THE PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF CALA
CALA OUTREACH
Drachman Design Build Coalition (DDCB) Receives Grants for Barrio Antonio Housing
Two grants from the City of Tucson and the Pima County Housing Commission will fund the study, design and construction of four energy-efficient houses in Barrio San Antonio.
The houses will draw lessons about energy and water conservation from the variety of housing developments within the well-known community of Civano.
The DDBC is a non-profit organization in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (CALA) with a mission to construct affordable and energy-efficient housing in Tucson. It recently achieved its non-profit status in March 2006, and with the help of grants, is building houses each school year that can be an educational model for students.
“There is such a need in Tucson for affordable housing,” said Mary Hardin, professor and DDBC president. “This city is growing at such a fast rate, and the housing market is booming as well. However, most of the new buildings are not affordable and not meeting the needs of the population earning less than the median income. Even if we can only provide one or two houses a year, we are able to make a difference.”
The most recent grant funded by Pima County General Obligations Bonds will cover the infrastructure for building four new houses in Barrio San Antonio throughout the next three years. The goal is to design houses that use 50 percent less energy and water than an average house in Tucson and yet remain affordable and practical. These projects are currently designed by faculty with student assistance and the designs will be released among the commercial building community so builders can utilize the energy-saving ideas and implement them throughout the community.
“It’s a demonstration project,” Candice Nichol ’07 BArch* said. “My job has been to help design one of the two houses, and the objective is to show what can be done differently when you put a little more thought and planning into energy efficiency.”
Hardin believes the next couple years of the DDBC programming will be more financially viable than ever before.
“In the past it has been difficult to gain support for these projects because most of the work had to be done by volunteers over the summers,” Hardin said. “Now, the grants have taken a lot of the soft costs away and students and faculty can be compensated. We would eventually like to save up enough that we don’t have to borrow money to build the house. That would take care of our last worries and make us more efficient.”
After the houses are built, the small profit made will be reinvested back into DDBCs outreach efforts. This will further the research of sustainable housing in Tucson.
For more information about the DDBC, visit www.drachmaninstitute.org or contact Hardin at mchardin@u.arizona.edu.
To financially support the efforts of the DDBC, contact Lonelle R. Rathje, Director of Development and Marketing, at lonelle@u.arizona.edu or (520) 626-3629.
* Anticipated graduation dates and degrees: listings do not indicate officially conferred degrees.