Portland State University’s School of Architecture is proud to announce the launch of its new Center for Public Interest Design, a research center that aims to investigate and utilize the power of design to make social, economic and environmental change in disadvantaged communities worldwide. The Center is the first of its kind in the nation.
Positioned at the forefront of a burgeoning international movement in public interest design among architects, designers, and the general public, the Center is headed by Professor Sergio Palleroni, a recipient of the American Institute of Architects’ prestigious Latrobe Prize for Public Interest Practice in Architecture in 2011.
The new Center’s startup is being funded by a gift from an anonymous donor, who has pledged a total of $1.5 million over a five-year period, starting with an initial $500,000 in December 2012.
The mission of the Center meets a critical worldwide need for affordable, sustainable design. Bryan Bell, the founder of Design Corps, has often said that only 2 percent of building in the US involves an architect. That number is even lower in developing or undeveloped countries, where access to clean water, safe and well-designed shelter and other basic necessities may go unmet. The Center aims to change this fact, with the understanding that architecture can help make the world a better place and that architects can be agents of change.
"Our research shows that one major obstacle to the growth of public interest design is the lack of education being provided in this emerging field. Universities need to step up and train designers to effectively provide this public service,” said Bryan Bell. “Portland State University has taken a groundbreaking step by opening the first center that will focus on this important field.”
Palleroni and his colleagues are already promoting the emerging field of public interest design by supporting research in public engagement, fieldwork, service opportunities and professional education and training.
The first five projects in the Center are rethinking the way designers collaborate with communities to change living conditions, regardless of economic or social status. The projects include the design and construction of an orphanage and environmental-technical school in Titanyen, Haiti, a collaboration with architecture faculty and students at Ecole Speciale d’Architecture, Paris, France; and the SAGE classroom, which has gone on the market nationally in the last week and promises to make healthy and green modular classrooms affordable to all.
Prior to the anonymous gift, the 2011 Latrobe Prize given to Palleroni, Bryan Bell, David Perkes and Roberta Feldman helped to seed the team’s efforts in public interest design. That $100,000 award allowed this team to undertake the first comprehensive study of the public interest design field. The 150 international public interest design practices identified through this study helped inform the creation of this Center and will help create an archive of best practices that will be available to all designers and the public.
Palleroni, with three decades of experience addressing issues of shelter, education, and resources for the most needy worldwide, is joined by Assistant Professor B.D. Wortham-Galvin, who brings an impressive track record of working with impoverished communities and Portland neighborhoods. Assistant Professor Margarette Leite contributes expertise in sustainability, building materials and school conditions in the US and abroad. Most recently she has led an effort to create the first affordable green and healthy modular classroom in the US. This effort will bring together the work of several research units and faculty and student initiatives at PSU with collaborators at other institutions throughout the US and around the world.
About Portland State University (PSU)?
Located in Portland, Oregon, PSU has about 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students. PSU’s motto is “Let Knowledge Serve the City,” and we provide every student with opportunities to work with businesses, schools and organizations on real-world projects. Our downtown campus exhibits PSU’s commitment to sustainability with green buildings, while sustainability is incorporated into much of the curriculum.
About the School of Architecture at Portland State University
The School of Architecture’s four-year bachelor’s degree program and its two-year NAAB- accredited professional master’s degree program emphasize focused study in architectural design, the humanities, tectonics and the profession, in a rich, design-based curriculum, as they prepare students for a career as a licensed architect. The Master of Architecture program concludes with the completion of a major design thesis study of individually inspired questions concerning architecture, culture and technology.
Related Stories
| May 17, 2011
Architecture billings index fell in April, hurt by tight financing for projects
The architecture billings index, a leading indicator of U.S. construction activity, fell in April, hurt by tight financing for projects. The architecture billings index fell 2.9 points last month to 47.6, a level that indicates declining demand for architecture services, according to the American Institute of Architects.
| May 17, 2011
Sustainability tops the syllabus at net-zero energy school in Texas
Texas-based firm Corgan designed the 152,200-sf Lady Bird Johnson Middle School in Irving, Texas, with the goal of creating the largest net-zero educational facility in the nation, and the first in the state. The facility is expected to use 50% less energy than a standard school.
| May 17, 2011
Gilbane partners with Steel Orca on ultra-green data center
Gilbane, along with Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, has been selected to partner with Steel Orca to design and build a 300,000-sf data center in Bucks County, Pa., that will be powered entirely through renewable energy sources--gas, solar, fuel cells, wind and geo-thermal. Completion is scheduled for 2013.
| May 17, 2011
Should Washington, D.C., allow taller buildings?
Suggestions are being made that Washington revise its restrictions on building heights. Architect Roger Lewis, who raised the topic in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, argues for a modest relaxation of the height limits, and thinks that concerns about ruining the city’s aesthetics are unfounded.
| May 17, 2011
The New Orleans master plan
At an afternoon panel during last week's AIA National Conference in New Orleans, Goody Clancy Principal David Dixon and Manning Principal W. Raymond Manning shared their experiences creating the New Orleans Master Plan, a document that sets a new course for the city, from land use and transportation planning to environmental protection.
| May 17, 2011
Do these buildings look like buffalo to you?
It’s hard to contemplate winter now that we’re mid-spring, but when the seasons change, ice skaters in Winnipeg will be able to keep warm in plywood shelters designed by Patkau Architects. The designers created temporary shelters inspired by animal behavior—specifically, buffalo bracing against the wind. Check them out.
| May 16, 2011
USGBC and AIA unveil report for greening K-12 schools
The U.S. Green Building Council and the American Institute of Architects unveiled "Local Leaders in Sustainability: A Special Report from Sundance," which outlines a five-point national action plan that mayors and local leaders can use as a framework to develop and implement green schools initiatives.
| May 16, 2011
Dassault Systèmes to distribute Gehry Technologies’ digital project
Dassault Systèmes and Gehry Technologies announced that Gehry Technologies’ Digital Project products will be integrated into the Dassault Systèmes’ portfolio and distributed through Dassault Systèmes. Digital Project is a suite of 3D BIM applications created by Gehry Technologies using Dassault Systèmes’ CATIA as a core modeling engine.
| May 11, 2011
DOE releases guide for 50% more energy-efficient office buildings
The U.S. Department of Energy today announced the release of the first in a new series of Advanced Energy Design Guides to aid in the design of highly energy efficient office buildings. The 50% AEDG series will provide a practical approach to commercial buildings designed to achieve 50% energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.
| May 10, 2011
Google hires Ingenhoven Architects to design new Mountain View office
The current Googleplex is straining at the seams and yet the company is preparing its biggest hiring surge ever, so Google decided now’s the time to build its own office space—a first for the Internet giant. The company hired Ingenhoven Architects, a German firm that specializes in sustainable architecture, to create plans for what could be a 600,000-sf office.
