The ‘house of trades’ has been recently completed in Cerro la Granadilla, a small village 50 kilometers from Guatemala City. A group of students, volunteers, professionals, and locals working under the alias team C.A.S.A. (Central American Sustainable Architecture) have designed and built the project directly.
The project's self-build strategy was focused on simple technologies and tailored for the use of locally available materials in order to enhance similar applications nearby or in other settings around South America. In this way the building process itself became the first step of a micro-economic strategy aiming at providing economic independence through manual dexterity as a base for rich fulfilling lives.
The structure, built over a period of two months, includes a large open flexible space and an enclosed kitchen. The timber canopy and supporting frame was made from the same readily available wooden members sourced locally, and effectively protects the space from direct sunlight and rain, allowing it to be used as a multi-functional gathering space. Extensive research was done to understand the typical construction and uses of the buildings in the village. As a result, a rammed earth wall was made by hand using soil directly from the site, resting on a concrete footing and later covered in a thin coat of plaster to help protect the construction from the elements. The thick thermal mass helps regulate the extreme fluctuations in temperature and provide a comfortable space. Panels of woven bamboo rods provide lateral shading in the larger areas and can be opened manually.

credits
location: Cerro la Granadilla, Guatemala
Design: Team C.A.S.A. (Mezzosangue Lab + AK0)
Team: Sandro Sancineto e Stefan Pollak (coordinators)
Laura Di Virgilio (site supervisor), Dalilah Abdel Qader, Giulia Celentano, Teodoro Chiaravallotti, Asia Cole Diaz, Cecilia De Marinis, Cristiana Graziani, Davide Onorati, Sara Parlato, Gianni Perrucci, Federico Savi.
workshop participants: Riccardo Bernaschi, Mariastefania Bianco, Cecilia Canzian, Chiara Castello, Daniela Cimino, Michele Didonna, Lorenzo Fauvette, Giuliana Fimmanò, Luigi Lanzillotti, Sara Longo, Marcello Lubiani, Maria Ponte, Gianluca Ramaccia, Camilla Sgamma, Fatima Subida, Chiara Tagliaro.
Technical consultants: Armando Coppola (structures), Enrico Grillo (installations).