From the Nile to the Rio Grande

In November 1995, after building for eight months under the tutelage of a local adobe mason, Maria Jesus Jimenez, Camacho moved into his new house. Since then, he's hosted dozens of visitors from around the town and, indeed, the world. Neighbors and housing administrators from both the US and Mexico, as well as architects, professors and reporters, have come to see the house. The four-room home's plan is T-shaped, and two walled courtyards complete a rectangular compound.

Inside, on a hot May afternoon, it is comfortable. It smells of earth. Camacho says he doesn't have an air conditioner, because the heavy walls and ceiling absorb heat in the daytime and radiate it at night, moderating indoor temperatures, much like a small cave. (See Aramco World, May/June 1995.) Although the kitchen measures only a bit more than three by three meters (10x10'), its domed adobe ceiling not only increases the sensation of space, but gracefully transforms the room into a simple shrine to the rituals of food. His vaulted living room, though narrower than a railroad car, is also deceptively spacious. Its three cushion-covered sofas, coffee table and bookshelves are all built in, made of the same plastered adobe as the walls. They all make the room appear hewn from stone.

Only a few hundred meters away lies an assembly-line row of government-sponsored cinder-block homes, sobering reminders of how innovative Camacho's house really is. Each is half the size of his 50 square meters (550 sq ft), but cost roughly three times the $5000 that Camacho's did. However, the buyers of these homes benefited from government-backed, low-interest credit, something not generally available. Without such arrangements, lending rates in Mexico can run to 48 percent, and it is this that has so far prevented some 50 families who have expressed interest in Camacho's design from building.

From one of his built-in shelves, Camacho pulls a dusty, worn photocopy of Arquitectura para los Pobres, the Spanish-language edition of Hassan Fathy's 1969 Architecture for the Poor. "This book is something very important," Camacho says in a gentle voice. "Our population keeps growing and growing. We have to look for a solution, and it has to be something right here in front of us, in the natural resources that the poor can afford. I've read it all. I respect Hassan Fathy very much."