Gloria

Gloria is a resident of Anapra. She has been a cook, cultural and language interpreter, coordinator of food and housing and a friend since WHP first started building houses and civic structures in Anapra.

Gloria currently serves as both General Director and massage technician at the Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana which was our largest and most extensive building event. It is a complicated position involving the coordination of patients, parents, Sister of Charity nurses and workers as well as the development and maintenance of services for children with neurological disorders. She worked her way up into her current position first starting out as a parent of a developmentally-challenged child and rapidly learned the techniques available to these children. Since then she has trained herself in the workings of the clinic and is now responsible for one of the greatest and most impactful aspects of the Rancho Anapra neighborhood.

Gloria was also a recipient of one of the first pallet truss roofs ever built in Anapra.

If you attend a building event in Anapra, perhaps you will be lucky enough to hear one of the incredible stories from her life.

Email contacts

EMAIL ADDRESSES

2nd Clinic Workshop Participants
“Caitlin McKee” caitlinmckee@yahoo.com
“Thomas Weiss” toomyw@gmail.com
“Jonathan Hagman” hagstyle17@hotmail.com
“Matt Allen” MJAllen918@aol.com
“Justin Kirmse” Justin.Kirmse@gmail.com
“Minna Jain” minnajain@yahoo.com
“Adrienne Harvitz” Adie3bear@hotmail.com
“Ryan Matthews” matthewsrc@hotmail.com
“Kate Cooper” olaluna@yahoo.com
“Scott Chaplin” chaplin@sopris.net

COSBA
“Mark Schuenemen” markschu@ix.netcom.com
“Mike Blank” MikeBlank123@aol.com
“Laura Bartels” sconsulting@sopris.net

NATURAL BUILDERS
“Catherine Wanek” Cat@BlackRangeLodge.com
“Satomi Lander” satomi@zianet.com
“Carole Crews” seacrews@taosnet.com

Past Building Projects and Events

Natural Building, Salvaged Material Building and Other Events

November, 2007: Article by J. Matt Thomas on World Hands Project published

QJNAC article
in The Quarterly Journal of the National Associates Committee of the American Institute of Architects

October, 2007: Natural Building Colloquium in Kerrville, Texas

A retrospective presentation of work to date and explanations of building techniques.

October, 2007: Bioneers Conference, Santa Fe, NM Regional Event

A retrospective presentation of work to date and explanations of building techniques.

October, 2004: Anapra, Mexico

Socorro’s House

July - August, 2004: Penasco, New Mexico

Farm House at the One Straw Farm

May, 2004: Anapra, Mexico

Straw Bale Expansion #1 of Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana

World Hands Projects with Casa de la Cruz

October, 2003: Anapra, Mexico

Brenda and Carlos’ House (straw bale)

July, 2003: Anapra, Mexico

Norma’s house (straw bale)

March, 2002: Anapra, Mexico

Adriana’s house (straw bale)

November, 2001: Anapra, Mexico

Maria’s house (straw bale)

Selected Projects of Alfred von Bachmayr

May, 1999: Vale Qule, FIJI,

Community center

May, 1998: Navajo Nation in partnership with Sustainable Communities

Mary Lowe’s house (straw bale)

Dean Coil

Dean is the lead builder on all projects where he is present. He also secures materials and coordinates local workers.

Dean has extensive experience living, traveling and building in Mexico and Latin America. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Latin America Studies and is a fluent speaker of Spanish. He is an avid bicyclist frequently navigating the roads between El Paso and Colonia Rancho Anapra.

As a professional contractor, Dean has built in both the United States and Mexico for many years. He first came to building in Mexico through Anunciation House of El Paso and has been general contractor and project manager for World Hands Project events on numerous occasions including our most extensive project, the second addition to the Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana Project.

He brings a wealth of experience of planning, on-site design and building, and a knowledgeable appreciation of culture and contemporary issues relevant to the Anapra community as well as a humane, conscientious approach to our work there.

J. Matthew Thomas

Matt is currently on academic sabbatical from WHP and attending Columbia University’s Masters Program in Architecture and Urban Design. His course of study is looking at a design-based systems perspective with the goal of communication through visualization; the goal being to make urban design relevant and sustainable in its dynamic environment. Matt has begun work with the Earth Institute and anticipates graduating in May of 2008. He will return to New Mexico in Fall of 2008.

Matt’s home is in Taos, New Mexico where he was the lead designer and owner of JMT Design Studio & Consulting. He opened his studio after interning with architecture firms specializing in high performance buildings. His projects include adobe and straw bale homes and remodeling gigs, such as his own adobe home detailed by recycling many of the original elements into the new design. His consulting work includes LEED Project Management and working with the City of Santa Fe in researching green building codes around the nation to recommend a course of action. Matt is a LEED Accredited Professional and is currently taking his Architecture Registration Exams in preparation for being licensed in the State of New Mexico.

While working toward his degree in Architecture, Matt minored in Anthropology, which led him to travel the world exploring culture and the buildings that house it. From Turkey and Hungary working with mud brick building to China to teach green design principals, Matt realized that combining travel with work experiences provided a knowledge not found in most universities. Upon returning to the states, Matt spent several months at Arcosanti in central Arizona working under Paolo Solari.

In 2003 Matt helped form the US Green Building Council’s Emerging Green Builders Committee. He has been directly involved with the development of the Natural Talent International Design Competition, the Emerging Green Forum at GreenBuild, and Community Design Workshops in Santa Fe.

Matt joined World Hands Project on the first clinic retrofit project 2004, and has attended both the One Straw Project and has served as Project Manager for numerous pallet home projects.

Alfred von Bachmayr

Alfred is the lead designer for all WHP projects and is the lead organizer for all new projects coming on line.

He has a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Colorado. After graduation and internship, Alfred started his own architectural practice concentrating on energy efficiency, passive solar features, non-toxic and small/efficient designs, and renewable resource energy.

In the late 1980’s, Alfred turned to low-income housing and was a founder of the Affordable Housing Alliance in Boulder, CO. In the 1990’s, Alfred worked with Habitat for Humanity in Santa Fe and was Director of Earthworks Institute (EWI). During his time at EWI, Alfred lead a project in the Fiji Islands. The project involved low-cost structures from native materials in a developing world context. After Fiji, Alfred was one of the founding members of Sustainable Communities Inc. (SCI) in Santa Fe that focused on sustainable development throughout the Southwest. With SCI, Alfred built a straw bale house in the Navajo Nation.

In 2002, Alfred co-founded Builders Without Borders (BWB) with a group of straw bale builders from New Mexico. Through his work with BWB, Alfred attracted the attention of a missionary group, Casa de la Cruz, which constructs low-income housing on the Mexican border. Through a joint effort, Alfred initiated a straw bale building program that was an alternative for several years to the pallet and cinder block houses normally seen in the border areas.

Through his continued involvement with SCI, Alfred became interested Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), a systems thinking utilizing natural cycles to eliminate waste streams. In 2003, Alfred was certified by ZERI and now applies these principles to housing and development projects.

In 2003, Alfred and others started World Hands Project.

Ahead to a Sustainable Future

Our work is funded through donations and participant fees. All organizational work is accomplished through volunteered time. We welcome any contributions of money, knowledge and enthusiasm. Please consider helping us; no donation is too small and everything is used wisely in helping to meet our mission.

• $45 will buy plantings for waste water systems.
• $175 will employ a local resident for a week.
• $1400 will provide a new roof for someone’s house.
• $3700 will buy a new roof and walls for a house.
• $5200 will purchase materials for a new home.
• $10,000 will buy land for an educational campus.

Future Plans

In order to continue our work and to become more effective at it, we hope to some day have:
1) a vehicle dedicated to transporting people and supplies; and,
2) an educational center to house students, to demonstrate various regenerative dwelling system, to store building supplies, and to be an initial place to train and house micro-industries for our CHAMISA program (Center for Housing and Micro-Industry Studies Association; and,
3) a document of our work that we can share with the world and which could hopefully bring in revenue to support other endeavors.

What Guides Our thinking

Natural Building of a Different Kind: We support decision-making that is guided by a consideration for the welfare of people and planet. The survival of future generations and our world depends on sustaining the living web of relationships in our communities and lands, among humans, and all life on Earth.

Recognizing Our Impact: The exploitation of people and land has altered relationships that were sustainable and has left us with pollution, disease, climate change, and extinction of species.

Honoring Regenerative Practices: We need to honor and protect the relationships between people, other living organisms, land, air, and water. Failure to recognize the complexity of these relationships will further impair the future health of people and environment.

Green Living for All: We have the obligation to protect the common wealth of our lands and the health of people for seven generations to come. By returning to collective empowerment and decision-making, we envision a future that will restore and protect the inheritance of future generations.

Resources

Here is a partial list of organizations and like-minded groups we would like to share with you. Please check here for information, articles and updates on new groups. If you are a member of a group and want to be recognized here, please contact us. Also, check out the map below for natural building sites around the world

QJNAC article J. Matt Thomas article on World Hands Project

Pallets to the People Dwell Magazine article on WHP

Fr. Bill Morton and Lomas de Poleo land conflict Columban Order website about this issue

Open Architecture Network A Project of Architecture for Humanity

Natural Building Network Bringing the Natural Building Community together

Development Center for Appropriate Technology

Builders Without Borders

Cobworks Committed to building natural structure-based in Mayne Island, Canada

The Cob Cottage Company

EarthNStraw A Gallup, New Mexico based Straw Bale housing group

Greenbuilding Professionals Directory & Resources

Email for Kyle Young, bamboo farmer Arivica, AZ

Kleiwerks An international grassroots natural building organization

Sustainable Communities Inc., ZERI, NM

Renewable Energy Policy Project

The California Straw Bale Building Association

International Journal of Straw Bale Building

Architecture 2030 Committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 2030 via sustainable design

Contact

Alfred von Bachmayr
World Hands Project Founder and Director

World Hands Project
PO Box 31854
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
tel. 505.989.7000

Please notify us by electronic mail if sending something via the postal service so we may expect its arrival.

One Straw Farm, Penasco, New Mexico

Farm House

This project was an economical, passive solar, 1600 sq. ft. straw bale farmhouse dwelling for a three-person family. The land itself is an organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm one hour north of Santa Fe. This modified post and beam house was designed by the owner/builders and Alfred von Bachmayr.

The World Hands Project team taught the basics of straw bale building: raising, pinning and strapping bales; construction of pallet trusses; building wooden window and door bucks; and, earthen plastering of the bales.

This workshop was a great opportunity for future owner/builders to experience straw bale construction first-hand.

ANAPRA, MEXICO - 2004

Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana

This clinic is staffed by a group of catholic nuns and trained locals and is the only option available for health care or emergencies in the Anapra colonia. This project was our first outside of housing and became an opportunity to help people who need a larger and more comfortable place to receive healthcare.

Cinder block building with an uninsulated metal roof is the most common choice of construction in this neighborhood. Unfortunately, these types of buildings become extremely uncomfortable in the heat of summer and the cold of winter because of the lack of insulation in the roof and wall systems.

In this workshop we expanded the current building and insulated it with straw to make the building more comfortable year round. We taught the basics of straw bale construction as we added on one large straw bale room, and installed a new pallet truss roof system over the strawbale room and an adjacent room. Finish work included earthen plastering.

ANAPRA, MEXICO - May 22-29, 2005

Samuel & Rafaela’s house

This was our launch workshop for the Pallet House Program in Anapra, Mexico. Participants gained both cross-cultural awareness and learned basics of natural building. The week provided an opportunity to expand yet again our world view.

Utilizing light stray/clay, earthen plasters and our recycled pallet trusses, we added these to a home design developed by our friends in Anapra. The design existd of creating a shipping pallet home which was then enhanced with natural building techniques, the result - an economical, locally accepted building method enhanced through eco-methods.

During the workshop, we joined the house in progress. The local men created the foundation for the home and the shipping pallet walls prior to our arrival. Our team helped mix and stuff the walls with the light straw/clay, helpd mix and apply earthen plasters and assemble the pallet trusses, while completing the roof. We assisted with interior detailing as time allowed. As always, we worked alongside our local friends and their families in community and co-operation to create this house.

ANAPRA, MEXICO - Nov. 6-13, 2005

Straw Bale Expansion of the Santo Nino Center for Special Needs

We were excited to once again work with Fr. Bill Morton of the Columban Mission of Anapra and the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati to expand the Santo Nino Center for Special Needs Children in Anapra that we helped retro-fit in the spring of 2004. We added aprox. 1000 square foot room to the clinic, in which Dr. Janet, therapists and nurses are now able to increase their care for children of special needs. The clinic is a thriving success and supplies many needed services to families who might otherwise not receive help with their children. Upon completion of the new addition the new clinic is able to expand its hours of operation and be open all week.

The new addition was made of straw bales, as was the first clinic addition. We also created shipping pallet walls for some interior walls which are stacked and then stuffed with a straw/clay mix to provide insulation.

The shipping pallet wall design was developed by our friends Jose Louis and Father Bill. Roof trusses were constructed of recycled pallets and a metal roof placed above straw insulation and a sheetrock ceiling for fire protection. All walls are earthen plastered with locally available materials.

The first week of the workshop we built the straw bale addition from the foundation up, fabricate all the roof trusses from pallets, installd window bucks, began creating the pallet walls, and began insulating the roof. This project was a great way to learn the basics of straw bale building and to have exposure to the basics of natural building via plasters, cob infill, etc.

World Hands was pleased to bring our group to the project and work side by side with the local crews who developed the pallet wall concept. We completed the addition in two one-week workshops.

ANAPRA, MEXICO - November 13-20, 2005

Straw Bale Expansion of the Santo Nino Center for Special Needs

The continuation of the above project worked toward the completion of the clinic expansion. Week two involved more of the above, and also included insulating and finishing the roof, applying scratch coat earthen plasters, electrical wiring and working on detailing required to finish the building to the best of our abilities during the workshop dates. The workshop was a great way to expand upon the basic knowledge of straw bale construction gained on week one and was successful ending with a big community fiesta!

Visit the gallery.

ANAPRA, MEXICO, March 2006

Azusana & Jose Louis’s house pallet house

This week-long workshop continued our work in Anapra, Mexico. We again experienced cross-cultural immersion by working side-by-side with local builders and living with local people.

This project utilized the local version of light straw/clay stuffed pallet walls with earthen plasters and our recycled pallet truss roof system. These were the essential building components of a home designed by our friends in Mexico. The only affordable local source of lumber is shipping pallets. Many families use them for walls and various structural components. This design combined a shipping pallet home with natural building techniques. The result was an economical, culturally-accepted building method enhanced with natural materials and methods to provide a comfortable and better insulated home.

At the World Hands Project, we could not be more pleased to see this housing design develop from within the community, as our goal is have them lead our work, while embracing our building methods which add benefit to the houses.

During the workshop, we joined the house building in progress. Local builders created the foundation prior to our arrival. Our team helped raise the shipping pallet walls, mix and stuff the walls with the straw/clay mixture, helped mix and apply earthen plasters, assembled the pallet trusses, and completed the roof in under a week’s time, finishing the house in nearly 5 days!

As always, we worked alongside our local friends in community and co-operation to create the house. The evenings were filled with local presentations by Gloria, Alfred, Dean and Father Bill, walks to the border and yummy food prepared by Gloria.

Visit the gallery.

A History of Sustainable Design and Building

Recent Work

30 March - 13 April, 2008: Las Hormigas Kitchen Building Event

In two weeks, two new roofs with new insulation, and a light straw clay wall envelope were added to the building to be used by a women’s kitchen cooperative. Also installed were a Watson Wick for the greywater from the kitchen and a solar hot water heater.

April 12, 2008

WHP is featured in El Diario, a local newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, for our work in ecologically renovating the Las Hormigas Women’s Kitchen Building.

Past Projects

September, 2007 WHP presentations at Santa Fe Bioneers and Texas Natural Building Colloquium

August, 2007: Anapra, Mexico

We continue to pursue work in Anapra even though we restricted our involvement there last year due to the situation in Lomas de Poleo, the mesa on the west side of Anapra. We were closely tied to Father Bill Morton of the Catholic Columban Order, who was deported for his activist work in helping mesa residents complete paperwork for legal ownership of their land. It was decided to let things settle down before going back. We have now returned to the area to work while staying away from the contested area on the mesa. We honor the work Father Bill gave to the community and wish to continue in the deeply kind and loving spirit he gave to Anapra.

May - August, 2007 WHP reorganizes with new people, new website and new opportunities

July/August, 2006 Dwell Magazine article on WHP work in Anapra

Pallets to the People article in Dwell Magazine July/August 2000 issue

March, 2006: Anapra, Mexico

Azusana & Jose Louis’s house pallet house

February, 2006: Article by J. Matt Thomas on World Hands Project published

QJNAC article
in The Quarterly Journal of the National Associates Committee of the American Institute of Architects

November, 2005: Anapra, Mexico

1st week - Straw Bale Expansion #2 of Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana

November, 2005: Anapra, Mexico

2nd week - Straw Bale Expansion #2 of Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana