Daily Illini
Thursday, March 14, 2013
University students enrolled in
Architecture 476 — Architecture Design and Exploration— are designing
models of structures, such as permanent houses and markets, for the
400,000 refugees in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Brooke Fairbanks, a senior in Architecture, takes notes
while her group discusses their post-conflict urban development plan of
Mogadishu, Somalia. Their model investigates the potential for new civic
and social infrastructure. |
The theme for this class, taught by
professor Camden Greenlee, is Post-Conflict Urban Microcosms. The
project is centered on demonstrating a way of rebuilding this society,
which has endured civil war for 20 years and has little infrastructure
and a poor economy.
“The goal of the studio
is to challenge students to design in an environment that they are not
used to at all so that they have a heightened sensitivity towards
sustainability, building practices, building materials and techniques,
but also the social systems that take place, such as the culture of the
area,” Greenlee said.
The students’ first
assignment was to research the area. They created pamphlets that
graphically represent Somali culture, climate, agriculture, economy,
family and social structures.
The second step was to
create a site model differentiating large existing structures, rubble
and demolished buildings. Danielle Tellez, senior in FAA, is building a
model of a market.
“My project in particular
focuses on how a society can effectively rebuild a market, an essential
social structure in Somali culture for distributing goods,” she said.
“Once more permanent forms of housing become available, the leftover
material from the tent communities can be repurposed.”
Tellez said creating this model was difficult because of a lack of geographical information.
“This required a lot of
guesswork on our part because there is not a lot of information aside
from what we can see through Google Maps,” Tellez said.
Each project will respond
to a problem that the students found during their research. Adam Lewis,
senior in FAA, designed a graphic of foreign aid in Somalia.
“What I learned was that
foreign aid is so vast that the data can act as a graphic itself to form
an infographic,” Lewis said. “My individual project relates to the
market in post-conflict Somalia and how the market can become temporary
and transportable.”
His design is a modular
shelf that folds and unfolds and creates the ability to form a market at
any location, whether it be a dilapidated structure or a populated
street corner.
The class will display
the models at an exhibit held April 29 through May 3 at Temple Hoyne
Buell Hall, 611 E. Lorado Taft Drive in Champaign.
Greenlee said the studio
helps the students practice how to set up an exhibit, and it puts
pressure on students to represent themselves in a good way.
Lewis said that although Architecture 476 is an optional studio, he is glad he took the class.
“This studio was the
first on my list, because it involved a new way of thinking about
architecture,” he said. “Too often, we think of architecture in a
certain manner and order. This class is reversing its way of thinking,
and that intrigued me.”