Center for Urban and Regional Planning research
A Proposal for Modular Colonia Housing
Project Team
Principal Investigator:
Ian Caine, Associate Professor, Director, Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research
Researchers:
Gabriel Díaz Montemayor, MLA, Founding Partner, LABor Studio
Trent Tunks, Architect
Joe Valadez, Research Assistant
Tiffany Vargas, Research Assistant
Project Sponsor:
Center for Urban and Regional Planning Research
Project Description
This speculative proposal is located in the Rio Grande Valley, a transborder region in Texas USA that lies in the floodplain of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo River adjacent to the Mexican State of Tamaulipas. The region is home to more than 2,000 colonias–informal, unincorporated settlements that flood regularly. Colonias typically lack civil infrastructure like sewer systems, paved roads, and potable water. In Texas, 400,000 people live in these settlements. Many are migrant workers from Northern Mexico who come for seasonal agricultural jobs.
Typical modular housing units are standardized, prefabricated, packed, shipped, and assembled onsite. This proposal imagines a farming cooperative that extends modular efficiencies beyond housing to the entire site, unitizing the subpision of land, utilities, flood control, and food production.
Collaborating Research Labs:
