Chile continues to rebuild from the 2010 earthquake (which we missed experiencing directly having that year left Chile for Argentina two weeks prior). These three projects give an idea of contemporary use of the ancient technique of adobe. Old adobe is removed from the walls and mixed with additional soil, fresh straw and water. The new mix you see was made for use inside, but the technique was exactly the same as that used for the building with the new exterior. Adobe takes about a week to make. We saw the first batches being made for the exterior project when we were first in Santa Cruz, a good six weeks earlier. The ceramic tiles of this building had also been carefully removed, the unbroken ones salvaged and then mixed with new ones and individually retired to the roof. I’ve also included the red finished exterior wall of the rebuilt downtown municipal complex, a project costing $6.3 million CDN and a beautiful example of the elegance of this building material. I only wish lighting conditions had made more photos of this project possible.