I recently attended an artist talk by Ana Rewakowicz and at the event she had a copy of a book I knew immediately I had to have. Now mind you to put it into perspective, I have to have most books I run across but this one was a particular must-have case. The book, Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crisis is edited by Architecture for Humanity and is filled to the brim with projects and prototypes from designers all around the world in response to the need to develop housing for displaced people as a result of war, famine or natural disaster.
While I’m still just beginning to make my way through the book, already I’m amazed at the ingenuity of these designers, their passion and their commitement to the needs of others.
I’ve pulled out 2 projects to mention which were chosen due to their material which is of course ceramic!
This first one is a housing project which was designed and developed by Nader Khalili and the organization Cal-Earth (calearth.com). The houses are 150sq foot buildings that can be built for approximately $625, plus as an additional bonus the communities themselves are involved in the construction due to the ease of building the structures. The book highlights all of the political, economic and technical chanllenges that were faced in trying to get this project on the ground in the communities that needed them.
This ceramic water filter project is by the organization Potters for Peace, who also have a sister organization here in Canada called Potters Without Borders. The primary community they serve is Managua, Nicaragua and they have a program for potters to travel to Nicaragua to do volunteer work in the area. The filters cost about $10-15 and can purify just under 2L of safe drinking water in an hour.
