house, and down in Terlingua folks trying
their hand at it. Meanwhile, over in
Alpine, we were busy building as well: a
wall across the street from The Holland
Hotel, a PC garage, a small cottage we
called the satellite house because it had a
large satellite dish for a roof, an
apartment in Marfa next to the Paisano
Hotel which had a dome perched on top,
an adobe restoration project in Marathon,
and working with Guil Jones at his
compound. Our paper supply mostly came
from the local Alpine recycling yard, but
also from banks and other businesses.
Often, we would find piles of shredded
paper bags in front of our house, thrown
there from who knows where.
Building walls and smaller projects
generated much interest and we were
approached mostly by newcomers to the
area who wanted complete homes.
Because of the low carbon footprint, the
sculptural beauty and other benefits, the
demand for it snowballed. Gearing up and
getting a work crew together, we started
building homes under the name
eBuilders. We built two complete homes
and made blocks for two more. They were
pretty conventional designs, with a
traditional metal roof but with a parapet
wall to give them the look of an adobe
house. This was all very businesslike and
rather lucrative, but the fun of building
something unusual with domes and vaults
was missing.
Eventually, working with Mercedes
Lujan and Hiram Sibley, we started
building a personal home made with PC
vaults and a dome, incorporating
materials salvaged from a movie set. The
main vault was a Nubian design, which is
a classic shape that is more pleasing
aesthetically than a barrel vault. The
ancient Nubians of northern Africa came
up with a formula for laying up mud
bricks that gives it the classic shape and
also adds additional strength by putting
the weight directly over the outside walls
where it should be, eliminating the need
for buttressing. The vault and dome were
10
Cenizo
Spring 2020
Casa Cabra project Marfa, Under Construction
plastered with finish stucco and has no
waterproofing. This allows it to “breathe,”
and it has never leaked in a rainstorm.
The square foot price of a PC home is
not easily calculated, but a small house we
finished in Alpine came out roughly the
same as building with conventional
lumber framing. But, notably, it is far less
costly than adobe construction but with
the same high end quality and
characteristics. Using long slip forms and
pouring the wall instead of making blocks
saves time and keeps the cost down. PC
construction is not rocket science, so a
layman homeowner could conceivably put
their back into it and really save on labor
costs. Since it can be easily formed and
molded into interesting shapes, vaults,
nichos, carvings, parapet walls and all
kinds of creative features are open to the
imagination. It also has great possibilities
for sculptors. Even large scale public art
is possible. Having done a few PC
sculptures, I can see how this could be an
ideal artistic medium.
PC makes a lot of sense in an age of
dwindling resources and the necessity of
energy conservation. It has very high
insulating R values, saves trees and
landfill space, is great for soundproofing,
and 60% of the material required to make
it, paper, is free. Civil Engineering
Magazine in 2006 published the data from
tests done on PC at the University of
Arizona and it passed with flying colors.
But like any kind of building, it must be
done right. The right mixture proportions
for blocks, mortar, and plaster needs to be
adhered to. City codes must be met. But it
is no longer an oddity. It is a very practical
alternative method of sustainable
building. n