In 2022 I spent two months at Community Rebuilds (CR) in Moab, Utah as an intern to learn about strawbale construction. At that time CR was contracted to build 12 homes in the Moab Area Community Land Trust. CR receives funding from the USDA through the Mutual Self-Help Housing Technical Assistance Grant and builds homes for low income families. The homes we worked on were stick frame structures, insulated with strawbale and cellulose.
Sill plates and drainage planes for strawbales, cork insulation, beveled windows, and the intern crew:
CR’s office exhibited a variety of natural building materials and design approaches:
CR built four affordable Living Building Challenge Certified homes. It was truly a challenge to build LBC buildings affordably and they met the requirements through scrappy and resourceful means:
I met a biologist who completed a study for the town of Moab. Apparently Moab only has 40% of the groundwater that they thought they had. Moab is on the Colorado River but has no water rights, and so they draw down the aquifer. This biologist’s home was built by the non profit Housing Association of Southern Utah, who like CR, gets its funding from the USDA. Interestingly, they only allow the construction of 2 story homes, no smaller….. (?!)
The above cave homes are located at the end of Kanes Creek Road where two massive resorts are slated to be built on the Colorado River by Kanes Creek Preservation and Development LLC. The 180 acre lot is surrounded by BLM and was previously used for mining. The previous owner allowed people to live on the land in unpermitted structures, such as those above, for decades. So many questions and anxieties follow: Where will they get the water to entertain eco-tourists in luxury hotels? Who will they displace in the process? Who will they attract to this rural community? The housing and environmental anxieties of Moab are a magnified mirror of the anxieties of our time. What I love about CR is that it offers an alternative modality of construction and organizing that can qualify for grants and funnel means into their community to construct affordable housing.
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