The many places that we go everyday define our community. Architects work to design buildings and spaces that encourage participation in the experience of community, like schools, churches, libraries and markets, just to name a few.
Here are examples of projects done by architecture students and faculty designed for people to come together.
__________
Image 1 > The Vocational Academy Building Project serves as a classroom space and a learning tool for matriculating students. In addition to housing classrooms for teaching reading and writing subjects, its construction is meant to serve as a practicum in sustainable building practices. Students enrolled in the program will participate on building teams to erect portions of the structure. This project was a winner in the ARCHIVE100 Being Resourceful competition!
Image 2 > Through an interdisciplinary research investigation of life in post-disaster temporary settlements, this project sets forth strategies for the design and integration of community spaces for urban post-disaster settlements in developing nations. These spaces create an opportunity for social, emotional, and psychological healing through community support and social solidarity. Additionally, through the construction of permanent community infrastructure, the community spaces will act as a catalyst for community redevelopment, transitioning the tent camps into permanently settled communities.
Image 3 > In the spring of 2011 the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin was contacted by Dr. Donna Gunn, Executive Director of Africa’s Promise Village School, seeking sustainable design assistance for the development of a new school in rural Tanzania. The design of the new school project was undertaken by graduate architecture students in a vertical design studio under the direction of Professor Michael Garrison. This school is to serve the parish of Father Peter Pascal Pinto, SVD and will be located in the Simanjiro district in Tanzania and will serve 19 Maasai villages.
Image 4 > This proposed community center is sited in the city’s residential belt between private residences and a youth hostel. A youth center would promote a welcoming environment that respects the views and voices of the youth in the area. Young people are often both excluded from community discourses and seen as the problem in communities. However, they depend more than adults on their immediate neighborhood for their social life. As such places for young people to meet as well as age appropriate activities, should be an important part of community provision.