July 20, 2016 by CallisonRTKL

Building from the Heart

CallisonRTKL LA Office Volunteers with Passive Building Project in Tecate, Mexico

Everyone knows the beer, and many a tourist has frequented its spa and ranch resorts, but far fewer are familiar with the small community known as Cerro Azul in Tecate. Located in Baja California, Mexico just across the border from San Diego and accessed via mountainous terrain, Tecate was founded in the late 1800s as a ranching settlement, and it maintained a low profile until the brewery was built in 1943.

At 4 A.M. on Saturday, June 25, Tecate was my destination, along with my colleague, Arianne Ponce, as we embarked upon a volunteer build with Corazón (“heart” in Spanish) to bring to life a passive design for a new community center. When construction is complete, the center will provide skills training workshops for adults, daycare facilities, youth activities, community meeting spaces and volunteer housing in Cerro Azul.

In addition to my work at CallisonRTKL, I am also a professor at Cal Poly Pomona University, and the original design was the vision of some of the students in my architecture studio. During the class, they traveled to Tecate and met with local residents to solicit their feedback and active participation in the design process. The students then focused on specific vehicles such as water, energy, waste and materials to achieve design solutions that would bring the community’s vision to fruition. They tested multiple systems and solutions, all of which ended up playing a role in the initial design package. Eventually, the most promising systems—the solar attic and the cooling tower—were carried forward into later design phases. Arianne and I have continued to build on that great work, and we’ve seen some really exciting things happen.

On this particular trip, the group had about 20 volunteers. The objective of the day was to test the evaporative cooling tower, and the results were very positive. Using no other energy source than a 1/2 HP pump, the tower was able to generate air measuring 68.8 degrees Fahrenheit—more than 21 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the outdoor temperature that day! Had there been any breeze at all, the results would have been even better. It was exciting to see that we could achieve such a dramatic temperature reduction using so little energy. The community was impressed, too; they enjoyed lunch in the space cooled by the system and were able to see first-hand how we were able to deliver those results.

Corazón has worked for years to establish meaningful connections with many border communities, and we are proud to partner with them in their mission to improve quality of life and build mutually beneficial relationships. One of the goals of our work with the organization is to educate residents of Cerro Azul about low-cost cooling techniques, which are easy to fabricate and operate. In the long-term, we aren’t doing the project justice by building just a building; we must also build understanding and appreciation for sustainable energy use and how it can act as an economic catalyst for the community.

While the trips are long and begin early, we have found them to be more than worth the effort. It is heartening to play an active role in leveraging architecture and design as an agent of change—one that has a direct impact on the comfort and well-being of a community.

Bio
Latest Posts

CallisonRTKL

For more than five decades, Callison and RTKL have created some of the world’s most memorable and successful environments for developers, retailers, investors, institutions and public entities. In 2015, our two practices came together under the Arcadis umbrella, expanding our sphere of influence and the depth and breadth of our resources. Our team is comprised of nearly 2,000 creative, innovative professionals throughout the world who are committed to advancing our client’s businesses and enhancing quality of life.