Student Projects
Additional Student Projects
NATURAL VENTILATION IN THE WORK OF LAURIE BAKER
Funded generously by the South Asia Initiative, Mattie Lou Ming Thompson, MArch I 2010, spent a month in Summer 2009 in South India investigating the work of Laurie Baker, an architect whose work is little studied in the United States. Baker arrived in India from England in 1945 to work on a leprosy clinic, and he spent the next sixty-two years building over one thousand hospitals, homes, and schools, first in Uttar Pradesh and later in Kerala. Despite the varying program and form of his many projects, they share important traits: the buildings are shaped according to their local climate and topography and assembled with methods native to Keralan building.
Ming traveled around Kerala to photograph and sketch several dozen Laurie Baker structures, and spent some time discussing the projects with the clients and occupants of these buildings. Her research took her to commercial buildings in the heart of the state capital, to informal settlements, to rural homes, and to a nunnery chapel accessible only by boat. Baker's vision of architecture was made apparent in all aspects of his work, from the site plan of a campus down to the mortar between bricks: buildings should be simple, economical, and humane, and the most effective path to these goals is one of deep understanding of local building tradition and sensitivity toward the environment.
DESIGN INITIATIVE FOR YOUTH
In the fall of 2006, GSD students signed up to teach a design apprenticeship for Citizen Schools' 8th Grade Academy and since then have been working with a group of ten to twelve 8th grade students every semester to teach them basic concepts about design. At the end of each semester, students showcase their new knowledge in a final project called "WOW." The hope is to get the students excited about potential futures in design, possibly leading to their participation in Career Discovery once they've graduated high school or even pursuing an education in design.
Design Initiative for Youth (DIY) is an apprenticeship program sponsored by Social Change and Activism (SoCA), a GSD student group that believes that social responsibility is central to students' education in the design and plannnig professions.
Citizen Schools is an organization that works with middle-school students to bridge the gap between elementary school and high school, using tutoring, writing workshops, and weekly apprenticeships to help students prepare for a college-track high school experience. The apprenticeships are 11 weeks long, taught by volunteer teachers in a variety of subjects so that students can sign up for the one that most interests them.
