Earth Wall Builders Unite!

Construction continues on Fire Mesa with construction of beautiful rammed earth wall construction this past week. The students get by with a little help from their friends Brad and Roger from Earth Wall Builders whose work can be seen throughout Utah. You can view photos of the Fire Mesa rammed earth walls at their student blog http://www.designbuildbluff.or...

Every spring, a graduate studio of up to sixteen students from the University of Utah School of Architecture, move more than 300 miles away to the remote DesignBuildBLUFF campus in namesake Bluff, Utah- close to the Navajo Nation’s northernmost chapters- where they spend the better part of the spring semester converting their drawings into habitable space. In the previous fall semester, these students designed a pre-identified architectural project to benefit the Navajo Nation in the southern Utah tribal area.

This year Fire Mesa is the name of their design which is next to the Bluff Community Center off Mulberry Avenue. The name comes from the 20 foot long fire trough that will be located underneath the generous canopy structure. They hope that the Fire Mesa will encourage the Navajo and Bluff community to gather together and have a good time during all times of the year. The community kitchen will be located under the canopy as well. The rammed earth walls located on the southwest and southeast sides serve as a backdrop to the fire trough and relate to the natural landscape around it.

The construction began on January 11 when they broke ground. To follow their progress each week visit their blog at http://www.designbuildbluff.or...

The blog entry from January 22, titled “Now we Build” (link) includes a drone fly over of the construction site. It is definitely worth the view.