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Personal Greeting Eugenio Aburto, AIA Member Emeritus

Eugenio Aburto, AIA
2000 points

Contact Details

Eugenio Aburto, AIA
Palm Desert, CA

Bio

I started my building career taking civil engineering studies in the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). For several years I attended the engineering school while working as a general contractor. In partnership with concrete professor Mr. Marco Aurelio Torres H, a well recognized civil engineer, I had extensive engineering practice.
My wishes were to design affordable dwellings but I decided I lacked design knowledge so I enrolled in the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura (architectural school) of the UNAM.
I wanted to build affordable housing for the masses. With my own resources I developed a prefab system which caught the attention of an important industrialist, Mr. Leopoldo Peralta..
Banks were reluctant to give loans to prefabricated houses; they said as soon as you put them in the ground the people will move them to another location. We built houses as long Mr. Peralta had money for the loans, but only a couple of hundred were built.
By then I had finished my architectural studies and obtained the Architect diploma.
With recharged energy, and new ideas I needed to keep going. I formed my own prefabrication company improving the system. COMOSESA – Modular Sectionals Construction – was the name. I had several clients paying cash but a lot needed financing. I kept working until I ran out of money.
I found a position as consultant for the Committee to build schools in the Mexican republic, with good pay and opportunities for professional practice in the prefabrication field. One of my chores was to design a set of elements that could be transported to rural locations were the transportation was very restrictive. To meet this challenge I designed a metal bent structure with a maximum length of 8 feet. This enabled structural elements to be transported by donkeys. The parts had clips to be assembled by hammering. To handle longer spans, I designed beams which used the exterior metal envelope to get the tension stress when filled with concrete.
While I was working in CAFCE, the manager of Banco Ejidal: Professor Francisco Hernandez y Hernandez hired me for moonlighting to build some rammed earth houses. I adapted a traditional indigenous packed earth construction system by using metal formwork and motorized compactors. During this process I had the opportunity of testing the idea of poured-in- place masonry concrete. Here I used metal forms which were very expensive.
Good luck appeared again, when Mr. Norberto Kanner, a well seasoned developer, invited me to participate in a sort of contest. Several builders produced model homes in his development named Ciudad Azteca. Buyers were asked to review the models and choose the one they liked.. Buyers liked my only one model better than those of the other builders my model was the most popular Mr. Kanner hired me to build thousands of houses, eight schools, and a shopping center for his company, Constructora Norka.
Back working by the private sector I built several concrete affordable houses, and one hotel in Cancun. Finally 2 houses by CRCM in the US, Patent US 8,429,876 B2 resisting natural disasters as tornados, fire, earthquakes, etc. and highly insulated R56 minimum walls and roof, and at competitive cost because uses non-skilled labor (concrete cast in place by pump).

Education

Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura
Mexico City, Mexico
Arquitecto, 1962
arquitectura y urbanismo
1956 To 1961
Dissertation: prefabricacion