Author(s): Dennis Antonio Chiessa
This project is an ongoing experiment on affordability and the challenges and opportunities triggered by residential suburban sprawl and the labor market that produces it. These two projects are opportunistic interventions on a rural landscape outside of Dallas, Texas in an area scattered with double-wide trailer homes, barns and an increasing number of rural McMansions. Hispanics/Latinos make about 30% of the US construction workforce (1). However, in Texas that number has been as high as 70% with as many as half self-identifying as undocumented (2). A mew phenomenon has emerged as many of these workers developed working relationships and began to purchase inexpensive land on the outskirts of the city to build small ranch houses as investment properties. The Red Barn-House and the 24-Foot Cube are designed for and built by immigrant families working in the area. Sidestepping conventional contractor processes and schedules, they constructed the small but spacious dwellings for a fraction of the cost of building in the city. Both houses attempt to make a connection with the Texas landscape and sky. They create volumes of space for the family to come together as well as areas for individual contemplation and work while maintaining sight of each other. The Red Barn-House recalls Southern vernacular typologies such as barns and shotguns while the 24FT-Cube is a simple, abstract and compact object that eliminates hallways and walls in favor of efficiency, economy and spatial ambiguity. Both deliver unexpected light-filled spaces designed to connect the family with context and each other.
Volume Editors
ISBN
978-1-944214-30-2