CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/10/2012

Beyond Shelter Launches at Architectural League, NY

On Wednesday, February 15 The Architectural League of New York, Metropolis Books and ARTBOOK | D.A.P. are pleased to host Marie J. Aquilino, Michael Murphy, and Maggie Stephenson speaking on issues of architecture and human dignity addressed in Aquilino's new book, Beyond Shelter.

Featured image, a community center built as part of the reconstruction in Aceh province after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck Indonesia in 2004, is reproduced from Andrea Fitrianto's essay in Beyond Shelter. (Photograph is also by Fitrianto.)

As the frequency of major natural disasters increases, so does the need to help rebuild the communities and lives of those affected. Across the world, innovative architecture and engineering firms, as well as nonprofits and research centers, are making huge efforts to assist these communities by bridging the gap that separates short-term solutions from long-term sustainable recovery. As a result of their work, they are changing the way we think about disaster recovery solutions.

This conversation will explore the ways in which architects and engineers can play truly effective roles in disaster recovery and mitigation. The participants will look at both the successes and failures that they have encountered, particularly in Haiti but in other regions of the world as well. The conversation will be introduced and led by Marie J. Aquilino, editor of Beyond Shelter: Architecture and Human Dignity.

Marie J. Aquilino is a professor of architectural history at the École Spéciale d’Architecture (ESA) in Paris and is developing a program to train architecture students to work in contexts of extreme need in the developing world. Aquilino serves as associate program director of the BaSiC Initiative and is collaborating with Caritas and architecture students on building an orphanage and outreach facility in Titanyen, Haiti.

Michael Murphy is founding partner and Executive Director of MASS Design Group. He founded the organization in 2007 to better address the need for a holistic design approach in developing economies. Through partnership with Partners in Health, Murphy led the design on Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, assisting with breakthrough architectural solutions to mitigate and reduce the transmission of airborne diseases like tuberculosis.

Maggie Stephenson is senior technical advisor for Haiti at UN-HABITAT. From 2005 to 2011 she was based in Pakistan, where she worked with UN-HABITAT and the National Disaster Management Authority, supporting response and mitigation, based on people-centered approaches, to help the millions of people affected by natural disaster and conflict there. For the last twenty years, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, she has worked in architecture and planning education, urban government, housing and development, and post-disaster reconstruction for governments, the United Nations, nonprofits, and in the private sector.

Please see The Architectural League's events page for more details.

For information about Aquilino's February 22 talk at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, please visit the Graham's website.

For information about Aquilino's February 23 presentation at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, please visit the UM Events Calendar.