Some kids watch professional football games and dream of becoming professional athletes when they grow up. Felipe Morales Ramírez wanted to build the stadium that would make the sport possible. He also dreamed of hospitals, highways and major urban infrastructure.
“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to build great things,” Morales Ramirez said. “I was good at drawing, I just wanted to know how to build it.”
He pursued this dream throughout his teenage years and beyond. After graduating from high school in Mexico City, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of La Paz, Baja California Sur. He then went into work in the commercial sector, specializing in steel and concrete work. The two materials form the backbone of traditional engineering in urban development and are among the world's top five most important industrial sources of climate-warming carbon dioxide, according to a 2022 United Nations report.
Morales Ramírez designed a cleverly paved road that spans 30 kilometers of rugged desert mountains between the city of La Paz and the beach of El Saltito on the peninsula's east coast. His traditional career reached its pinnacle. He also helped the Federal Power Commission build a substation. The state-owned utility controls much of Mexico's energy grid, which remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
“I became a master of mainstream architecture. It's in my skin and my bones,” Morales Ramirez said. On the other hand, what about his heart and conscience? They feel compromised.
The ethical dilemma he faces echoes the feelings of many climate-conscious citizens around the world: How does my career or consumption perpetuate environmental harm in a global economy?
The issue ultimately led Morales Ramirez to make major changes.
Are you part of the problem?
Living in La Paz, the capital of Baja California Sur, Morales Ramírez is at the center of the growing scene of luxury tourism, expat relocation and development.
Multiple reports rank the city near Los Cabos as Mexico's fastest-growing destination and praise its miles of pristine coastline for its proximity to “the world's aquarium,” as described by ocean explorer and conservationist Jacques Coos Like the Gulf of California described by Jacques Cousteau.
Uncontrolled development and large-scale infrastructure have begun to threaten native flora and fauna, dune systems and desert landscapes. Like many people living along Mexico's coast, these ecosystems are grappling with increases in hurricane activity, sea levels, ocean temperatures, pollution and other man-made climate impacts.
As Morales Ramírez's career progressed, he became troubled by the damage done to traditional construction, particularly the contribution of the fossil fuel-reliant steel and concrete industries.
“Yes, my dream has come true and I'm very happy,” he said. “But I ask myself: 'Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?'”
Build a sustainable approach
With a series of life changes, difficult answers emerge.
Morales Ramírez studies for a Master's degree in Social Sciences, specializing in sustainable development and globalization. He also co-founded the beach cleanup nonprofit ConCiencia Mexico, which lasted for more than a decade.
The effort galvanized the community's attention to the natural world and, by his own admission, caused some “greenwashing” on Morales Ramirez's conscience while he still clung to traditional architecture.
“I started feeling bad about myself,” he said.
Finally, in 2011, he made a career change.
For several years, Morales Ramirez discovered that it was possible to move toward a more mindful career.
“I could fill my belly and be part of the problem, but I didn't want to. So I changed,” he said. “Although it's hard, I'm happier.”
Building a business from the ground up means finding workers and customers who are interested in and committed to alternatives. His commitment to climate-resilient architecture also requires unique, customized solutions.
Committed to biological construction
The Baja California Sur resident has been working on bioclimatic design and bioconstruction of private residential and commercial projects, including small resorts, for more than a decade.
This design and construction philosophy emphasizes local environment and climate as fundamental factors driving project specifications. For example, housing solutions in the sunny, dry desert of Mexico's Baja Peninsula differ from those in the humid and tropical regions of southeastern Mexico's Gulf Coast.
Morales Ramirez’s holistic framework tailors ecological technologies to seven basic human needs: water, food, energy, shelter, waste, mobility and production. Customized solutions for projects can include orchard backyards, solar panels, water harvesting and super-adobe – a wall-building material made primarily from local soil known for its longevity and earthquake resistance.
Water harvesting is particularly important in Mexico, where the climate crisis is rapidly depleting urban and rural water supplies. Morales can recycle much of a home's gray water by redirecting sink and laundry drains into natural filtration systems and landscape elements.
He also favored stone foundations and walls made from bags filled with soil, lime and a fraction of the cement used in typical block and steel construction.
Combination of old and new
When Fernanda Rabanal Mora was contracted by Morales three years ago to build in El Sargento, Baja California Sur, she chose All of the above sustainable elements are included.
She was particularly inspired by super adobe walls as an alternative to water-intensive cement.
“We knew our resources were not unlimited,” Rabanal said of the decision to build after 20 years of renting in La Paz. “I wanted a different house.”
For her, bioclimatic design strikes an ideal balance between modern innovation and tradition—such as a return to locally sourced adobe that reminds Rabanal Mora of the home she grew up in in Aguascalientes as a young woman. .
“It's really a composite technology. Yes, it takes parts of old things, but it also embraces current things,” she said.
Installing solar power on the roof and tapping into a nearby well makes her completely off the grid and independent of federal energy utilities. She said her home has weathered two hurricanes without any damage.
Energy independence also allowed her to keep the lights on during numerous power outages.
Consume mindfully
While designing a new building from the ground up has endless possibilities, Morales Ramirez's goal is to empower anyone in any living situation to pursue sustainability in at least one or two areas, taking into account what is important to them. Their social and economic circumstances are reasonable.
“Just make one change and you can spread the message,” he said.
For most people, the easiest category to achieve sustainability is energy use. This even applies to tenants, who can take actions such as replacing all lights with LED bulbs. Morales Ramirez also teaches people how to install a single solar panel to power only one appliance or home feature and then expand over time.
Rabanal Mora did just that, initially providing enough power for a refrigerator and computer in her desert home. She then added air conditioning, more lights and other comforts as her budget allowed.
This approach made her more aware of her behavior and excessive energy expenditure.
Alternatives to traditional construction
Morales Ramirez believes that green and climate-resilient architecture remains niche and counter-cultural in Mexico.
One contributing factor is that the construction industry’s material supply chains and methods remain rife with unsustainable practices. Mainstream skills and labor expertise such as cement block building also need to change, he said.
Morales Ramirez said the shift requires a delicate balance: driving mainstream change but not so fast that the market collapses. “We're not talking about the Roman Empire. This system is the entire planet,” he said.
At the local level, building codes and policies pose significant barriers to climate resilience and sustainable construction. As Morales Ramirez puts it, this means that many of today's sustainable custom projects are “out of the box,” or off the grid. In his city of La Paz, for example, the federal utility restricts homeowners or businesses from installing solar panels that are connected to public power.
He is currently toying with the idea of changing such policies and regulations. It will involve workshop gatherings inviting ecologically minded builders and researchers as well as local politicians and other decision-makers.
This is a space where all stakeholders can share and witness the possibilities of sustainable design and development, and align priorities. He is also completing a Ph.D. Sustainable development, hoping to promote greater change at the system level.
Change like popcorn
One-off projects like Rabanal Mora’s house are having a ripple effect locally. Or, as Morales Ramirez likes to call it: the popcorn effect.
During construction in El Sargento, neighbors of Rabanal Mora's planned building spotted the unique super-adobe walls and stopped to inquire. This led to the introduction of Morales Ramirez, who has now built them a bioclimatic home just down the road from Rabanar Mora's home.
“The change is like popcorn,” Morales Ramirez said. Every core or home can bring hope and inspire a greener lifestyle. It's in line with the mantra-like core value that has guided the second half of Morales Ramirez's career as a builder: life saves life.
“I do feel that way. I'm trying to protect life,” he said.
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