Homes sweet homes — University of Utah architecture students provide houses for Navajos through design/build projects

BLUFF, San Juan County — It's the middle of July and 100 degrees here at the edge of the Navajo Reservation. This may be the last day the University of Utah architecture students will be laboring in the desert heat. They're about to finish the house they've been building.

Today they are patching, staining and sealing the concrete floors. They've got their CD player cranked up, and they're trying to stay out of each other's way as they work as quickly as they can.

The 10 students spent fall semester drawing house plans. Construction was supposed to be finished during the second semester, by the end of May. The fact that the students are a bit late doesn't make them any less thrilled about the way the home has turned out.

It is the fourth house to be built by students and donated to Navajo families. The students work under the direction of their professor, Hank Louis, in conjunction with Louis' nonprofit, DesignBuildBluff. The first house was built with donations. A HUD grant covered the next three.

But the grant ran out this year. So Louis is looking for a different design-build project for 2007-08, while he tries to raise money for more Navajo homes. He's hoping U. students can spend the coming year designing and building a performing arts space in Bluff.

Meanwhile, student architect Chris Brown says this final HUD house came together amazingly well. "Especially for having 10 people who all wanted their ideas included.

It could have ended up being less than cohesive."

Brown describes the design of the 1,300-square-foot solar home. It was based on a hogan, he explains. The west walls curve around an outdoor fire pit.

The design honors Navajos in other ways, as well: If you drew four lines from the center of the firepit to the four sacred mountains of the Navajo, you would see that the home's rooms align with those mountains. Then, too, the right angles along the roof echo the patterns found on Navajo rugs and baskets, Brown explains.

Standing outside the home, you notice the shininess of its steel walls. The steel will rust eventually, echoing the red of the sandstone cliffs behind the house. Mitch McComb, DesignBuildBluff's construction supervisor, says rusted steel is increasingly popular in resort towns such as Telluride.

Inside, other artistic details present themselves: Niches in the brick walls. Pale recycled wood in the kitchen cabinets. A shower surrounded by steel and stone. Smooth river rocks in the Trombe wall, a sun-facing thermal mass that will help to heat the master bedroom during winter.