As a result of the earthquakes that affected southeast Mexico in September 2017, we worked in the area of Santiago Niltepec in Oaxaca in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region. Niltepec was one of the most affected towns reporting the fall and damage of all their architectural patrimony, as well as the wealth of the more than 3,000 families that live in the area.

Programa VACA A.C. is a participative construction platform with natural material by means of co-design and team work in rural communities and indigenous territories. Our methodology seeks the reinforcement of the collective capacities and support of vulnerable groups (mainly we work with women) through the participation and inclusion of these groups in the search of solutions to their habitat and infrastructure needs through self-management.

Our target is that architecture corresponds to the specific needs of each family as well as to the natural and social context, bringing beautiful and safe solutions to the people who are most in need. Through a diagnose process and fieldwork we developed a system for participative social reconstruction of the habitat avoiding assistentialism, that diminishes the capacity of resiliency and response of people when facing critical situations such as natural disasters emergencies, as well as multidimensional poverty.