The ten-week 12 CR summer 2010 Reconnecting People and Place program includes a five-week U.S. component and a five-week Mexico component. The BSU-based portion includes BSU-TEC videoconferencing, theory development, and conceptual planning and design prior to the trip; and project documentation (process and product) after the trip. The Mexican portion includes four weeks of sustainable community master planning and design-build where BSU and TEC students work with community residents to design and build a house and site development (in a low-income Monterrey community) integrated with site/ local/regional resource-flows. It also includes one week of study tours in Northern Mexico that includes the cities of Monterrey and Zacatecas (UNESCO World Heritage site), the archeological zone of La Quemada, ecotourism sites, sustainable villages, and community-based sustainability projects throughout Northern Mexico. These include sites of the TEC 10X10 social housing program, the TEC Water and Life Project and other TEC sustainability projects.
The Mexico portion provides unparalleled opportunities to learn about urban and cultural history, indigenous production systems; significant architecture, urban space, urban design, culture, development processes, and green materials and technologies. It facilitates student engagement in community-based and socially-significant design-build projects and design-build processes that reconnect people and place. It also allows BSU students to work closely with Dr. Pedro Pacheco who directs the TEC Master of urban Sustainability program, and is a leading social architectural educator. Dr. Pacheco is also a BSU alumnus (PhD in Adult and Community Education with a landscape architecture cognate).
Tentative Summer 2010 RPP Itinerary
May17-June1: BSU-based technology-enhanced videoconferencing sessions with students at the TEC focus on getting to know the students, the country of Mexico, and the community where we will work; Cross-cultural exploration of sustainability, housing, and community development theory and application; Review of previous work by BSU and TEC students; Knowledge-sharing; Project planning and design
June1–July2: Five week study tour in Monterrey and Northern Mexico; Includes: 1) familiarization with the people, place and community, 2)master planning and community design, 3) design and construction of a small building and site using locally-produced, job-generating, green technologies integrated into site and regional resource-flows, 4) study tours of Monterrey region and Northern Mexico. The study tour includes the cities of Monterrey and Zacatecas (16h Century gold mining town; now major city with colonial center UNESCO World Heritage site), the archeological zone of La Quemada (300-1200 AD), the tourist / mining town of Real de Catorce, the regionally unique Huajuco Canyon and Horsetail Falls, bio-regionally integrated villages, and sustainability projects including the 10X10 sustainable housing program and the Water and Life project as a water harvesting, food production, and green building village (we will make and build with mud bricks). While in Mexico, BSU and TEC students will document the study abroad experience and design-build process and products.
June1–July2: BSU-based documentation of the foreign study experience, including people, place and community; master planning and community design; and design-build of the house and site using locally-produced, job-generating, green technologies integrated into site and regional resource-flows.