Safe affordable housing is the dream of many, everywhere around the world, but even more so in those areas that are still developing, that are a little isolated, and where climate change puts the population at a higher risk.
It was 2014 when I met Guatemalan entrepreneur Tono Aguilar, a Harvard astrophysicist by education, with a massive drive to live a purposeful life who felt it was essential to put his skills to better use by focusing on the bottom of the pyramid as opposed to inflating the pockets of the already ultra-rich.
With a few years of experience under his belt in Investment banking in the US and an already successful exit from a small solar energy start-up, he decided that building affordable houses was the best way to channel several services to the needy of the communities around him.
With not much knowledge about the construction industry itself but with great ambitions and clarity of vision, he funded CASSA, a real estate company building mostly with bamboo.
Why bamboo? These are not the jungle huts you would imagine in your dreams, these are small homes, built with best practices, incorporating bamboo as structural material and not just as a decorative finish.
The CASSA homes have a starting price of ten thousand dollars and go all the way to fifty and a little over depending on the client, let’s not forget that while this may seem extremely affordable to a Western audience, it’s still a significant amount for the local communities. The homes are equipped with solar power, grey water filtration systems, and nothing in the built is wasted or not thought of in the context of a circular economy.
It was not easy to start out, with just a great idea and no experience or reputation in the market, so Tono had to find client zero, the pilot, someone interested, tempted hungry, with the premise that by being a test pilot could walk away with a small home for himself and his elder mother for below the asking price.
Since that first home was built in 2014, Cassa has built over 100 homes, and their expertise has landed projects in schools and a mall, and Amilcar, their first customer, remains happy in his fully owned sustainable home.
Their growth has been steady as well as their commitment to do more, both with the material and with the communities.
Under a grant received via Dalberg Catalyst, Tono was able to produce a pilot and a case study on one of his dream projects: to create a DIY housing kit for communities living in areas highly affected by Climate Change.
“Imagine you grow your own bamboo, then a climate event happens, and it wipes your current home, and instead of waiting for external help, aid, or money, you can just go in your backyard, in your bamboo plantation, cut the material, follow the instructions and in a day, you have a home again” he said.
It’s like printing your own money in a way!
The success of the Dalberg Catalyst grant enabled CASSA to create a pilot and work with communities in the area of Punta Brava, a highly at-risk area for significant climate events, and this subsequently put CASSA on the global map, talking to the World Bamboo Organisation and resulting in a collaboration that this year will see Punta Brava as the host location of the World Bamboo Workshop, a learning experience of best practices, knowledge sharing and creation with key leaders in the application of bamboo in construction. This is not a small feat, it will impact extremely positively the members of the Punta Brava local community, giving them reasons to self-sustain in the face of climate adversity.
Bamboo is a wonder material, with exceptional properties including an elevated capacity for carbon capture. It grows at full maturity in just 5 years, as opposed to a tree, and it’s continually renewable enabling in the early years of growth the parallel cultivation of other crops. It’s also easy for women to manage, cut, and transport, making it ideal for creating women-centric economic opportunities.
