Paul Schwam. photo: Kassandra Lau
The Old Pueblo is well populated with visionaries, some of whom are world famous (Andrew Weil) or local heroes (Brad Lancaster, John Wesley Miller), but Paul Schwam – architect, inventor, Renaissance man – could be considered both.
Mr. Schwam’s world is made up of endless possibilities that are coupled with realistic considerations; his enormous dreams are solidly grounded in the practical. It’s a stunning combination, and one that makes him a compelling study in artistic and intuitive thinking.
He lives in a rented 6,000 square foot warehouse in the heart of the downtown arts district. Within, he’s carved out some habitable areas. A spacious loft office with computers and drafting tables is accessed by a steep and angular staircase; a kitchen area is on the ground floor along with a sort of conference room that is complete with a huge table and walls sporting expanses of whiteboard – slates that host a regular onslaught of ideas jotted and dashed.
The whole space is also populated by massive machines, with industrial apparatuses and tools strewn about, building materials and even an antique motorcycle. Central to the ambiance, which resembles a cross between a science-fiction movie set and a factory, is a tropical garden with a two-story banana tree, producing, Schwam asserts, several crops of bananas each year. He cut a big hole in the roof to accommodate not just the growth of the tree, but also to allow sunlight into the windowless expanse. A capacious rainwater collector tank that looms nearby holds water for the banana tree and its companions. Just to the north is the Mat Bevel Institute, conspicuously identifiable by its moving forest of kinetic sculpture in the front yard. These two neighbors call it a “science corner within the downtown arts district,” and also, facetiously, “Barrio Limbo.”
Schwam asserts that artists and their work are a community asset irrespective of the real estate value of the places they inhabit (for instance, in the so-called “arts district”). Quite a few parcels and buildings within a square mile or two of the “science corner” have either already been or are in the process of being auctioned off to private investors and developers by ADOT, original purchasers of the properties for an expansion of the now changed Aviation Corridor. The city’s easement recently expired, and control went back to the state, which of course now has a mammoth budget deficit it’s trying to remedy. He wonders if government leaders simply do not recognize the resulting detriment to the aforementioned intangible but potent community assets of a thriving arts community. Consider the unique All Soul’s Procession. Purely a product of the downtown arts district, it generates huge publicity, 20,000 participants and is obviously an economic boon to the city.
Schwam, with his large enterprises in a mammoth building, represents a successful, productive, commercially viable tax-payer. His question: “Will the city next sell the library building or City Hall for a quick fix to a temporary financial difficulty? Is government only worth the value of its real estate?”
A protégée of University of Arizona professor Al Miller, who studied under Buckminster Fuller, Schwam’s vision is of a 100 percent sustainable, efficient, off-the-grid way of living. He uses such phrases as “simple,” “highly available,” “intuitive” and “adaptable” when talking about his ideas for building and community. In an early 2006 article, he wrote “Wouldn’t it be nice if building that house was three parts imagination and one part hard work, instead of the other way around? Wouldn’t it be nice if it was easy, fun and imaginative: like building sandcastles.”
Schwam developed and pioneered the use of a revolutionary building material called L.A.V.A. (Lightweight Aggregate Vertical Application) Concrete that he hopes will become prevalent in the Southwest as a modern version of the indigenous adobe so well suited to the construction of virtually permanent residences. High performance, adaptable, durable and strong, LAVA Concrete will measure its life in generations instead of years.
This invention and the expertise of his partner, Ed Marue, a pioneer in solar technology, will facilitate the creation of 100 percent solar heated and cooled “land yachts” - mainstream houses - linked to the environment, maintenance free, lasting 100 years or more. This housing, combining advanced materials and technology with the principles of adobe construction, would serve as a matrix for single family residences. Stressing independent living, they would be starter homes for those who want to start small and add on over time. Because of the long estimated life span of LAVA concrete dwellings, they would become assets to pass on, thereby simplifying the lives of future generations.
