Project Gallery: Sustainable Design and Building

Our work is funded through donations and participant fees. All organizational work is accomplished through volunteered time.  We welcome any contributions of money, knowledge and enthusiasm. Please consider helping us; no donation is too small and everything is used wisely in helping to meet our mission.

Coil Compound, Chihuahua City

One of our team members, Dean Coil, and his wife Lupita, have constructed the first building of their compound on the outskirts of Chihuahua City, Chihuahua State, Mexico. They were also featured in their local paper for their work in building naturally [click Coil_House_article.pdf to read it], but also for their outreach in their community offering their expertise to their neighbors in educating about alternative building methods and materials.
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Homesteader Pallet Barn

In 10 days, Dafyd facilitates the construction of a pallet barn using similar methods to the home building in Anapra. The nearly 600 SF barn now houses a tool storage area and room for supplies, food and tack for the farm animals.
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San Pedro Clinic

Alfred ventured into Mexico to facilitate the building of a straw-bale clinic in the highlands of Mexico west of Mexico City. Surviving frigid temperatures, Alfred and local builders manage to create a comfortable straw-bale structure to house clinic facilities for denizens of this rural mountainous region. Pictures coming soon!

Las Abejas Womens’ Cooperative Kitchen

In two weeks, and in collaboration with Las Hormigas Community Development Organization, two new roofs with new insulation, and a light straw clay wall envelope were added to the building to be used by a local womens’ cooperative entrepreneurial venture. Also installed were a Watson Wick for the greywater from the kitchen and a solar hot water heater. WHP was featured in El Diario, a local newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, for our work in ecologically renovating the building they use.
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Urban Backyard Pallet Shed

The first urban scale backyard shed employing pallet and straw-clay infill technology from our Mexico projects. Depending on pallet size and programmatic requirements, these custom sheds offer excellent climate control and endless possibilities.
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Anapra Pallet House #3: Azusana and Jose Luis’ House

This project, conducted mostly during a week-long cultural immersion workshop, utilized the local version of light straw/clay stuffed pallet walls with earthen plasters and our recycled pallet truss roof system. The result was an economical, culturally-accepted building method made with natural materials to provide a comfortable and better insulated home.
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Straw Bale Expansion #2 of Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana

We were excited to once again work with Fr. Bill Morton of the Columban Mission of Anapra and the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati to expand the Santo Nino Center for Special Needs Children in Anapra that we had helped retro-fit 3 years before. The new addition was made of straw bales. Roof trusses were constructed of recycled pallets and a metal roof placed above straw insulation and a sheetrock ceiling for fire protection. All walls are earthen plastered with locally available materials.
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Anapra Pallet House #2: Samuel and Rafaela’s House

This was our launch workshop for the Pallet House Program in Anapra, Mexico. Participants gained both cross-cultural awareness and learned basics of natural building. The week provided an opportunity to expand yet again our world view. Utilizing light stray/clay, pallets, earthen plasters and our recycled pallet truss system, we worked with locals to create an economical, locally accepted building method enhanced through eco-methods.

Anapra Pallet House #1: Socorro’s House

We used the smallest pallets we’ve ever seen before to build this house with the local building crew. A new development occurred with this project with the pallet trusses built to be top-chord-bearing as you can see in the images. This modification allowed for a much stronger and rigid connection between trusses and walls. We also saw young people taking up parts of the work and enjoying their new-found skill sets!
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Penasco, NM Straw-bale Farm House: Rick and Heather’s House

This project was an economical, passive solar, 1600 sq. ft. straw bale farmhouse dwelling for a three-person family. The land itself is an organic Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm one hour north of Santa Fe. This modified post and beam house was designed by the owner/builders and Alfred von Bachmayr. The World Hands Project team taught the basics of straw bale building: raising, pinning and strapping bales; construction of pallet trusses; building wooden window and door bucks; and, earthen plastering of the bales. This workshop was a great opportunity for future owner/builders to experience straw bale construction first-hand.

Strawbale Expansion #1 Santo Nino Clinica Guadalupana

This clinic is staffed by a group of catholic nuns and trained locals and is the only option available for health care or emergencies in the Anapra colonia. This project was our first outside of housing and became an opportunity to help people who need a larger and more comfortable place to receive healthcare. Cinder block building with an uninsulated metal roof is the most common choice of construction in this neighborhood. Unfortunately, these types of buildings become extremely uncomfortable in the heat of summer and the cold of winter because of the lack of insulation in the roof and wall systems. In this workshop we expanded the current building and insulated it with straw to make the building more comfortable year round. We taught the basics of straw bale construction as we added on one large straw bale room, and installed a new pallet truss roof system over the strawbale room and an adjacent room. Finish work included earthen plastering.

Watson Wick Installation

World Hands Project always wants to stay on top of technological developments regarding the simplest and most ecologically-sensitive ways of dwelling on the planet. To this end, we participated in the installation of the Watson Wick, developed by Dr. Tom Watson, at the Casa de la Cruz dormitory in Anapra, Mexico to demonstrate an alternative to Banos Secos commonly used in that community. The Watson Wick system delivers solid and liquid wastes into an underground covered area where biological activity turns waste into food for nearby plants whose roots work into the wick to drawn nourishment.
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Anapra Strawbale House #5: Brenda and Carlos’ House

Anapra Strawbale House #4: Norma’s House

Ometepe, Nicaragua: Isabella and Apache’s Restaurant Balgue

Restaurant Remodel: This work produced a new washing station, new walls and roof and plenty of community building for a family business in Omatepe ...and it also utilized our knowledge for building in hot and humid climates.
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Anapra Strawbale House #3: Adriana’s House

Anapra Strawbale House #2: Maria’s House

Insulated Roof Project: Gloria’s House

Anapra Strawbale House #1: Jose Luis Rocha’s House

This was the first strawbale house in Anapra and our first complete strawbale house project there. We worked with locals and USA residents to create a comfortable home for this family.
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Fiji Projects

Community Center and Thatched Residence, Vale Qule, FIJI: Early on in the evolution, we had two projects in Fiji which was a huge learning experience. We worked with the locals to determine not only what their needs were, but what resources were available and what the history of their building technologies is. What resulted was a collaborative building event combining academic process and knowledge of advanced technologies with local tradition, resources and labor. In the end, two buildings were constructed for the community.
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Strawbale House in the Navajo Nation: Mary Lowe’s House

This was our first official project for WHP partnering with the Navajo Nation and Sustainable Communities to build Mary’s house.