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Architect Bob Vint on Affordable Building in the Sonoran Desert at Sustainable Tucson meeting
April 14 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm MST
by Carolyn Classen, blogger
April 14 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
“Sustainable Tucson Monthly Meeting, 2nd Tuesday, 6:00-7:30 pm, on Zoom. Join us Tuesday, April 14 at 6:00 pm for Sustainable Tucson’s monthly Sustainability Spotlight program. Our speaker will be Robert Vint, Assistant Professor of Architecture and longtime Tucson architect. He will speak on designing for the desert. Details and the Zoom link for the meeting will be on our website www.sustainabletucson.org, and on our Facebook and Meetup pages. To be added to our newsletter e-list, send your name and email address to paula@sustainabletucson.org.
| Sustainable, Affordable Building: Ancient & Modern Designs for Living in the Sonoran Desert |
| Tuesday, April 14, 2026, 6:00-7:15 pm Zoom: <https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88387731024?pwd=eiaCBZIjaB6iiHiRSAQiI2PPKUpsXx.1> |
| Many of the solutions for climate and habitat resilience are hiding in plain sight. Come to this month’s Sustainability Spotlight to learn about building design principles that help urban and rural communities weather extreme heat and dryness more effectively and, ultimately, at lower cost than “building as usual.” Our speaker, Bob Vint, has a decades-long career in architecture and is an active teacher in the classroom and in the field. His latest field project involved a trip with UA architecture students to Agua Prieta, Sonora, where they designed and constructed housing for a local family in partnership with Rancho Feliz. Working alongside local builders and community members, students helped complete a single-family home using the Highly-Johansen system, a construction approach designed to perform in extreme desert climates. This community-engaged learning model connects design education with real-world impact and is a model that may have real-world applications in a variety of endeavors. |
 BOB VINT is a native Tucsonan who has practiced as a licensed architect in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Massachusetts. He serves as preservation architect for the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Pima County, the most significant historic building in Arizona (dating to 1783, built of low-fire clay brick with lime mortar), as well as for the prehistoric Native American Cliff Dwellings of the Sierra Ancha in the Tonto National Forest (dating to 1290, built of stone with mud mortar). Additional projects of note include Linda Ronstadt’s Tucson residence, the main entrance to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and the mixed-use Plaza San Agustin in downtown Tucson. |
| Vint is author of a book on affordable housing in the Southwest published by the department of Housing & Urban Development, Southwest Housing Traditions: Design, Materials, Performance (2005). Since 2011, he has been a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture. His courses include the History & Theory of Urban Design and Arid Region Urbanism, featuring field trips throughout the Southwest.” |
https://capla.arizona.edu/directory
Carolyn’s note: Bob Vint has worked on the historic San Xavier del Bac Mission and on the Ranchhouse at Agua Calente Park, where I was a board member for five years.