We started our work in Obregon in the colonia named Aves de Castillo. Over a two-year period we built several low-cost, one-room houses that allowed us to learn about the local materials, how people worked, and the various ways that straw bale walls could be combined with earth plasters and roofs. Predictably, we encountered the Mexican stigma that houses built of adobe (or earth) were for the poor. It made no difference that the walls were made from straw bales. People wanted houses like the rich, which meant cement and brick.

We realized we would have to create something that would showcase natural materials and methods. The opportunity came when the Save the Children Foundation of Obregon received the funds they needed to construct a 5,000 square foot office building. The office would be a combination of straw bale and straw/clay block walls around a central courtyard. As far as drawings, there was nothing more than a sketch of the floor plan. The whole design process was left very open and fluid.

It was a marvelous process of experimentation that revolved around combining the local materials we had on hand to create a variety of roofs, ceilings, floors and finishes. We learned much about the surrounding countryside in the process. The Yaquis supplied the carrizo reeds from the banks of the Rio Yaqui. Mineral pigments, colored clays and palm for thatching came from the nearby mountainous areas, and lime came from the lime plant near the colonial town of Alamos.

The core work force consisted of 11 brothers and sisters of the Lopez Hinojosa family along with some of their wives and children and a group of teenagers from the colonia Aves de Castillo. They worked under the guidance of the oldest brother Emiliano Lopez, the barefoot engineer in charge of the project. The construction process extended into the Aves de Castillo colonia where Juanita, Emilio’s wife, supervised the construction of seven thousand adobe-like, light-weight straw/clay blocks that were made by anyone who wished to earn a peso for each block made.

Human labor was valued over machinery, and power tools were virtually non-existent during the entire building process. The exceptions were a concrete mixer, periodically needed for the roofs, and a small electric drill for mixing clay paints.