Newsletter - Spring 2008
| AWB-SEATTLE SPRING 2008 |
| EVENT NEWS |
| Open Meeting: Come hear the latest news on projects and talk to those involved. Meet the new and old Board members, and network with others who are interested in humanitarian design. Pizza and Beer will be provided promptly at 6:15. When: May 1st, 6pm to 8pm Where: Piecoras (1405 E Madison)The Architects Without Borders t-shirt design competition is coming. Details to be announced at the Open meeting on May 1st and then available online. Start thinking fashion and show your AWB-Seattle passion. |
| PROJECT NEWS |
| Lampuuk Peace Park is a project located in north-west Aceh, on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. The western coasts of Aceh were the hardest hit areas during the 2004 tsunami, where 230,000 people were killed. Several villages surrounding Lampuuk have since been aided by foreign organizations, who have provided temporary housing and other reconstruction. Consequently, the tsunami also affected the politics in the region, influencing the rebel movement GAM, which has been fighting for Acehnese independence, to sign a peace accord with the Indonesian authorities. Such a momentous event has inspired the development of the Lampuuk Peace Park project, which will incorporate a memorial to the tsunami victims while simultaneously commemorating the peace accord. Additionally, Sumatra as a whole, has suffered intense deforestation and other depletion of natural resources. Such devastation provides further purpose to create a place where resource extraction cannot occur. AWB has been working in conjunction with William Ozkaptan, who is part of USAID, to create a masterplan for the 1.37 sq km park. Thus far AWB has conducted two meetings to gather site analysis information and to brainstorm program options and layouts. While the timeline for the project is not clearly defined, it is important to begin work on the park before other unplanned development takes place. This project provides an exciting opportunity to address issues of disaster relief, regional politics, and ecological sensitivity in a region that is still recovering from the tsunami of 2004. |
| Design/Build Challenge: March 27th to March 30th |
 AWB Design Build Team: Akasha Whoorley, Bray Hayden, Dave Helton, Kim Shipley, Matt Ivers, Nate Harrold and Sam Adams |
| The 72-Hour Challenge began on Thursday evening at 8pm with a few brief presentations from a the coordinators and few Seattle Homeless Advocate non-profit groups: Share, Wheel and Women in Black, along with members of Tent Cities 3 & 4. They expressed needs for dealing with their garbage as well as human waste along with also wanting to address a temporary memorial for homeless that have passed away in King County and Seattle. After much deliberation, our AWB gang chose to work on the issue of human waste. We presented our design thoughts on Friday around 1p, and then spent from then until Sunday at 4p designing, building, and having vast philosophical discussions about issues of poo. We worked on a whole spectrum of educational issues – from those that may be living in the more remote green belt areas to those inhabiting a slightly more permanent encampment where composting might be an option. Our main built object was a very low-tech, off the shelf kit of parts, no tools required privy. In the end there were 5 groups who presented responses (we were the only non-UW architecture student group!)– 3 toilets, and 2 memorials. The judges had great things to say about all of them, but in the end one of the memorials took the prize. Our greatest reward though was that members of tent city took a keen interest in our privy, and took it away to use just after the winner was announced! We also made some great contacts with several members of the advocate groups, as well as a writer from Real Change that would like to interview the design build team.For more information: http://www.designbuildchallenge.org/ |
| Habitat for Humanity: AWB-S continues to support Habitat for Humanity with Design Charettes and Workdays in the Westway and Roxbury neighborhoods. The next workdays are in Westway on April 19th and 26th. For information contact rachaelm@bergerpartnership.comThank you Gary Max with Sitelines Park and Playground Products who donated a bench and Dave Parisi with Mutual Materials for donating block wall. |
| ORGANIZATION NEWS |
| AWB - Seattle 2008 New Board Members: |
| David Helton, Rachael Meyer, Jim Seeks, Carter Woollen, and Marc Pevoto are all new members of the Board. While Samatha Beadel, Rachel Minnery, and Roger Stocker have moved over to start forming a AWB-Seattle Advisory Board.Volunteers needed: To help AWB-S with graphics, organization, and the website. Please email Michael Gilbride if you are interested, or if you have any special talents that you think would be useful. |