Design Build Bluff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The Rosie Joe House |
 The Johnson House |
 The Sweet Caroline House |
 The Benally House |
As part of the design-build movement, Design Build Bluff is noted for demonstrating new housing possibilities on the Navajo Reservation in Southern Utah. Each year, students from the University of Utah design and build a home for a member of the Navajo Nation, at no charge to the home recipient. Each of the five homes that has so far been built is an example of sustainable architecture and features local materials in residential construction. These homes are replicable and are innovative off-the-grid possibilities for the Navajo Nation. Design Build Bluff emphasizes sustainable community development and is changing the way homes will be constructed on the Navajo Reservation in the future. The program is part of the University of Utah College of Architecture and Planning.1
Contents |
[edit] Bluff History
Ten years ago, Professor Hank Louis saw photographs of homes in the Black Belt of Alabama, in Mason's Bend. He learned that they had been built by students from Auburn University, in a class known as The Rural Studio, under the direction of Samuel Mockbee. Sam visited the University of Utah and said that: "if architecture is going to nudge, cajole and inspire a community into making responsible environmental and social structural changes now and in the future, it will take the 'subversive leadership' of academics and practitioners to keep reminding the students of architecture that theory and practice are not only interwoven with one's culture, but with the responsibility of shaping the environment, of breaking up social complacency, and of challenging the power of the status quo."
After the lecture Hank visited the Rural Studio. He learned about the Rural Studio students who abandoned the comforts of campus and home for a cooperative life, plus the opportunity to learn about architecture through action. He saw experimentation, scale mock-ups and countless knockdowns. He saw consensus-building through a piling on of ideas and emotions, and a juxtaposition of two cultures considered diametrically opposed. Based on this experience, Hank returned to Utah and founded Design Build Bluff in 2000.2
[edit] Bluff Mission
Native Americans living on the tribal land of the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation face some of the most difficult housing conditions in our country. The unemployment rate is more than double the national average and more than one-third live in poverty. Over forty percent live in overcrowded or dilapidated housing. Basic infrastructure, including water, sewer and roads, are often severely inadequate. Nearly half (43%) of the population live below the poverty line. The housing need in this region is astounding and Design Build Bluff seeks to create housing solutions.3
The program's main emphasis on the designing and building of the Navajo Nation homes is to "green-build", using techniques such as earthen plaster, rammed earth, passive solar, rainwater catchment, permaculture, straw bale construction, Icynene foam (a green, water-based, open-celled insulation product), and materials salvaged from the landscape of the reservation itself such as substratum and reed from the local riverbed.
Design plans are formatted around donated and recycled materials such as windows, doors and appliances. Additionally, the homes are built from a unique Navajo Nation-produced Flex-crete, a new concrete block product made with fibrous aggregate from the surrounding soil, thereby further reducing the need to import building materials. Building sustainable, off-grid green homes that have very little impact on the environment accomplishes the delicate balance of the desire of the Navajo people to respect their sacred land while still providing a much needed home.4
[edit] Projects
2000 - Bandstand Project
2001 - Bend In the River Project
2002 & 2003 - The Kunga House
2004 - Rosie Joe House
2005 - Brian Johnson House
2006 - Caroline Lameman House
2007 - Dora and Baxter Benally House
[edit] References
1. University of Utah Website, Design Build Bluff, 2008.
2. University of Utah Website, Design Build Bluff, 2008.
3. University of Utah Website, Design Build Bluff, Mission and Philosophy, 2008.
4. University of Utah Website, Design Build Bluff, Mission and Philosophy, 2008.
