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Good ThinkingCocopah's new community center functional, environmentally friendly-- With an oval auditorium and a domed roof, the Cocopah Tribe's new community center is designed for inspiration. And, with walls made of recycled packing foam, the building is easy on the environment, too.
"I told the architects I prefer an environmentally safe product," said Tribal Resource Planner Paul Soto. "They're the ones who came up with the (building materials)." "It's an attempt to do something for the environment as a whole. I wanted to think of alternative energies too, but those are not commercially adaptable yet. To build an alternative system, you have to build a regular system, too. It would be too costly."
Soto said his idea of an environmentally friendly building would be something that would last for 25 years, then disappear into the soil. He still hopes the community center materials can be recycled in some way when the life of the building is over.
The center, designed by a Native American firm called Blossom Design Group from Tempe, will house a youth room with games and television, an arts and crafts room for tribal elders as well as youth, a weight room, a library, a computer lab and an auditorium large enough to seat 400 people.
Outdoor basketball courts are also under construction next to the building, which is located on the West Reservation near Somerton.
Future plans call for a soccer field and gymnasium.
The oval auditorium, flanked by east and west rectangular wings is covered by a domed arched roof made of lumber. For the walls, a building material called RASTRA was chosen. RASTRA is a building material made of a mixture of concrete beads and 85 percent recycled packing foam beads, called polystyrene. It is lightweight, yet strong enough to withstand hurricanes and flexible enough to survive an earthquake.
Concrete is then poured into the forms to give the walls added strength and insulation. The material comes in preformed blocks that can be erected and finished quickly without framing or additional insulation. Drywall is not necessary although the Cocopah center will have an interior drywall hung from steel beam supports. The outside will be finished with stucco.
Soto was pleased that the tribal council voted to go with the RASTRA material for the $2 million project, but said it was hard for the builders to buy the idea.
"(The builders) can understand nails and a hammer. With this stuff all you need is a glue gun," said Soto.
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