Bringing Domes To Adobe Homes

"Hassan Fathy, 1980 recipient of the Aga Khan ArchitectureAward dreamed of serving the 800 million people of thethird World who the United Nations has said are doomedto die prematurely because of poor housing...[Simone] Swan’s nonprofit Adobe Alliance (www.adobealliance.org) [aims] to utilize the sweat equity of the poor — the builder’s own labor — along with dirt and straw to make mud bricks for cheap, low-maintenance housing that incorporates its own cooling and heating...she insists, modern technology’s reliance on concrete and wood for building is no match forthe low-cost, minimal-maintenance housing that Egyptianand other African cultures have achieved for centuries withmud and straw."