Defensible Housing:

The Gallinas Creek Trail - Las Vegas, NM

The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire caused damages to residences in or around the City’s border of Las Vagas, New Mexico. In some cases, buildings were burned down completely.

Due to climate change, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains will also be more vulnerable to hotter, and dier seasons, which will increase the likelihood of wildfires. Community members in Las Vegas and San Migueal County raised concerns over future wildfires and the threats it poses to housing.

The community proposed ideas of making housing more defensible against these risky conditions. Families in the City are also the highest population in need of accessible housing.

The objective of this project was to design housing that addresses the ongoing threats of wildfires, fire safety, resiliency, and the need for a space that brings the community together.The selection of a site was chosen primarily because of its potential to the City and because it best reflected the values of the project.

As a result, the corner of River Road and Prince Street was chosen. According to the City of Las Vegas “Metropolitan Redevelopment Area Plan” of 2018, the proposed site is currently vacant and is zoned as M-1, for Light Industrial. The site does not have a listed owner and is also zoned next to residentail areas.

The site is also next to the Gallinas Creek Trail. The trail is meant to be used as a bike trail and pedestrian trail but ends at the proposed site. A housing development on the site would incentivized more people to use the trail that is already present. Next to the site, over the Gallinas Creek Trail is the Gallinas River. Majority of the year, the river is not flowing high and is reduced to being a creek. The space has potential to being developed as a park space that still serves as a protection barrier for the surrounding neighborhood.

The result of these objectives lead to the desing of individual QCabin homes that can be occupied by multi-generational families or can be occupied by individuals interested in co-housing.