Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Construction Operations

01/05/1976

Project Report

253-page draft report organized in six sections dealing with: 1. Construction system – where focus is place on an example of arcades between houses; 2. Daily notes – meeting minutes per day; 3. Construction operations – laying out the whole construction process and the techniques to be used; 4. Control operations – setting the methods of controlling and distributing materials and tools – including specific forms to be filled out by each family as for material needed and tools to be used.

Authors:

Howard Davis, Julio Martinez, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Content of

Project

Low Cost Houses for Mexicali 1975 to 1977

Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

Low Cost Housing, Realized , Construction completed in 1977

Client:

Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Mexicali - Mr. Jorge Nunez, Director of the School of Architecture

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Julio Martinez, Howard Davis, Donald Corner, students and families

Contractor:

Built by the families and local subcontractors under the management of the Center for Environmental Structure

Sponsor:

University of Baja California

Project cost:

$70,000

Project stages:

Pattern language for the project by C.E.S. Layout on the ground by clients and C.E.S. Preliminary Design drawings done after layout Direct Construction management along with on-site design decisions Budget and subcontractors under C.E.S. control Users in

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 ...

Contents

Reports

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References

Scientific Research

A New Approach to Design and Construction Management

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Construction Process

A new kind of design/construction/management process, especially for large projects, is required, which will allow the building to be conceived, designed and built so that it comes to life. Below are the ground rules of such a process, already tried ...