COMMUNITY BUILDING & ENGAGEMENT

Subtopic 1 Research Paper

In a rapidly growing world, the need for development and better use of our spaces is increasingly evident. With constant growth of the world population comes a rise in the issues that societies face globally as well as the urgency and necessity of careful thought and purpose in how we build to combat these problems. When constructing society, urban planners often build on the basis of simply ensuring basic functionality of a new structure among its people. While this is one important aspect of constructing new spaces, the physical building of our society is often overlooked as an opportunity to build bridges, unite communities to come together toward a common cause, and create economically, culturally and environmentally sustainable communities that are truly inclusive and reflect the desires of today's growing and diverse society. The effects of such an effort are boundless and how we design our society suddenly develops a whole new dimension of how it can serve people. Rather than simply designing, constructing, and opening a building for public use, the art of architecture can be a catalyst for positive change and sustainable development and utilized to create meaningful and purposeful sites, which involve the community and its leaders from the very conception of the idea to build.

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In 1972, Diébédo Francis Kéré, a native of a small village called Gando in Burkina Faso, left his family at seven years old, to travel to the city to be educated, a rare privilege for any child in his community. After receiving a scholarship to continue his studies in Berlin, Germany to become an architect, Kéré hoped to return and use his education and skills to open up better opportunities for children in Gando by building a school. Years later, he raised $50,000, returned home, and expressed his desire to build a primary school for the village to community leaders. After convincing them of his plan and decision to use clay, an abundant material available in the region, to maximize results with the minimal resources available, they began work immediately. Most inspiring, however, was how the villagers of Gando, young and old, contributed to the building of the Gando Primary School. Kere’s Foundation shares that “although the plans for the Primary School were drawn by Francis Kéré, the success of the project can be attributed to the close involvement of the local population… Children gathered stones for the school foundation and women brought water for the brick manufacturing” (How to Build With Clay and Community ). In keeping with the traditional cultural techniques, a practice of beating rocks until turned into fine clay, was used by the villagers to prepare the material to create the entirety of the school. Thus, in this way, traditional building techniques were utilized alongside modern engineering methods in order to create a sustainable method of building for maintenance and reconstruction should anything ever need to be repaired. When completed, Gando Primary School had not only been built by the hands of the villagers from all walks of life, but a community came together and improved their own quality of life. Through the use of local human and natural resources, the school was a functional, yet beautiful, living recreation of Gando’s values and environment. While the new primary school was celebrated and recognized by the people of Gando and internationally, most important was how the primary school became a landmark of community pride and collectivity and inspired new projects such as a Primary School Extension, Teachers’ Housing, Secondary School Library, and Women’s Center, which all similarly share the first project’s support for sustainable development in the village. This example powerfully, exhibits how meaningful architecture can become a remarkable opportunity for not only community building and engagement, but also to improve the quality of life of members of any society. As the primary school was built directly by the hands of the people of Gando, they utilized their own techniques, but also were trained in new skills, which would only come to serve them, when it came to build again. While Kéré may have designed and initiated the building of this school, people became the driving force and architecture became a catalyst for positive change and ultimately, hope for a better life.

Michael Murphy, the Executive Director of MASS Design Group, a nonprofit architecture firm whose work has been internationally recognized, at the UN Solutions Summit, by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and as winners of the 2015 Design Biennial Boston, also speaks of architecture as providing hope for better life as well as its ability to heal in his 2016 TED Talk. Similar to Kéré, Murphy sought to use architecture as a solution for issues that communities often undiscussed or regarded as unimportant were tackling. After attending a lecture by Dr. Paul Farmer, who emphasized how buildings were making patients sicker, leading to epidemic level problems for those living in the poorest of countries and how “simple designs for infection control had not be thought about and people had died because of it,” Murphy was inspired and traveled to Butaro, Rwanda the following summer to design a new hospital (Architecture That's Built to Heal ). With Dr. Farmer and his team, he created a hospital in which the design not only promoted healing, but also supported sustainable development through community engagement. Bruce Nizeye, an engineer and local to Rwanda, suggested using a method called Ubudehe which means “community works for the community,” which proved to be incredibly effective as hundreds of people from around Butaro came with shovels and hoes to aid in the building of the new hospital (Architecture That's Built to Heal ). A guild was also started and master carpenters were brought in to train others how to make furniture by hand. Labor was sourced from those of all backgrounds, including women, who contributed to half of the labor force for this site. This investment in the people where architects build, described by Murphy, is known as “the locally fabricated way of building or lo-fab… and it has four pillars - hire locally, source regionally, train where you can, and invest in dignity” (Architecture That's Built to Heal ). This powerful approach and framework surpasses the average standard of simply building for the need of walls and a roof. It demonstrates the far-reaching, positive consequences of choosing to build with purpose.  

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The Butaro Hospital marks another powerful example of architecture as a “transformative engine for change.” Captivating, is the ability of the design and development of a sole structure to improve the quality of life of thousands and be a catalyst for not only hope, but also innovation, community engagement, and building bridges. Through working together, communities take pride in their values, traditions, and techniques invested into a single building, prompting an appreciation for pluralism and inclusivity. Thus, the art of architecture proves not only to serve the building of strong structures as it should, but also the building of economically, culturally, and socially strong communities.