We have the ingenuity in our community to find affordable housing solutions that are not only beautiful, comfortable, high performing and elegant, but also leverage local materials, unparalleled structural integrity and minimize labor requirements.
Building innovation has largely remained stagnant in America due to an abundance of cheap, mass-produced lumber and the streamlining of building codes and available materials designed to accommodate stick frame construction. While the upfront cost of materials for this style of building looks favorable on paper, the man hours required to frame, sheath, air seal, insulate, rough in electrical and plumbing, sheetrock and trim a new building remain astronomical. Larger companies have attempted to reduce overall cost of labor by streamlining floorplans and building from standardized templates, but these firms are building around profit-maximizing models as opposed to quality and affordability, resulting in structures that are comparatively cheap per square foot to custom built homes, but fail to meet the needs of low-income buyers and marginalized populations.
The massive increase in relocation since the onset of COVID has created staggering imbalances for low-income communities like Taos County as highly desirable but relatively affordable real-estate is bought up by comparatively wealthy newcomers moving from coastal or urban centers. The result is not only an inflated cost of housing, but also a near total unavailability of labor for low-budget construction projects. There is no mystery to the market dynamics of this phenomenon. Contractors would rather take on larger projects with sustained, consistent income as opposed to navigating smaller bids which incur essentially the same amount of red tape, paperwork and negotiating for a substantially smaller earning potential. The result is a proliferation of 2-4000 sq ft homes with an entry price of ~$400,000 in a community where the median family income is $55,000 annually. Such inequality breeds social tension, resentment, and racial division as a historically Hispanic and Native American population is priced out of their own community by wealthy and almost exclusively Caucasian transplants.
A visual demonstration of the near impossibility for Taos natives to own a home in their own birthplace.
Housing Statistics Source: zillow.com
Demographic Statistics Source: census.gov
Recognizing national trends of private equity backed housing inflation, and the lack of appropriate government controls or solutions, we see the most actionable pathway to this evolving housing crisis as locally driven solutions that are situationally appropriate, have minimal labor requirements, and rely as little as possible on external subsidy structures or policies. Taos is blessed with a long history of building innovation, beginning with the longest continually inhabited structure in North America, The Taos Pueblo, which set the precedent for using locally sourced mud and straw to form adobe bricks. More recently, Mike Reynolds created a worldwide sensation with his pioneering of Earth Ships, built almost entirely from local and recycled materials, and designed to integrate food production, passive solar heating and water recycling all in a single structure. In more recent years, a new material has set the gold standard for sustainable construction in Taos by solving many of the challenges with adobe and rammed-earth construction. That material is “pumice-crete”, a precise mixture of pumice and Portland cement that has stood the test of time and been approved by the local building code.
Inflatable Forms
One challenge with cast-in-place dome construction is removing the interior forms after the structure has been erected. To solve this dilemma, inflatable forms have been employed for both small scale and industrial scale structures. Our design employs PU coated 1000D 850GSM ripstop nylon inflatable forms to support the load of the poured concrete structure and resist puncture. The forms are designed to be reusable on a long-term basis, and easily deployed at the build-site from a single truck or trailer.
Pre-wired Electrical
To save additional time and labor, pre-wired electrical conduit (PVC-jacketed MC cable) is routed at a fixed height to outlet and switch boxes, placed against the rigid forms around the perimeter of the structure.
Thermal Performance
Pumice-crete has been estimated to have an R-value of 1.5 per inch, making a 12” tick wall perform substantially better than an equivalent 2×4 frame wall. The lack of thermal bridging and air gaps mean that in reality, a 12” wall will perform anywhere from 38-97% better than an equivalent R-value frame wall, resulting in a very comfortable year-round structure in our high-desert environment.
16’ Diameter Pumicecrete Dome
Site Prep & Excavation: | $1200 |
3000 PSI Concrete Footing: 3.7 cu yd. | $592 |
3000 PSI Concrete Slab: 2.48 cu yd. | $396 |
60’ #4 Rebar | $34 |
200 sq ft Remesh | $56 |
Crane Rental | $750 |
Pumicecrete (2-½ sac): 17.2 cu yd. | $3000 |
Forms: (Interior Form Surface Area: Dome 556.85 ft² + Floor 176.71 ft²)
5’x146’ (50m) 1000D 850GSM Ripstop Nylon Fabric | $200 |
Upholstery Labor | $350 |
Adhesive (1 Gal Clifton Urethane Adhesive LA 4123) | $214 |
Door and Window Framing Lumber | $136 |
3-0 Entry Door | $374 |
(2) 36”x36” Vinyl Operable Windows | $450 |
Seam Tape | $111 |
Timeline:
Inflatable form construction: | 4 weeks |
Inflatable form testing and refinement: | 3 weeks |
Exterior shell construction: | 2 weeks |
Site prep and footings: | 1 week |
Form setup and breakdown: | 4 days |
Pumicecrete pour: | 1-2 days |
Window and Door Installation: | 1 day |
Electrical hookups: | 3 days |
Interior and Exterior Plaster: | 6 days |
Finish trim and grading: | 2 days |
Miscellaneous | 6 days |
Total | 3.5 Months |
Project Goals 2024
Our target goal for 2024 is to complete our first cast-in-place pumicrete dome as a demonstration structure that will remain open to the community for ongoing tours. Completion of this structure will also result in all forms, an updated bill of materials (BOM), comprehensive accounting for the cost of labor, and more efficient site prep. All plans and intellectual knowledge will be offered to the community under an open source license.
Project Goals 2025
The complete forms and all documentation will be offered to the community for the first pilot of a low-income housing initiative. Partnership with state, municipal and generational landholders in the community will be leveraged to find a plot of land for the first pilot housing development. Meanwhile, individuals and families who demonstrate a need for additional dwelling units on their existing land will be entered onto a rotating queue for the forms. Site prep will be subcontracted by participating community members according to provided specs. The goal will be to provide 12 new comfortable, attractive living spaces for low-income members of the community. Additional development will focus on modular design, allowing expansion of the core structure to add bathrooms, office space, living space or additional bedrooms using the same base form with modified sub-slab, electrical and window configuration.
The immediate goal for this project is to create a realistic housing option for members of the community who have been priced out of their own hometown. This will in turn lessen the housing discrepancy between primarily Caucasian, second-residence or transplant homeowners and the historic population of primarily Hispanic and Native American residents. In addition, the availability of high quality, sustainable housing built entirely from regional materials will help unify disparate populations within the community and strengthen local industries.
Within the next 5-10 years, our vision is to create a proven, engineered system for affordable home construction that is sustainable, high quality, modular in design, with minimum labor requirements and streamlined permitting procedures. It is believed this construction platform can effectively provide tiered layers of affordable housing that are scalable and attractive.
Long term Project Goals
Our long term vision is not only to expand these offerings throughout Taos County and Northern New Mexico, including the nearby Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Picuris Pueblo, Jicarilla Apache Nation, and Tesuque Pueblo, but also bring a collaborative community-student workshop to our K-8 Charter School, GCOA, in Page, AZ. The native population of New Mexico and Northern Arizona similarly suffer from generational poverty and lack of affordable, quality housing. Surya Zoba Studies began its first STEAM learning initiative back in 2016 through hands-on construction of a 120 sq ft. shed on the outskirts of Page, AZ. While an exciting educational project, the high cost of lumber in Page and added labor to insulate, hang drywall, run electrical and finish the structure made the pilot unrealistic as an enduring solution for chronic housing shortages on the Navajo Reservation. We look forward to the opportunity to bring a far more viable option to the same community we love so dearly.
For Community Development
