Architecture for a social cause

By: Janhavi Purohit

Posted: 4/4/08

Architect Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of the charitable organization Architecture for Humanity and author of "Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Reponses to Humanitarian Crises," spoke April 3 to an audience of architecture students from the Westphal College of Design, as well as a mix of professors and other individuals.
Sinclair gave a lecture on his organization and the current projects underway. Architecture for Humanity is currently working on rebuilding impoverished communities in areas such as East Biloxi, Miss., which was struck by Hurricane Katrina, and Sri Lanka, which was damaged by the 2005 tsunami.
Sinclair spoke to students regarding the situation in areas that require immediate relief and assistance, and commented on the inefficiency of the majority of efforts that were proposed.
"We are losing focus of what it means to be sustainable," Sinclair said. "That's why I come to schools like this that are about building an environment."
According to Sinclair, the organization centers on working in locations that are not profiled by the media, or "hyped up."
"We don't go where Anderson Cooper tells us to," Sinclair said.
Funding for the program comes from a variety of "interesting places," according to Sinclair, from the conventional organizations, such as Oprah's Angel Network, to the "sublime."
"Most of our funding, initially, came from hot chocolate being sold by high school kids," Sinclair said.
For the first time at Drexel, 100 students from the architecture program will be sent on a weekend trip with Sinclair, starting April 4, to design solutions for buildings in crisis-stricken areas. The awards ceremony for the winning designs will be held April 7.
Sinclair said that his motivation for beginning this organization came from his impoverished background.
"I grew up in a poor, low socioeconomic London neighborhood, where people in the rich part of town, with the big houses, always looked so much happier than the people living in houses near me," Sinclair said. "I was inspired by bad architecture-I felt that we should, we had to do better."
Sinclair said that though he began his career in an architectural firm, the projects he took on did not satisfy his desire to inspire change.
"Every project I did didn't seem to inspire me," Sinclair said. "They didn't enrich my life or the lives of the people I was serving."
Sinclair began the organization at the age of 22 when he contacted the United Nations refugee department and proposed a plan to aid the refugees of Kosovo.
According to Sinclair, however, his mission is not to simply aid the victims of a crisis, such as with Hurricane Katrina or the Sri Lanka tsunami.
"The role of an architect is not to jump into a disaster. Architects do not provide relief," Sinclair said. "Instead, we are here to help give communities the expertise, technology and social capital to rebuild communities. We work with the community to empower them."
Sinclair encouraged the students in the audience to get involved by sharing stories of the college students who aided with the rebuilding in New Orleans.