Students using recycled materials for
design-build project, shrines at ranch

Design students led by Logan Wagner, assistant professor of architecture, are learning how to lessen the ecological impact of the construction process by erecting an experimental structure made of natural and recycled materials at the College of Architecture's Architecture Ranch at Texas A&M's Riverside Campus.

“The impact isn't limited to how much energy the building is going to use, but how much energy is being used to process the materials to create the elements that compose the building,” said Wagner.

The bricks and mortar made of caliche and lime used build the structure on an old concrete foundation that appears to have formerly supported a locker room-sized shower, Wagner said, take less energy to manufacture that standard building materials.

“It goes to show what you can do with using materials the way our ancestors did,” he said. “Those massive brick walls make for a very agreeable interior space because they create a thermal barrier between the outside and the inside,” said Wagner. “That’s why they work, especially in the Southwest.”

Students also carved cedar lintels to install above the windows and doorways. The ongoing project will gain a roof and other features in future classes.

Wagner said there's a market for green building materials.

“I have a design-build company based in Austin,” he said. “I show students my clients, all very well-to-do people that want handcrafted houses like this. You feel good about designing a building that's going to lessen the impact on the environment.”

In a related project, Wagner's students built shrines—places for prayer or contemplation—at the ranch using natural, recycled and discarded materials.

One shrine was made of of crushed seashells and hundreds of bits of broken glass bottles, and another casts a shadow of a cross in the evening light.

- Posted: Apr. 28, 2011 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.