We welcome you to use the material on this website, but please attribute the work as coming from SIGUS.
Three projects are being planned for the IAP period in January 2009. See the project sheet for more details.
Perquin, El Salvador
MIT students will again collaborate with the Perquin community in a design/build project during January 2009. In the first collaboration during IAP 2008, MIT students planned, designed and built an improved outdoor washing area and a shaded area for sitting and gathering outside of the main prenatal clinic in Perquin. The interest for January 2009 is centered on a two-week, design-build project around Perkin with some related planning components happening in parallel. The 2009 project will shift to the Building Technology Group under Professor John Ochsendorf.
For more information, please contact elacy@mit.edu.
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
Hurricanes Gustav and Ike again confront us with the increasing risk from global warming, and the need to seriously re-evaluate coastal living. Sustainability has become an added concern, and the serious disruptiong of services - particularly electricity and drinking water - after a storm urge the need for a more comprehensive approach toward housing. The goal of this project is to design a sustainable cooperative village, exploiting the opportunity of elevated housing mandated by regulation and prudence. The workshop is planned for IAP January 2009, on location in the bayous southeast of New Orleans. The workshop links a consortium of partners, bringing together MIT students, professionals, community stakeholders, and NGOs in Louisiana.
For more information, please see the project sheet, or contact sigus@mit.edu.
Lamhin Community, Bangkok, Thailand
Lamhin is an agricultural community in the northeast outside Bangkok that is separated from major roads by the Lamhin Canal. The mission of this project is to build a bridge. The bridge will allow cars and tractors to get inside the community to help people plant, harvest and transport the community’s main source of income. It will create an alternative way for the people to earn money by providing means to commute to downtown Bangkok. The mission is planned for IAP January 2009. Funding is now being sought for travel to Thailand.
For more information, please see the project sheet, or contact Esther Chung or sigus@mit.edu.
SIGUS participated in MIT's 6th Annual International Development Fair, October 5, 2008. The Development Fair (IDF) is an event designed to showcase the many groups, projects and activities at MIT that provide students with an opportunity to work on issues related to international development. The Fair brings students and organizations together, to promote awareness and encourage the exchange of ideas. SIGUS highlighted 3 events being planned: A Design/Build activity in El Salvador; 'Go Lamhin', a bridge building project in rural Thailand; and an 'Action-Research Workshop' developing a 'Smart Village' for the bayous of Louisiana.
Esther Chung from the 'Go Lamhin' project fielded questions from interested students.
Reinhard Goethert was invited to join a group of international experts in developing housing and land strategies for UN Human Settlements Programme in Nairobi, October 7-9. The goal of the sessions was to advise on guiding strategies for the next 6 years within the framework of ‘sustainable urbanization’. While in Nairobi, discussions were held on the Habitat-University Partnership Programme, and explored the potential participation of MIT.
Prof. Banashree Banerjee, New Delhi; Florian Steinberg, Asian Development Bank; Reinhard Goethert, SIGUS; Forbes Davidson, Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam.
The doubling of the Third World urban population - with a tripling of the urban footprint by 2030 - has forecast a vision of a frightening urban future. In the next 23 years, the land required for urban growth will equal that used in the past 6,000 years of human history. Moreover, this growth is projected to be predominantly low-rise, and inhabited by a largely poor population. The specter of informal massive squatter fringe settlements of the past has the potential to devastate our cities of the future. Speed and scale are the new challenges.
Lacking are viable proactive approaches for housing the low income population, and predictions for the future are grim if no innovative approaches are developed and implemented. Environmental concerns exacerbate the problem. We must develop powerful creative strategies if we are to avoid an unthinkable future.
This course is a challenge-based, hands-on brainstorming of Third World urban issues, drawing on experts to excite and challenge us through progressive levels of exploration. A culminating workshop abroad brought us back to reality.
The course included a 2-week field survey comparing planning strategies in Singapore - a highly controlled model - with the laissez-faire approach in Bangkok.
Creative? Energetic? Confident?
Join us if you are committed to meeting the challenge!
Reinhard Goethert presented the experiences from the previous SIGUS workshops related to urban migration to the Visual Arts Program. The migrants in the Third World and their impact on urban development was explored using examples from Manila, Philippines; Lima, Peru; and other rapidly growing cities. Focus was on the shelter options and choices which are made by migrants at each stage in their urban assimilation.
The presentation was part of the series “4.381/4.366 Advanced Visual Design - Give Me Shelter: Conditions of Living in Unstable Times”.
George Fiebig presented his prize-winning Chumbe Island Coral Park resort in Zanzibar. Mr. Fiebig is a young German architect practicing in Australia, with projects in Indonesia, Tanzania, Mozambique and Australia.
His prize-winning project links eco-interests with tourism, and with a very compelling architecture using natural materials.
The workshop was a collaboration of students from throughout the MIT community and from universities abroad. Twenty students from MIT and abroad participated in 1-week of hands-on repair and rebuilding of hurricane damaged housing on the bayous of Louisiana, followed by 1-week of design and construction of housing elements for the on-going Lift House project.
Partner universities from previous international workshops each selected 2-3 students to participate. Workshop headquarters and accommodation were in the ‘Good Earth Volunteer Village’ in Houma, Louisiana.
The program was divided into 2 phases:
Additional activities included:
Faculty was drawn from the ongoing ‘Sustainable Housing on the Bayou Initiative’ of TRAC - a coastal Louisiana disaster recovery and preparedness organization, Oxfam America - an international aid organization, and the SIGUS Group in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT.
Presentation by Charles A. Setchell; Shelter, Settlements, and Mitigation Advisor, USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). An up-to-date review of the efforts being made in rebuilding after the earthquake by the various national and international agencies.
20 MIT volunteers rebuilt houses damaged by the 'evil hurricane sisters' Katrina and Rita. They worked with the local NGO TRAC (a disaster mitigation group) in Houma about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans, the last large town before the bayous of the coast. Housing was in 'iPods' (as we call them) and meals were communal. Just like summer camp!
The New Practitioner course of SIGUS explored innovative 'lift house' designs for rebuilding coastal regions of Louisiana. The international NGO Oxfam America and the local Louisiana group TRAC have welcomed us to jointly develop concepts for housing that meet the hurrican challenges. The student team developed affordable and appropriate housing concepts that exploited stilt housing approaches built by volunteer help and 'sweat equity' of the future owners. The design focused on both 'product' and rationalization of a 'process' of construction appropriate to the largely volunteer labor.
Professor Jin Guang-jun, Dean of the Harbin Institute of Technology at the new Shenzhen Graduate School, was hosted by SIGUS to meet other faculty and to tour the campus. Prof. Jin explored possibilities of collaborative activities between the schools including joint workshops, short-term visiting professors, and joint international conferences.
SIGUS sponsored the documentary film-maker Therese Condit in the showing of her film: “Banda Aceh, Indonesia: In The Wake of Tsunami, A Witness.” The film looks at the rebuilding situation, almost a year after the tsunami and its devastation, as most citizens of Banka Aceh have yet to see the promised relief funds materialize.
SIGUS led sessions to help individuals and groups brainstorm housing innovations for the MIT $1K Enterprise Competition. Focus was on the Katrina/Rita areas, and in other devastated countries. It has been noted that many technically elegant, environmentally sound, affordable innovations in housing have been proposed over the last 30 years, but few - if any - are mainstreamed and have real impact. Something is missing. The MIT $1K competition offered the opportunity to explore a market-oriented approach, linking a clear immediate need with bold innovations.
SIGUS has undertaken several events addressing the challenge of the hurricane disasters:
A session at the Architectural Studies Colloquium explored the possible contributions to the unserved 'bottom of the pyramid' - the 'BOP'. With cities expecting to double in size in the next 20-25 years the issues are abvious and frightening. Special guest was Alyce Russo (MCP '89) of the firm Schall and Russo Planning Works, and together with SIGUS staff challenged the group to assess contributions and brainstorm possible ways to get involved.
A poster display and computer images were presented at the MIT's annual International Development Forum. TA Tracy Wharton discussed the program with visitors to the well-attended event.
Melody Tulier, a DUSP MCP graduate student, represented SIGUS in presenting a paper at the inernational conference "Urban Children and Youth in the Middle East and North Africa" in Dubai, UAE. The paper entitled, "Children, Participation, Global Challenges and Educational Priorities," highlighted the SIGUS workshop in San Cayetano which featured rapid interactive planning with families and children.
Dr. Reinhard Goethert was a keynote speaker at the ARCHCAIRO 2005 Conference "Globalization and Beyond: Architecture, Communities and Settings." The conference was hosted by the Department of Architecture at Cairo University. His paper "Globalization, Practice and Education: Old Challenges, New Demands" called for a new model of education built around a 'learning-action' model.
SIGUS is providing long-distance support to the studio "Design Response in the Aftermath of Disaster" offered at the University of South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The studio focuses on tsunami relief and rebuilding efforts in Sumatra, and is supported by a broader network of schools internationally.
How will you spend your Spring Break? Consider a 1 week 'Challenge' to brainstorm how to rehouse the families displaced by the Tsunami. How would you tackle the immediate large-scale demands, the limited materials, the disrupted community and the overstressed government's capabilities? Can there be more than a tent??? Form a team and contribute!
Two afternoons will feature presentations from architects recently returned from Indonesia. Mentoring sessions throughout the week will help develop ideas. Advisors are professionals from Sri Landa and Indonesia, as well as from the local expert community. A presentation at the end of the week will identify promising ideas. Representatives of the winning team will be sent to Washington, D.C. to present their ideas to the Disaster Mitigation Office of the US Agency for International Development. Open to teams and guests throughout the MIT community. An event hosted by SIGUS.
In 1969, four squatter communities were surveyed by MIT in Lima, Peru: Cuevas, El Ermitano, El Agustino, and Mendocita, and documented in the book, "Urban Dwelling Environments" (Caminos, Turner, Steffian; MIT Press, 1969). It is now 35+ years after: What happened? How did they manage? Do they still offer housing opportunities for the low income?
SIGUS revisited the settlements in January 2005, for a 2 week workshop to explore these questions. The workshop collaborated with students from the Facultad de Arquitectura Urbanismo y Artes (FAUA) in the Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria (UNI), and with NGOs working actively in the settlements. Four teams of students interviewed families and documented their house expansion. They were joined by two special groups: one explored the use of internet cafes in the squatter settlements, and another developed concepts for a self rish-assessment checklist for families to make informed decisions on earthquake risk. As a result, a collaboration was established with FAUA-UNI to promote joint research of students from MIT and UNI, and proposals are already being considered for the Summer of 2005.
Toni "El Suizo" Ruttimann was hosted by several groups from MIT, including SIGUS. After an earthquake struck Ecuador in 1987, Toni left Switzerland immediately after graduating from high school, determined to help in any way he could. With no technical background, he invented a method of building suspension bridges by hand through community involvement, with little money, using steel cables and pipeline donated by oil companies. 17 years later, 234 bridges have been built across Latin America, Cambodia, and Vietnam, helping over 600,000 people.
Students from the Albert Einstein University in El Salvador - Pamela, Carmen, Lily and Claudia - met with MIT students for two days to discuss the San Cayetano Workshop carried out jointly with SIGUS in the summer. The students have taken the workshop methodology and are developing it for their thesis focused on housing design. They continue to monitor and support the San Cayetano project, and plan to use the participatory approach in other settlements. The San Cayetano Workshop was funded by the MIT Service Learning Program, with additional contributions from local NGOs.
SIGUS joined with the Aga Khan Program in hosting Biresh Shah, a colleague from Kathmandu, Nepal. Mr. Shah presented slides of the tensions of modernity and tradition in architecture in the design of buildings. Mr. Shah was a SIGUS colleague in 1988 when he received a SMArchs degree. He is a practicing architect and teaches at the Tribhhuwan University in Kathmandu. He is founder and director of ARCHIPLAN, an architecture and planning firm.
SIGUS participated in the Third Annual International Development Forum at MIT. The Forum is a way of sharing information and celebrating the rich variety of activities at MIT throughout the year that contribute to international development. About 40+ MIT academic programs and student groups partipated in the Forum. The goal of the Forum is to highlight the ways that MIT makes a positive difference in the world and helps students gain skills and experiences that will equip them for the future.
SIGUS partnered with 45 earthquake-displaced families in designing their resettlement community in a 1-week workshop. Both adults and children actively particpated in the workshop. Essentially, two workshops ran parallel with joint meetings at various points to exchange ideas. Three students from the Department of Architecture and Department of Urban Studies and Plannin participated (Gabriel Arboleda, Melody Tulier, Susana Williams), as well as staff from two local NGOs and students from local universities in El Salvador. Information was also collected on prototype houses which were offered to the displaced families. This information provided material for further study during the fall term at MIT in the course, "The New Practitioner." Preliminary field surveys from two 'site and services' low-cost developments from the 70s were also undertaken as further reference for the course at MIT. The workshop was made possible through funding from the MIT Service Learning Center and Trocaire, an Irish-Catholic NGO.
SIGUS joined an international group of universities, research centers and NGOs as a founding partner in the "Global Open Learning Forum on Risk Education (or GOLFRE)." Representatives from India, Japan, Nepal, South Africa and the United Kingdom joined the network to tap the tacit knowledge, practical wisdom and human capital latent in the minds and practices of field workers as the principal resource for training and education. Susana Williams, a dual-degree student from MIT, participated in the SIGUS team.
The preliminary work continues on exploring the use of 'shape grammars' as a teaching tool for schools. Children are seen as key 'change-agents' in discovering new designs using traditional elements. The key questions remains: how to confront the McDonaldization of the world.
Several of the January Workshop reports are now available in CD format. Please inquire for specific workshop.
A second version of the CD on "Upgrading Urban Communities: A Resource for Practitioners" has been completed. It is being distributed by the World Bank Thematic Group for Services to the Urban Poor, and is sponsored by the Cities Alliance and DFID.
This is a prototype web site currently being developed by SIGUS for the World Bank. The work is planned together with the IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development), London.
web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/urbanenvironment
Under preparation for the Water Utility Partnership, a joint program of the Union of African Water Suppliers (UAWS), Regional Center for Low Cost Water and Sanitation (CREPA), and Training, Research and Networking for Development (TREND). Sponsored by the European Commission and the Water and Sanitation Program. The aim of the Toolkit is to provide sector practitioners, policy and decision-makers, access to information on current trends and knowledge gained from past experience regarding water supply and sanitation service delivery to low income areas. The Toolkit should enable readers to identify problems or challenges, and draw up a strategy for addressing these challenges using information and other resources assembled for this purpose.