Constructing Global Outreach in Panama

The University of Idaho trains its students to be leaders and make a global impact.

This spring, eight architecture students and professor Wendy McClure traveled to a remote farmstead near El Cope, Panama, to help one community.

Three elderly people, who also are siblings, manage a farmstead, Granja de Loma Bonita, and participate in the Panama government’s program to promote better nutrition in rural areas and organic farming practices.

"Though skilled farmers, they cannot keep up with needed repairs to facilities. They lack places to store and dry crops and must sleep in separate huts under leaking roofs," says McClure.

During daylight hours, the team repaired leaking roofs, built a solar greenhouse dryer out of materials found on site, hoe rice paddies and built a new iguana cage. At night, the team worked by headlamps supplemented by a small generator to design a new community meeting room and living quarters for local farmers.

“Our aim for this trip was to not only help out a community in need, but also to learn about their way of life and design appropriate architecture for the rural area using traditional methods and locally available materials,” Macy says.

Learn more about the team's creative construction methods and plans for another trip this summer. [READ THE FULL STORY]