From 1986 he began a series of longterm collaborations with Carlos Mijares, and then most importantly Gabriela Videla, that led to architecture design projects that would fundamentally influence his career in what is now termed "public interest design". With Videla in 1987 they founded ADE (Accion y Dessarollo Ecologico) an NGO which growing out of the social mission and practices of Paolo Freire and Ivan Illych, with whom they collaborated through their outreach organization CED. ADE would from 1987 begin implement public works in the poor informal, formal settlements of Central Mexico, which would establish a new model of practice in the region. The NGO was reconstituted as Comunidad AC in 1997 to allow it to fundraise for social interest projects in the region, many which have since been constructed over the last three decades through collaborations with international students of architecture and design. These collaborations began in 1988 through University of Oregon fieldwork studios, and where formalized as an organization in their own right in 1995, as the BASIC Initiative (basicinitiative.com) while Sergio Palleroni was an associate professor in the University of Washington College of Built Environments (formerly the College of Architecture and Urban Planning). The outreach organization was founded in collaboration with Professor David Riley now at Penn State.