Follow

• 

  Saint Sebastian and the Garden

  Gary C. Dwyer

  Gary Dwyer uses his photographs to investigate our relationship with nature by looking at what we think is a GARDEN.

• 

  Building Sustainable Housing on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Insights from Tecate, Baja California

  Hemalata C. Dandekar

  An approach to creating sustainable housing in an informal community or colonia located on the railroad right of way in El Rincon, City of Tecate, Baja California, Mexico is the focus of this monograph. Drawing on technical research supported by the Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) and summarized in the report Housing and Sustainable Communities in Rapidly Urbanizing Border Regions this monograph organizes the findings to make them accessible to a lay and concerned audience. It presents an analysis of existing housing in an informal settlement, reviews the technical options for building sustainable housing in such environments, and contextualizes the challenges and possibilities of building sustainable housing within a particular site given regional and national trends and concerns. Prototype sustainable houses developed for specific contexts illustrate this approach.

  This monograph posits that “green” technologies are just one facet of building sustainable housing in low income communities such as El Rincon. Sustainability is context and site specific and derived from analyzing technical factors related to building such as climate, soil and vegetation type, water and materials availability but it must also account for other forces including: social factors related to culture, history, community and class; economic factors including productive capacity, skills and income; and organizational factors of governance, regulation, and the status and power of resident groups. Sustainable housing is attained through judicious choices in the design of the housing units themselves; in their orientation and configuration of layouts; in the materials of construction and their assembly and finish; and in the choice and location of landscaping and ground cover. Choices leading to sustainability need to be made by institutions in both the private and the public sectors and by individuals and the community. In short, building sustainable housing requires multiple actors and multiple commitments. This inquiry illustrates the complexity of such an enterprise and the necessity of bringing all potential stakeholders and players together in making decisions that yield housing which is sustainable over the long term.

• 

  City Space + Globalization: An International Perspective

  Hemalata Dandekar

  City, Space, + Globalization presents ways in which globalization affects the built environment of people in cities around the world. Architects, urban planners, geographers, historians and sociologists address topics ranging from transportation to historic preservation, from housing for different population sectors to economic change and city growth patterns. A significant common element of these papers is their shared concern with the life space of city fabric, beyond economics, beyond world markets and world trade. This life space is the neighborhood and community space of city residents. It refers to memory, to history, to tradition in the face of homogenizing global forces.

• 

  Shelter, Women and Development: First and Third World Perspectives

  Hemalata C. Dandekar

  Around the world, woman's access to shelter is inextricably linked with her economic, legal, and social status. Policy makers, planners, architects, and other professionals must understand and factor in these crucial aspects when creating shelter for women.

  An international gathering at the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1992 provided an opportunity for dialogue between persons working in this field in the First and Third World and established an exchange of views in a global, multicultural context.

  The papers underscore the importance of housing to women's economic, legal, and social development and emphasize the need to continue to address and act upon these issues across nations, cultures, and class.