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The UA's Drachman Institute will sponsor construction of two new homes in Tucson's Barrio San Antonio.

By Jeff Harrison, University Communications
October 11, 2007

Students and faculty from The University of Arizona College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and other officials will break ground on two houses in Tucson’s Barrio San Antonio on Friday.

The project, “Conservation Technologies for Affordable Housing,” is a demonstration to develop models for housing that will provide ongoing affordability through energy efficiency and water conservation. The project is sponsored by the UA Drachman Institute and Drachman Design-Build Coalition Inc.
Support also comes from the city of Tucson, Pima County, the City of Tucson Industrial Development Authority, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of University Partnerships and the UA.

The project will incorporate conservation methods that have been used successfully in the Civano development on Tucson’s southeast side, and will attempt to balance initial and long-term costs. These technologies will include solar orientation and passive solar gain strategies, siting and landscape guidelines, passive ventilation and cooling strategies, daylighting, and mechanical systems that include graywater capture and rainwater harvesting.

The project also addresses the need for affordable housing in an area of Tucson where a third of the residents live below the poverty level, and barely more than a third own their own homes (compared with 53 percent for all of Tucson). The area incorporates aging, historic neighborhoods that deal with issues of decline, redevelopment and gentrification. The price of a residential lot has nearly doubled over the last three years.