The Planetary Scale, part 2: Your very own affordable (clay) home

S1: Previously on Port of Entry.

S2: No bueno. See ? Oh. Hi , Miguel. I just forgot to ask. How much did it cost to build the compounds in your house ? Ah.

S3: Well , it's actually a lot cheaper than building with conventional materials.

S4: We left our last episode learning about how to build with earth friendly materials , but wanted to follow up with Miguel Angel Perez , an.

S1: Expert in earth building in.

S4: Baja , about the costs of building this way.

S1: Our producer , Julio , made it to Miguel Angel's homestead in Cuatro Pass , a neighborhood on the outskirts of El Al , around 45 minutes from the border.

S4: Miguel Angel House sits at the back of a four acre property , which is divided into three different parts at the front a.

S1: School in the middle , a small horse stable and a corral , and all the way to the back. Tucked between two hills sits Miguel Uncle's property.

S4: On the way there , Julio was greeted by a couple of horses roaming on the property leading towards Michelangelo's entrance.

S1: There were two gates that separate the homestead from the road. A small pack of three dogs alerted of his arrival.

S3: On that note , para llegar na perfecto perfecto.

S1: On the drive up the hill , a couple of reed structures to tall.

S4: Just beside his property , next to the horse corral , was the beginnings of a biopic or an artificial water reservoir that he is building with his neighbor , the owner of the horse stable and corral.

S3: Puede hacer Los casos Los caballos. Movida muchas veces. De un tyre.

S4: Miguel Angel explained that they just had a construction workshop with reeds a few days earlier.

S1: Once there , Miguel Angel explained how his homestead operates entirely off the grid. There were no connections to sewage or the electrical grid.

S4: Everything , including electricity , was fully self-sustained.

S3: In La Zona del Sol. Esta es la primera casa de Paz. Tenemos Como arboles. Compostela.

S4: His wife Adriana , a trained architect , was there with Remus , a nephew that was visiting from Oregon. Um.

S5: Um.

S3: But podemos pasar si. Bien.

S6: Bien. Yeah. Okay.

S7: Okay , okay. Wow. Aha.

S8: My mother was in construction , pero. No. Contaminated.

S6: Contaminated.

S4: It was her first time seeing a completed house built with earth materials.

S1: The main house was constructed from cob in case you didn't tune in last episode. It's an earth building technique consisting of a mix of clay , soil , sand , straw , and a binder. When fully dried , it forms into a hard and durable material comparable to concrete , but with superior insulating properties.

S4: The house had a living or green roof , a bit of dry grass with different cacti sat on the top.

S1: On the right side of the roof , next to the plants and facing the sun , were three solar panels connected to a charge controller that charged four golf cart batteries , where Miguel Angel stored his electricity , and with an inverter. He distributed electricity to his house.

S4: About ten feet away from the main house was the bathhouse. It was built using a technique called wattle and daub , or as Miguelina calls it.

S1: The bottom of the foundation had a French drain with a dry stack of rocks above it , where the rest of the structure rested.

S3: So what it is are some kind of reads. And then these reads are covered in , in clay. So in this case this is also a technique called you're a , you're you know building a unit.

S4: So a unit is a type of portable round tent traditionally used by nomadic cultures. It's constructed with a wooden frame and covered in felt or fabric. But in this instance they were using natural local materials like reeds and clay to create a more durable structure.

S3: So if you would have only the castle walls , it's pretty flimsy. Or if you have carved that thin or is very , very flimsy as well. But by combining them , uh , you have this beautiful structure. Aliana designed it. I just was basically , um , helped her execute it. She took the time to actually put all these bottles in place , um , so that we can infill them with , um , with a clay mixture. And then what you see inside here , this is a lime plaster that's only a base. This is a base coat. Because on top of this , what we would like to do is , um , a burnished lime plaster called talc , which is waterproof. And she also designed the reciprocal roof on the top.

S4: The bath house was also built with repurposed materials , like glass bottles that served as building blocks and extended glass windows , which gave the inside of the bathhouse a beautiful , warm hue.

S3: At night , when we leave the light on inside and you see outside , ah , this building looks amazing. Looks like , uh , I don't know , like some kind of living mushroom of sorts. So according.

S1: To me , building this type of way is best suitable for rural areas where you're not bound by city building codes. And we're building materials are more readily accessible and cheap.

S3: Just a little a little side note about the cost here. I guess the only thing we had to buy was a copper pipe. I like the copper pipe. Um , and the wood , the wood was leftover wood from , uh , which , uh , lumber yard. And that costs $500. Just just the wood for for the top. Uh , probably the when when it was $20 to a dollar. Right now it's more like 1750 weight.

S4: So about $100 for materials.

S2: Yeah , definitely about $100. Yes. And they also use some repurposed debris like wooden tiles or the wine bottles that of course , in some elbow grease.

S4: Dude , that's stupid cheap. I wonder how much this would cost in the States.

S2: A lot more for sure.

S4: I'm pretty sure.

S1: After the tour of the bathhouse , Julian Michelangelo continued the tour to the main house.

S9: Right there.

S2: And this is your , like your living room.

S3: Living room slash , um , uh , kitchen.

S2: This is like a study.

S3: Or a room that's actually a bedroom.

S1: The inside of the house was about 500ft² , divided in three sections. The main entrance led into a combined kitchen and living room with two open rooms on each side. Pans and pots were hanging from the walls near the kitchen side of the house.

S3: And you have just walls that aren't like very private , but , you know , just separates the rooms. You have our earthen floor. Our our kitchen is made of cob. So is our bench here made of cob.

S4: There were no doors separating the rooms from the kitchen living room , although they were each divided by a wall that did not reach all the way to the roof.

S1: Each wall had carved bookshelves made out of the same material as the bathhouse , which held pictures and books about earth building and architecture.

S4: It was cute and rustic , like one of those boutique Airbnbs that are never available to stay at. Yeah.

S10: Yeah. We just we just decided just to leave them like that.

S3: For for light. I don't think I'd ever build a house with a walls like that , but we we were kind of thinking more of like , um , yeah , just to be private , but we wanted the airflow and the light.

S4: To the left was the master bedroom , and to the right of the kitchen was a slightly smaller guest room. Both of the rooms were not that big , but could easily fit a queen size bed and still have some leftover space. The ceiling was made out of wooden beams and stood nine feet from the ground.

S1: Julian Miguel sat on the bench and like last time , Miguel pulled out some homemade kombucha and shared how much his house cost to build.

S3: But you know , like this house costs 6,000 USD to make because I'm only talking about materials invested. All the labor was all volunteer work , including including myself.

S4: Hold on. Let's pause here.

S1:

S4: Day for folks who don't know , the minimum wage in Baja is about $20 a day , but no one works for that little.

S1: So with a small crew of five people , it would cost around $15,000 to build the same house in 2 to 3 months , or around 20,000 if you want to get fancy.

S4: But here. This according to buildable , a local contracting company.

S1: That same house or something with the same dimensions in San Diego but built using conventional materials , would.

S4: Cost between 200 and $250,000.

S3: Labor costs can can be at least the same amount as the materials , but probably more especially here that easily.

S1: If you cut the last episode , we left off discussing the impact building with Earth and Clay has on the planet. Today we explore the building costs of using natural materials , what it means for folks looking for a housing alternative , and why this hasn't taken hold in city settings.

S4: Today we're diving into the planetary scale part two.

S1: If this is your first time tuning in to the season , we're showcasing stories of people with out-of-the-box approaches to common problems.

S4: This season is all about visionaries and shapers of the borderlands from KPBS.

S1: This is Port of Entry.

S4: Where we tell crossborder stories that connect us.

S1: I'm Allen Lilienthal.

S4: And I'm Natalia Gonzalez.

S1: You're listening to Port of Entry.

S4: So if building with earth materials is cheaper , has anyone else taken advantage of this method ? You would think people would be eager to adopt this alternative. Right. Well , some people have.

S1: We met with Rachel Foreman , a New Yorker who has made a remote hilltop in her new home.

S4: Earlier this month , Julia and Allen visited her property about an hour from the border and ten minutes north of fence. Another. Rachel.

S2: Rachel.

S11: I just.

S8: See her.

S2: Your boys are here ? Yeah.

S12: Your puppies ? It's tofu.

S4: They met Rachel by the roadside.

S1: Her explorer's hat kept her curly dark blond hair together and protected her face from getting more freckles.

S4: She was waiting in her old white SUV for them to follow her , her two dogs eagerly poking their heads out to greet them. The way to her house was steep , rough terrain. So cool.

S2: Do we follow you ? Yeah.

S12: Yeah , it's a little bit of a climb , but you'll be fine , okay.

S1: Rachel is part of the Earth Building collective we featured in the last episode. Other members have been helping her build her dream home.

S4: Once Julio , Allan , and Rachel arrived , she began sharing how her homestead will be shaped and what brought her there.

S12: So I am building with Cobb and this space is going to be a kitchen slash consultation area. I practice Ayurvedic medicine. Um , and so the ideas will be one open space type of building , um , windows on that side , you know , to catch the , the mountain view.

S1: Um , Rachel is looking to become an Ayurvedic therapist , an alternative health practice originating in India. Rachel wants to make sure that the house she lives in , or in this case where she'll work , is made of all natural materials and causes little to no harm to the planet.

S12: Um , all of the rocks I collected from here on the property to fill it. So that was a process. But it's one of my goals to use as many materials as I possibly can from this property or from , you know , the local , the local area.

S4: The structure resembles a baseball diamond with the batter splayed facing the mountain view.

S1: The dimensions were close to 500ft². So far , she's completed the foundation and about a foot and a half over the ground. Next to the compound is an Econoline van and a metal freight container that acts as her temporary living shelter.

S13: Right now I sleep.

S12: In the camper van , and then I've got my kitchen and stuff in the shipping container , and the idea is that eventually I want to build the main living area on top of the shipping container.

S1: We initially thought she was building her entire homestead out of clay , but the way she plans to integrate earth building techniques with the existing material and structure she already has surprised us and downright impressed us.

S12: You know , the big vision is that this space is a workshop inside the shipping container , and then above it will be the main living quarters. So very kind of tiny house sized space , small kitchen to be able to use to when you don't want to go down there.

S4: When Rachael talks about her home building plans , a spark of excitement brightens her hazel eyes. Her enthusiasm was infectious and definitely left us wanting to hear more about her vision.

S12: Definitely eventually , like when I build up there , what I want to do is this technique called light straw clay. So you frame it with wood , and then you put forms on either side of the two by fours. And then you take this mix of straw with really , really watery clay , and you dress it almost like you're dressing a salad , just like a nice , like coating , right , of this , like liquidy clay. And then you put it down in the forms and you tamp it down. And so you do that until it fills up the whole cavity , right ? The whole box that you've created from the two by fours. Um , and then that becomes your insulation and the structure of your wall together. So it's a really , really fast , economical way. And it's light enough that you can do it on a second story. So the current.

S1: Setup will eventually lead to a much more complete homestead.

S12: And then down here this is going to be that kitchen slash consultation area and then down below it , eventually a bio pool , and then the gardens will just spread out around from here. And so there will be garden beds over this way. I want to do as much permaculture as possible and have herb gardens , vegetable gardens , that kind of stuff over here , and then a therapy room eventually over here. I'll use this space for now , but in this kind of space that looks over the mountains , there will be a therapy area and then.

S14: Yeah , okay , that sounds very cool.

S1: I was just getting to that. Rachel , like many other Americans , chase her version of the American dream for a good decade in California. But that didn't quite work out.

S12: Um , I had a job doing accounting for a school district , and , you know , I wasn't able to make enough to to live on that wage , you know , wasn't enough to pay my rent and take care of what I needed. And after they took out my taxes and benefits , it worked out to maybe like 12 or $13 an hour , which , you know , you can make that it in and out , right ? Like there there wasn't a lot of incentive around 2010.

S1: The income she was making was not enough to meet the increasing living costs. So she looked for job alternatives and found one in Humboldt County , a very green alternative.

S2:

S1: Getters , the Humboldt hookup.

S2: The emerald ecstasy , the.

S1: Wonder sweaters , the.

S2: Marijuana machine , the.

S4: Yeah , okay , we get it. She started picking pot. Can we move on with the story , please ? Yes.

S1: Of course.

S12: So I was in the cannabis industry in Northern California for about eight years. And , you know , I did a little bit of it all , like I did some black market work. I did some legal market work. I worked in dispensaries. You know , I did some trimming , I did a lot of gardening , and that was what I really liked the most. You have this opportunity to to make a lot of money , to work seasonally , to be outdoors , you know , to to not have to necessarily pay rent if you don't want to because you can be camping and living there.

S1: Trimming weed paid very handsomely back in the early 20 tens , according to Rachel , people in this industry made around 7 to $10,000 a month , depending on your per pound trimming yield. Some even racked up to 30,000 per season. That's just for a couple of months. Cool.

S4: Cool. Where do I sign up ? For almost a decade , Rachel wrote The Emerald Wave. She joined many seasonal workers from all parts of the world the so-called Tree immigrants , a play on the words of trim and immigrants.

S1: Get it ? These seasonal workers would spend harvest season working in the California weed fields and would head back home to enjoy the bounty of their harvest.

S4: But California had other plans. On November 8th , 2016 , Californians voted to legalize recreational marijuana , making it a haven for cheap pot.

S1: Adrian Q The November 8th , 2016 archives.

S15: At the stroke of midnight on New Year's , California will become the eighth state to legalize recreational marijuana.

S16: Medical marijuana was already legal in California , but the passage of proposition 64 means that the state is now poised to become the world's largest legal weed marketplace.

S1: As dispensaries started rolling out and weed was more easily accessible to users , like with any other product , the more there is in the market , the cheaper it becomes.

S12: As the industry. As legalization happened , there was all of a sudden this kind of push and pull between the legal industry and then the black market industry. And the price has fluctuated a lot. I was going back and forth working seasonally up there , which worked really well for for a while , and then eventually the prices were just so low that I couldn't justify it in terms of the gas money to get there. Then I was making , and that was part of kind of what pushed me here.

S1: And the honey pot , from where she and many others were making a killing , suddenly vanished.

S4: But she still held to her dream of traveling the world and being a landowner. She just wasn't going to give up on her own American dream so easily.

S1: So she shifted gears and started looking for ways to not lose all that hard earned money to the ever increasing living costs of California.

S12: And so obviously , in California , the thing that's the most expensive is rent. And so I had done a lot of that , like overland kind of travel and thought , okay , well , just I'll build out a van. But to build out the van , I was so lost. And so I signed up for some carpentry classes at College of the redwoods up in Humboldt County in Northern California. I get to to school , and one of the classes was building a house. And so we did everything from the foundation to framing the walls. We did the roofing , like everything. And that process really inspired me to think , okay , well , now I can build a van and I can build a house. Maybe I could build my own house.

S4: Rachel sought ways to build her own living space , like.

S1: Retrofitting her own van into her own mobile living. Quarter.

S4: Quarter. But she couldn't rely on conventional materials.

S1: Her dream of becoming a homeowner was a bit more complicated. She needed specific construction materials due to an ongoing health condition.

S12: You know , it kind of all came together with with my own health journey of having some autoimmune type , um , symptoms around that time where I noticed that they became a lot worse when I was working with the commercial construction materials. Like I would notice my symptoms getting a lot worse when we worked with stuff like that. And so that kind of got me thinking , okay , like I love this , I love building , I want to build my own house. There must be ways people are doing it that's more ecologically friendly , right ? There must be ways they're doing it that are less toxic.

S1: And her health condition , coupled with the high , borderline unaffordable cost of living in California , limited the options she had available.

S4: She needed to use alternative construction materials to build her own house. But one big obstacle stood in her way.

S1: The strict California building codes.

S12: Well , and that is like if you're talking about , like , why not California ? Because it's not really possible. I mean , I guess in theory you could do it if you had so much time and money and probably lawyers to help you get it through. Right. But to me , that's not realistic. I don't have that budget , you know. And so yeah , this in the United States would be very , very difficult to to do.

S17: Because of all the building codes.

S12: Because of the building codes , because of the permitting , because of. Yeah , just all of that and even the materials , you know , and even stuff like collecting your own rainwater , you can't necessarily do that.

S1: So Rachel , being a free spirited traveler , stumbled upon the possibility of her present ten years earlier.

S12: I came here , I traveled through here maybe ten years ago. I was doing a big overland drive through Central America with friends , and when we crossed from San Diego , this was the first place we came was to like Tijuana and Sonata. Um , and we were supposed to stay for three days. And three weeks later we were still in this region , you know , just fell in love with it. And so I really wanted to buy something , um , and live here eventually , someday.

S1: You know , fast forward 11 years to 2021 and 30 grand later , Rachel now owns two and a half acres in La Salle suppressing Spanish.

S4: The Jews say 30 grand.

S12: Uh , 30. 30 grand. Cool.

S1: 30 grand. I'm hoping to buy the land. Oh.

S2: That's so cheap. Mhm.

S4: Mhm.

S12: That is a great question. I've been doing it. So just piece by piece as the money comes in you know. So I haven't really looked at a whole budget. I'm very fortunate that the build itself so far I think I've spent. So let me think probably the bags , I did buy some of the bags from the bakery , so that would have been about $500 , and I probably spent about another $500 on the straw. Um , and then the sand was the most expensive thing. I got a whole truck of sand and that would have cost me , like 200 something dollars. So really I mean on the materials for for the build. What's happened so far I've spent about like 300 bucks. Um , the. Yeah. Like the , the doors that I bought over there , those were 600.

S1: After paying , she wasn't sure exactly how much the total cost would be , but based on what she already spent , she'll need about 5 to 7 times that amount to finish the structure. That's just for essentials like more sand and basic materials. If she wants to add extras like decorative doors , wooden beams , or a nice roof , the estimate jumps to around 5000 to 10,000 for materials alone. So to be safe , a budget of 15,000 would give her some room for unexpected costs.

S4:

S1:

S12: And that's a great thing about the tech group. You know , one of the the neighbors down the road fixed his part of the road , and I think he spent like $15,000 doing it. Whereas I had the tech people come up and we fixed part of my road. We did it in four hours with wheelbarrows. Right. And I just made lunch. So it's just this , this , you know , if you have the time and the people , you can accomplish a lot.

S1:

S4: If you consider how much it costs to hire a group of five day laborers in Mexico , depending on how long it takes you.

S1: So Rachel's home would be costing around $25,000 if you wanted to build quickly and fancy. Plus the cost of her land plot , which would place her grand total at $55,000.

S4: Imagine trying to do the same thing in the.

S1: US that would be completely out of her reach.

S4: Seems like she made the right move.

S12: It was very good timing moving here , right as everything in California was starting to kind of go out of control , but I felt like I was getting out at the right time. And definitely because now with the prices and the way things are , it would have been impossible to to save up and and make this transition.

S1: So back in 2021 , Rachel unintentionally cut herself in the midst of a wave that has made her a part of a tsunami of California residents flocking south looking for affordable living conditions.

S4: In Rachel's case , affordable and non aggravating living conditions.

S1: Port of entry will be back after a short break. You are listening to port of Entry.

S4:

S1:

S4: Ruiz is director of urban planning and Development. Bueno.

S18: Bueno.

S8: Como estas ? Hola.

S18: Bueno. Bueno.

S8: Bueno.

S4: Where ? American.

S1: He's also a colleague and good friend of Alex Santander , the architect that we featured in our last episode. Alex and Julio made their way to Casa de la Cultura. The cultural center implies that Tijuana , a beautiful hacienda and esplanade that exhibits classical beam and column architecture typical of colonial buildings.

S4: When we asked him about the viability of using earth building in city settings , it became clear that the situation was more complex than it seemed.

S19: The difficulty is how you deal with all these legal institutions , all these superstructures that doesn't. They are quite related to , to aspects of functionality or structure in the building process , but rather to protect the users. What we need is to create a legal framework for Adobe to be actually sustainable , not in the ecological type of conception of what sustainability is , but in the legal , institutional , economic. Day to day practicality of it.

S4: Right now , according to Alex , those who design the building codes are the very same industries that develop the materials used for construction , which then are handed to the city for them to implement and regulate.

S19: For instance , in Baja California. There isn't yet a code for Adobe. It doesn't mean that you can't work one or create one and publish it. But I think there's still some resistance , not Necessarily from the bureaucrats , not necessarily , but rather from the construction industries and all the all of the architects and builders and engineers that went to the school and learned only that. Types of systems. Concrete , steel. I will call the mainstream construction systems that there is a clear framework to work with them.

S1: Turns out the rollout of Adobe in urban areas is less about the material itself , and more about the institutional framework needed for society to rely on Earth materials like Adobe or cob. Similar to how we use concrete or steel beams.

S4:

S19: It's not vertical. Vertical. Uh , buildings in Tijuana , for instance , they are being built with , uh , for a very specific type of users , for a very specific market. Those types of , of constructions are meant to be built by about 5% of the population. The very , very the great majority of construction in Latin America is actually horizontal. So I think it's a very fair question. Why would you like to mimic skyscraper with Adobe if , if , if the key , uh , the most urgent matter is how you , you create housing for for the rest of the people.

S1: Alex's insight made us rethink our original question , not in terms of the performance of bio materials.

S4: Like cob or.

S1: Adobe when compared to the performance of concrete or steel in urban settings , but in terms of the urgent need for affordable housing.

S19: In Latin America , about 80 or 85% of the construction in Tijuana is actually made with or without technical or authorized or specialized supervision. So that very force is right there. It's now working. It's actually in , in in the field working. Right now people are building without codes.

S1: Building codes are essential for safe construction. But the majority of people in Latin America don't follow them. However , if people are taught how to build with earth materials or any material for that matter , they would have the basic fundamentals of how to build in safer ways.

S4: But this is where it gets complicated.

S1: Turns out that Earth building is more susceptible to seismic activity than most other materials. This is why we rarely see an Earth building higher than two stories in areas that are prone to earthquakes , but two , that Alex has an insight.

S19: When you design a skyscraper , you don't actually have to create a new type of calculation. You use what before was used in other codes or in other instances with where seismic activity , where an earthquake collapsed , a building and there and then engineers went down there and used this type of forensic science. Forensic. structural science. Forensic architecture and forensic engineering. Structural engineering. And they create this sort of how you call it , um , reverse engineering. And they come up with , oh , we , we were short in , in this aspect of design. So we have to create this new system or add this new material or add this new resistance in order to this structure , to this very design , to , to resist the same earthquake that collapsed it in a new scenario. It's very interesting.

S4: According to Alex , when an earthquake collapses a building.

S1: Where conventional materials are.

S4: Used , forensic engineers only look back to see where it failed and make new adjustments to the design and materials. No new systems of calculation have to be created to raise a new structure.

S1: This is what Earth building lacks.

S19: It's very interesting. But all those reverse engineering engineer calculations have to finally become codes. Do you mean construction codes ? Yeah. Construction codes. Building codes. And we start.

S1: A calculation system where we know how the material and design behaves. Will later become a building code.

S4: So here's where it all made sense.

S19: When Adobe was abandoned right from the human civilization , um , it we stopped this experimentation and we stopped this possibility of making codes out of Adobe. So we will have to experiment. We have to let many Adobe structures collapse until we finally learn how to create an Adobe structure that finally works. This is an area you're talking about.

S1: According to Alex , earth materials like Adobe were phased out from city environments by other materials like concrete for various reasons.

S4: Therefore , it missed out on the years of trial and error that other building materials benefited from.

S1: This meant Adobe didn't get to evolve alongside the many technological advancements and improvements that materials like concrete made over the last centuries and decades.

S4:

S1:

S19: Well , I have a friend who is a structural engineer and an architect , and he currently works in space engineering. So he explained that some of the more efficient structures are actually curved ones , and organic.

S4: According to Alex , are structures. Resistance has more to do with its shape than with the material. It's made of.

S19: That very same structure. Talking in , in in the realm of physics and vectors of force and all that stuff , mechanical mechanics and classical mechanics , that's very fun. But reverted or upside down , you you create this form that we call the arch or the curve or the dome. Right. So the dome and the and the arch are very efficient types of structures in architecture. Very old ones , very ancient structures were built using this system.

S4: Curved shapes , Alex argues , are better at distributing loads and resisting different charges of force when compared to straight ones.

S19: It's concrete and steel construction system that came up with this idea of the grid system that we know right now , which is a type of system that works with pillars , with columns and beams , this beam and column system that is squared , it's actually less , less efficient than this curved system. So hypothetically speaking , you could work anything using any type of material. If you use a system that because of the properties of its form , not it's not. It's materials. It's more resistant.

S4: That is why most earth buildings are curved , so that they rely on the stability of the shape and less on the strength of the material , like we saw in Michelangelo's house , or Rachael's compound , or in Diego's cylindrical loft in our last episode. Yet , to build a sturdier structure with Earth material , the walls had to be thick and curved.

S1: We're talking at least 20in , which means that you have to take up more space. Whereas with materials like concrete or cinderblock , walls can be as thin as ten inches , as long as you have something like rebar inside to hold its structural integrity in place.

S4: So concrete , cement , cinderblock , and rebar are more efficient not because of its innate material properties , but because it is a good fit for construction in densely populated areas like cities that can be arranged in a grid.

S1: Which means you need fewer materials and less space to build sturdier structures. It's simply easier to stack boxes than circles.

S19: So yeah , you could work with Adobe using that. These different types of system we have , we will have to experiment with them , extract very large amounts of soil to to build this experiment. But that will be an answer to your point. We could create some types of skyscrapers , but they wouldn't. They will not look like vertical thin structures. They will look like like pyramids or like Colosseum or any other types of structures to be able. To.

S20: To.

S19: Have the. Yeah , to support itself and to support all the charges of the human activity working on it.

S4: So if we wanted to make Adobe work , we would have to rethink how to design our cities or how to organize our populations.

S1: Currently , as things stand , earth building is more suitable for horizontal growth , like in rural areas where everything is more spread out , while conventional materials like concrete , cement and cinderblock are more suitable for vertical growth where everything is packed like in cities.

S4: However , Alex doesn't think that this cannot change. Earth materials just need more time to evolve and to get caught up. Before we left , Alex left us with a final point.

S19: And always a very intelligent response. In some regions like northern Mexico , like southern United States. There is a very specific zone that makes sense because we have the resources to do that. There are places where it doesn't work. It doesn't quite work in more tropical areas. I don't think it will work in Alaska. I don't think it will work in an island where you are at risk of receiving of hurricanes and tropical storms that can destroy wood and Adobe and other materials. no matter what. Which form you use because of the sheer force of the of this force , of this force of nature.

S1: For Alex , earth building is a solution that should not be adopted everywhere. You have to identify the regions where earth building makes sense and promote it there. It's situational.

S4: Some folks may feel that the time to build these sorts of way has long passed , but people like Miguel and Rachel are proof that this way of building may be more attainable than buying a traditional house.

S1: Their stories challenge the notion that conventional construction is the only path to homeownership.

S4: But Earth building is not a silver bullet.

S1: Alex's take is a sober reminder of what is possible , given a specific set of circumstances , like.

S4: Having access to land , location and material availability.

S1: But with building costs and home prices constantly rising , this alternative is worth a glance.

S4: The good thing is that innovations are being developed as we speak , like machines that bring houses , or a more rudimentary press that creates building blocks out of clay.

S1: A simple Google search shows that more and more people are looking for ways to improve these materials as we seek sustainable solutions , ones that minimize our environmental footprint and keep the planetary scale in mind.

S21:

S1:

S22: Hey.

S23: Hey. What's up ? Almost done. See your way.

S1:

S18: Cool.

S1: Cool. I'm gonna tell Julio to hit you up.

S18: Sounds good. Tell him to meet me at the aquarium in La Jolla.

S22: All right. Great. I'll tell him to do that. Hablamos. All right. Peace.

S4: In our next episode , we'll explore proof of concepts from local innovators aiming to replace everyday materials with sustainable alternatives.

S1: And rethink how changing simple things like styrofoam to cardboard in our day to day activity may impact our surroundings on a planetary scale.

S4: This episode of Port of Entry was written produced by Julio Cesar Ortiz Franko.

S1: Adrian Villalobos is technical producer and sound designer. This episode was edited by Elma Gonzalez , Lima Brandao and Melissa Sandoval.

S4: Lisa morrissette is director of audio programming and operations.

S1: This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , a private corporation funded by the American people.

S4: This project was also made possible with support from California Humanities , a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit Call home. Org.

S1: I'm Alan Lilienthal.

S4: And I'm Natalia Gonzalez. Nos vemos pronto.