A routine maintenance project became a hands-on lesson in traditional architecture last weekend at the Parque Agroecológico Zapopan, where participants repaired six bajareque panels as part of the annual Festival de la Tierra activities.
Led by bioconstruction teacher Javier Rodríguez of the Instituto Mexicano para el Desarrollo Comunitario (IMDEC), the workshop focused on several earthen sections incorporated into the park’s open-air kitchen, a structure built primarily from wood and other natural materials.
The bajareque panels consist of carrizo reeds woven into a supporting frame and covered with a mixture of earth, sand and plant fibers. Built around six years ago, the panels had survived remarkably well despite exposure to rain and the intense Jalisco sun. But several sections needed patching and a fresh protective coating, known as an enjarre.
Before work began on the walls, Rodríguez turned a collection of bricks into a small outdoor laboratory.
Participants applied different combinations of earth, sand, straw, rice hulls, other fibers and lime to the bricks, then compared how the samples adhered, absorbed moisture, dried and cracked.
The exercise demonstrated one of the central lessons of earth construction: not all soil behaves the same way.
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