University of Pennsylvania

This past week we welcomed 12 students from the University of Pennsylvania to the house.  They are currently working on a Haiti studio.  They've been asked to look at different aspects of Haiti, and come up with design ideas to improve upon the living conditions following the destruction of the 2010 earthquake.

Design Review of Students' Work

Ideas ranged from looking at improving the quality of life in the tent camps, to using the rubble as a means for creating new green spaces within Port-Au-Prince.  You could tell all the projects were well thought out beforehand, but one can never really sense what to expect until visiting the country.  I could tell after visiting the country a couple of days, many perceptions on how the students' projects would work changed.  After making last minute adjustments based upon on-site research, the students presented their projects to the public in an open house at the Rebuilding Center.

The idea of studios based around disaster stricken areas brings up an intriguing idea about the architectural education.  From my limited experience of architectural schools, it always seemed we we're trying to push the envelope.  It was always about the 'what if' and the designs which came out (and usually the ones which garnered the most praise) were the radical designs.  Interpretations of how the movement of people can be flipped vertically to help determine the section a building, or using different vantage points to allow varying floor plans to create an amorphous building skin became commonplace in architectural education.  All these ideas pushed the boundaries of construction and the interpretation of what architecture should be.

I'm not trying to be critical of this thinking.  In fact, I became one of those 'theological' students, creating designs based loosely on a cultural, social and site specific context.  But the studios which revolve around disaster relief cause people to think about social ramifications of good design and how it can truly fix life's problems where they are really needed.  It's thinking about 'what if' in a different way.  Instead of 'what if this cantilever spanned across the courtyard?' the question is 'what if we used high design to solve social problems in Haiti?'

UPenn Students with AfH

This really gets to the bottom of what Architecture for Humanity is about.  Using high design solutions to solve social problems in areas devastated by catastrophe.  I really appreciate what the U of Penn students did in taking this specific studio.  I'm sure other universities around the country and globe do similar work, (ISU did a Hurricane Katrina studio while I was there) and that's very encouraging.