Replica RIAI plaques adorn the walls of a village in El Salvador where houses are being built to resist earthquakes. Emma Cullinan finds out how architect and Trócaire boss Justin Kilcullen combined design skills and knowledge of the developing world to help create them

"All credit must go the the Institute (RIAI) for accepting our project in the spirit it was intended," says Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire, whose earthquake-resistant housing in El Salvador recently won an Irish Architecture Award in the Overseas (over €300,000) category.

And it's true that the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland probably had to think sideways on this one: aesthetics usually count for a lot in these awards but, as Justin says, beauty wasn't the main criteria on this project.

The clever architectural solutions are hidden within essentially vernacular homes built with basic materials, such as adobe, brick, bamboo and chicken wire.

"It's not earthquakes that kill people," says Justin. "It's buildings falling on them." It's clear that a heavy-tile roof, timber and blockwork poses more of a death-threat than crinkly tin and adobe.

Justin, who graduated from UCD's Architectural School in 1975, knew that there were ways in which buildings could be made more resistant to earthquakes and set out to find local expertise. He found that the research had been done in a local university.

"There's a often a problem where people have carried out the research but don't have the money to implement it. At the same time, other people have the money but don't know where to source the information. Trócaire had the funds to develop the technique locally (with some help from the Irish government), and were able to put this expertise to use in the village of El Tular, where 133 homes had been destroyed by two earthquakes that hit in 2001 - only seven houses were left standing.

Due to funding restrictions, they began with just 40 houses, belonging to those most in need.

Having worked at Trócaire for around 23 years, and having spent time in Tanzania before that, Justin knew that it was important to work with local knowledge and materials. Ever since graduating he'd wanted to use his skills to help the poorest of the poor in the developing world. Justin feels that more architects should step out of their traditional role and follow the example of other professions, including certain lawyers and doctors, who offer free legal aid and medical aid. But he found that the traditional application of architecture in the developing world made it difficult to reach the very poor. "I wanted - as an architect - to alleviate poverty, but I found when architects get involved it tends to remove the poorest of the poor from the process. If you tell them to build a concrete room, that's the end of it, they can't afford it. A World Bank scheme applied so many standards to their buildings that the houses eventually went to the middle classes."

That's the reason why Justin joined Trocaire in 1981. He planned to stay for just a few years, to learn more about the developing world so that he could return to architecture armed with the skills he needed.

But he's been at Trocaire ever since, and is now its director. The El Salvador project gave him the chance to have a hands-on approach to design. He acted as project architect while Luiz González was effectively the job architect: working with those on the ground, helping them develop the techniques required to build their new homes.

The way the architects used their design skills was ingenious: roofs were made of corrugated metal and held separate from the wall structure, on columns, so that if the house shook both wall and roof would survive. They created a sort of localised reinforced concrete, by running sticks of bamboo through the adobe mix used to build the walls.

Adobe is usually made from soil, sand and water but they found that adding a bit of cement (one part to 16) made the material much stronger.

The foundations were made strong: built from stone and cement (a ratio of 1:4 cement and sand).

The corners of the buildings were buttressed, with cross-shaped columns of stabilised adobe, for reinforcement.

Further reinforcement came through effective use of lintels - the designs specified that windows and doors should be no wider than 1.2 meters, so that the lintels would be adequately strong, and that the openings should be more than 1.2 meters from the corner of the building.

They also added in reinforced ring beams to tie the building together, made from iron bars laid in channels at the top of the walls and tied at the corners. The ring beam is independent of the roof so that if it shifts the structure is less likely to fall.

The eaves (roof overhang) were made deeper to protect the houses from rain.

The key point about all of these design elements is that they don't significantly add to the cost of building and they are made from local materials which people are comfortable using.

Architecture students at UCD were given the opportunity to try this approach to design last October, in a project devised by Justin. He explained to them how a project in Honduras, following Hurricane Mitch in 1998 persuaded people to build their kitchens and bathrooms separate from the living space, so that they could do something with that space and make conditions more sanitary: a simple intervention that transformed lives. In UCD the winning project used rain water collection for washing clothes.

"The least successful ideas had a heavy design element that were more difficult to access. It's all about what we can bring to the party," says Justin, who won an award from the International Union of Architects in 2002 for his work in alleviating poverty: the same year Group 91 won an award for their work in Temple Bar.

The villagers were amazed that a country as far away as Ireland should recognise what they've done. Replica RIAI plaques now adorn village walls.