2004 Rosie Joe House : Project [DBB]

In 2004 DesignBuildBLUFF finally moved south to its intended home at the edge of the Four Corners, skirting the San Juan River and the Navajo Indian Reservation.

Eight students designed and built a house for Rosie Joe, a single mother working three jobs to support her Navajo family, young, old and contemporary, and for a home site lease, within the Red Mesa Chapter of the Navajo Nation, lacking any conceivable amenity or utility,provided several design challenges and a crash course for students in rural self-sufficiency.

The location also provided a rich cultural experience for all involved — the immersion into a community monetarily impoverished but humanly vibrant provided a learning experience at the very heart of architecture.

The home garnered an honor award from the regional chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the top design award in the state for the year 2004, incorporating a rammed-earth Trombe wall for temperature regulation, a south-facing wall all of found and gang-mulled windows whether wood, wood-clad, vinyl or aluminum, the ceiling and roof structure made entirely of recycled pallets, exterior walls of straw sandwiched by clear acrylic, interior walls clad with discarded road signs .

The evolution of designbuildBLUFF has proven beyond any doubt that the process is a viable and enervating alternative addition and has become a major contributor to the education of the architecture students within the University, and has begun to have a positive effect on recruiting, and as further validation, the program has received a grant from HUD that will allow it to continue fully-funded for at least three more years.

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