To the good fortune of many, no. Ten years after being founded on a shoe-string with an insurgent ”design like you give a damn” mentality, Architecture for Humanity’s relief efforts in Haiti suggest that AFH is no longer a humanitarian group working on the fringes of disaster response. And even if it was never completely accurate [...]
New Orleans is unlucky. Since 2005’s low point, it has been victim to the worst exhibits of public stewardship and post-disaster response possible. Beginning with foolishly-designed shipping canals/ levee-systems and unprepared disaster-response officials, missteps soon graduated to hopelessly inadequate provisions for temporary (and shoddily-built) emergency shelters, misappropriation-of-funds / self-dealing scandals, and a new crop of long-range planning initiatives that were tone-deaf to [...]
The good news: yesterday, Make It Right (MIR), Brad Pitt’s high-profile New Orleans non-profit dedicated to repopulating that city’s Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward with 150 livable, modern homes, released yet another batch of home designs.
The not so good news: belying the admirable, somewhat experimental, progressive character of the organization, a couple of the selected designs [...]