Product Description

For more than a decade, architects and students from the University of Washington have been working with squatter communities in Mexico, migrant laborers in eastern Washington, and Indian reservations of the inland West as well as communities in Cuba, India, and Africa to provide housing, schools, clinics, and other vital structures. Led by Sergio Palleroni, Steve Badanes, and David Riley, these pioneering design/build programs have combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems one building at a time.

Studio at Large documents the international and regional community studios organized by Sergio Palleroni and his colleagues, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability.

Sergio Palleroni is visiting associate professor at the School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin, and the founding director of the University of Washington BASIC Initiative. Christina Merkelbach is a designer and former design/build student. Bryan Bell is a founder of Design Corps and editor of Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191482 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 191 pages

Review
"This subject is critically important and is becomming even more so in the globally connected world in which we live. Studio at Large will be well received by the design community, social advocacy professionals, and faculty and students in a range of professional fields."--John McRae, Mississippi State University "These design solutions only come with hard work before the design starts that yields trust from the community and then a deep understanding of their needs. It is up to the reciprocating skill of the designer to transform the needs into a physical response."--from the Foreword by Bryan Bell

About the Author
Sergio Palleroni was a professor at the University of Washington for 12 years and the founder of the UW Basic Initiative, a multidisciplinary fieldwork program which each year challenges students to apply their education at the University of Washington in service of the problems facing marginalized communities throughout the world. He has worked on housing and community development in the developing world since the 1970's both for not-for-profit agencies and governmental and international agencies such as UNESCO, World Bank. In the last two decades he has applied this experience to establishing programs in housing and development at the University of Texas Austin and Penn State University as well as the University of Washington.

Customer Reviews

architect and builder
Its good to see that the rural studios work is not unique but rather part of a movement, with other brilliant examples such as the work documented in this book. Beautifully illustrated. Probably the most in depth discussion I've read on the methods and challenges of work among the poor and underserved.
A great contribution to architectures claim to relevance.

Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities
Prof. Sergio Palleroni teaches the "art-and-science" of "architecture" the old fashion way--with leadership and passion! He's not affraid of rolling up his sleeves, soiling his boot and spending his summer vacations whith his students (the future leaders): teachong design, scheduling and building sustainable communities in the "developing countries."

Sergio Palleroni is one of the most influential promoters of sustainable architecture in the later 21st century
This is a great book for both those people who are interested in learning about or those people who are already familiar with environmentally friendly "green" building pratices used in sustainable architecture. Studio at Large specifically chronicles the achievements of the UW BASIC Initiative program that Sergio Palleroni and his colleagues created in 1995. It is fascinating and moving to see the impact this work has on the local and global levels in society.