A mound of sandbags, earth and barbed wire was erected in front of List Art Center over spring break. This structure, called an earthdome, was built by Ceara O'Leary '06 as a complement to her senior thesis in architectural studies, which addresses housing options along the California-Mexico border.
O'Leary's thesis emphasizes the importance of alternative building techniques as a way to provide more environmentally conscious housing. These options could be constructed by anyone at any time in most geographical areas.
"It aims to illustrate that housing can be inexpensive and efficient and utilize minimal materials, even the earth beneath our feet, thus proving environmentally sensible," O'Leary wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
The earthdome exemplifies this method of construction and is considered a form of emergency housing for migrant farm workers along the California-Mexico border, she wrote. This population is facing an acute housing crisis, according to O'Leary, and this alternative building structure could be the answer.
The earthdome method was conceived at the Cal-Earth Institute in Southern California. The method came from a design by Nader Khalili, an Iranian architect, who was working with NASA to create housing for Mars and the moon. Khalili realized that these techniques could be adapted to address housing problems on Earth, as well. O'Leary traveled to the Institute to learn about the earthdome construction process.
O'Leary wrote that she built the earthdome both to test the efficiency of the housing option and to show the importance of alternative means for housing "since conventional housing methods are often not feasible in many regions of the world, where limited funding and resources may largely inhibit standard housing production."
The earthdome is an example of sustainable housing that provides shelter from the most basic of materials and can be easily constructed. "Overall, I hope to emphasize the existence of alternative solutions to housing shortages that need not conform to conventional construction standards, and to highlight an innovative and incredibly efficient building method," she wrote.
