) Roof vault construction layers.

31-page document describing the project construction process and the construction operations to be followed, in order to produce affordable and quality houses, designed and built by their owners on a community or on a larger city level.

40-page document outlines the twenty three construction steps of the Mexicali project, which illustrate the step-by-step construction process, and it is organized into ten major building operations. Each building operation includes the “Summary of Operation” chart, detailed drawings and description ...

Six photos illustrate the vaults under the first steps of their construction, the weaving of the vault baskets and the fastening of burlap in different settings.

Two photographs of construction drawings with details, the first illustrating the perimeter beam and concrete vaulted roof connection, and the other the construction layers of the vaulted roof .

Seven photos present details of the constructed vaults, as implemented in various finished vaults formed in rooms with different dimensions and floor plans.

One of the main topics of research, included in every building project, was to identify, early on in the design process, the material and techniques of construction. This would re-establish building as an art, and allow rapid shaping and adaptation, ...

“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...