educator « Kersten Harries

educator

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

co-leading architecture workshop

In September 2011, I co-lead a workshop at Ecoweek Milan with Rahel Belatchew Lerdell. The workshop’s goal for the student participants was to design a covered market that should also serve as a social space. A site within the city of Milan was chosen because of its undefined urban character and where the implementation of such a structure could have an impact on the urban life and social connectivity of the inhabitants. The workshop started with research investigating case studies, analyzing the site, observing local street markets, and interviewing potential users. Students then brainstormed and developed their ideas, seeking solutions that incorporated sustainable building principles and materials. I created a blog (http://ecoweekmilan2011w4.wordpress.com/) for the workshop which was utilized by participants as a platform for sharing resources, research, design progress, and comments.

Posted in educator, university | Post your Thoughts →

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

public space studio

Public space was the topic of one of the architecture studio classes I taught, during the fall 2010 semester at CEDIM in Monterrey, Mexico. This class was taught to 3rd semester students, and was their first architectural studio class. The students began by surveying the local neighborhood in Santa Catarina, documenting existing public spaces through photographs and sketching. They utilized tools created by Placemaking Chicago to evaluate the different public spaces they visited. After making a model of the neighborhood, they used it to engage local community residents in a dialogue about the chosen site for our main project, an empty lot near the school utilized by community members for playing soccer and baseball. Once the students had identified the current problems with the space they began to develop design proposals of how to transform it into a great place. Each student’s final presentation included plans, sections, site model, and slideshow documenting research, inspiration, and ideas about materials and details included in their proposal. Students worked both at the scale of the entire site as well as developing in more detail one architectural element from their overall proposal.

Tags: CEDIM, Mexico, Placemaking, Public Spaces, university
Posted in educator, university | Post your Thoughts →

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

learning and sharing natural building knowledge

Panta Rei – Passignano sul Trasimeno, Italy

I decided to do my three month internship for the Masters of Sustainable Architecture at an environmental education center in Umbria, Panta Rei. By living and working within structures built of natural materials I was able to learn first hand the benefits they offer, including occupants’ health and comfort. I was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the earth and lime plasters, utilizing humble tools and techniques. While helping run volunteer work camps I participated in the construction of earth and straw walls added to secondary structures. By creating a color coded floor plan legend and corresponding pages which combined sketches, details, and photos I documented the materials and methods used to construct the existing buildings in a way that could be easily shared with future visitors. To document my activities and experience during my stay at Panta Rei, I created a blog that I posted to during my internship.

Tags: italia, natural building, panta rei, terra
Posted in architect, community, educator, sustainable | Post your Thoughts →

Saturday, February 2nd, 2002

helping immigrant families achieve their dream

Bilingual Homebuying Counseling – Raleigh, NC, USA

When I arrived in North Carolina in 2001 to work with Design Corps, some of the nearby counties’ hispanic populations had experienced increases of over 500% in the previous 10 years. This boom of Latinos was partly related to those who had arrived to this country as farmworkers but had since settled out of the migrant stream. They work in low wage jobs and industries such as construction and landscaping. In helping these families with the process of designing their own home, it became clear that even more important was the need to help them navigate through the mortgage world and homebuying process. For example many were even eligible for special affordable mortages though they didn’t know such programs existed and bilingual assistance was extremely limited. Besides language barriers, cultural differences existed. Many did not have any form of traditional credit even though they may be financially responsible.

One particular family who had dreamed of having a home of their own since arriving to this country twenty years ago, contacted us after hearing a radio ad about our free home-buying counseling services. In the following months I assisted them in applying for a USDA 502 affordable mortgage loan. This process included proving their status as permanent residents, their paying off past medical debts, establishing non-traditional forms of credit, waiting for federal funds to become available, and searching for their new home. I attended various events to learn more about available affordable mortgages and networked with different groups in the local Latino community to spread the information I gathered. My fluency in Spanish allowed me to be this bridge of information and provide valuable services, beyond the regular ones provided by architects.

Tags: Design Corps, homebuying counseling, housing, immigrants, rural, spanish, USA
Posted in architect, community, educator, residential | Post your Thoughts →

Saturday, February 2nd, 2002

a year of service

Design Corps – Raleigh, NC, USA

After completing my architecture degree, I wanted to use my skills to help improve the built environment and impact people’s lives in a positive way. Working for Design Corps as a VISTA volunteer allowed me to have contact with people from all facets of the community, while providing free architectural services to those who otherwise could not afford them. I also learned about aspects of community building, and home buying that I had either taken for granted or had not participated in before. With the position came considerable responsibility and freedom to identify and create the programs I felt were most needed by the rural North Carolina communities southeast of Raleigh, where I was working. My target population was the farmworkers: migrants living in employer owned housing and those who had settled in the area and were perspective home buyers. I was working closely with a local coalition known as the Housing Development Corporation whose goal involved improving the housing conditions and options of farmworkers. Through hours of conversation, research, and visits surveying existing conditions, I became fully immersed into the challenges and issues my clients faced in trying to secure better housing. My efforts to supply information, advocate for changes, and create new initiatives are modest compared to the unmet demand still present.

Two different projects that I developed were a bathroom unit to replace existing outhouses at employer provided migrant farmworker housing and Spanish home-buying counseling services for immigrants settling in the area.

The photos shown here I took when I began my position and was documenting existing farmworker housing and the surrounding rural landscape.

Tags: Design Corps, farmworker, homebuying counseling, housing, immigrants, rural, spanish, USA
Posted in architect, community, educator, residential | Post your Thoughts →

Kersten Harries