Navajo mum gets new lease on life with this solar-powered home

Navajo mum gets a new lease on life with this passive-solar house.

Design Build Bluff built this charming off-grid home for a mother of four in Utah. Suzie Whitehorse fled her alcoholic husband and moved into a tiny rammed-earth domed shelter on the Navajo reservation, but the tiny hogan was not suitable for a growing family. So the Utah Graduate College of Architecture and Planning stepped in. Using mostly earth, salvaged materials, and traditional building techniques, 18 graduate students put together a beautiful new home complete with solar panels and a rocket stove that has instantly given Suzie and her children a whole new lease on life.

Design Build Bluff has already constructed a string of sustainable homes on the Navajo reservation in Utah

But this latest might just be the most inspiring

Designed for Suzie Whitehorse, who fled with her four children from her alcoholic husband

She moved into a earth-rammed domed Hogan that did not provide a decent quality of life

So with 18 graduate students, the firm built Suzie a beautiful new home

At under 1,000 square feet, it has a small footprint

And is built out of clay bricks

Clad in recycled aluminum, and accented with re-purposed shipping pallets, the home is also raised 4 feet above ground with recycled telephone poles

This facilitates natural cooling

To mitigate the harsh winter cold, a rocket stove powered by kindling keeps the home incredibly warm

Almost obviating the need for in-floor radiant heating

Passive orientation optimizes solar gain

And vertical solar panels heat the home's water!

What a beautiful story, right?