Collaborations
The following are some of the groups and organizations I have had the opportunity to work with.
Peace Home kids with our construction crew
Kujenga Collaborative
As the 2017 fellow for Kujenga Collaborative I had the opportunity to work in rural Tanzania and oversea the construction of the Olive Branch for Children's Peace Home for three months. The Peace Home is a permanent home for more than 20 children located in the village of Mswiswi. The new complex of three buildings, designed by the Kujenga Collaborative Team, is located on land donated by the village. Its construction served as an opportunity for education, training and rural outreach.
Kujenga Collaborative is also working to see how rural communities can be better served and are currently planning next year's project which will focus on rural access.
Please consider donating to help support future projects and workshops led by Kujenga Collaborative.
Waiting for access to water
The Olive Branch for Children
As part of my work with Kujenga, I lived and worked closely with The Olive Branch for Children (TOBFC), a Tanzanian-based NGO, which focuses its outreach on HIV/AIDS prevention and care, early childhood education, food security and vulnerable children and women in rural areas. The focus is to empower remote communities in sustainable manner. A portion of our research work was rural access and asset mapping to better understand each communities' resources and priorities.
Please consider donating and or volunteering to take part one of the many Olive Branch for Children's projects.
Sago Studio
In 2011 I collaborated with the Sago Network in the planning and community consultation stages of the water and sanitation program committed to improving village health. The five-week project brought together students and professionals from the fields of design, engineering, architecture and community development to explore how design thinking could benefit critical needs. The end-results were improved water supplies and community pit-toilets that replaced the existing sea-toilets.
Bower Studio in Papua New Guinea
As a lecturer at the PNG University of Technology I had the opportunity to observe and participate in the 2010, two- week, community design-build experiences with my students.
'The Bower Studio builds on this idea of self-built, environmentally sound solutions to specific cultural needs and applies itself to working with remote communities. The Bower Studio program is designed to bring people together for teaching and learning, across contexts and cultures, and with the discipline to achieve ‘hard’ outcomes.'
Architectural Heritage Center of Papua New Guinea
From the fall of 2009 - 2010 I was the Acting Director then Director of the Architectural Heritage Center (AHC) located in the Department of Architecture and Building at the PNG University of Technology. In this role I led Board Meetings, wrote papers, and presented at the Pacific History conference. The AHC most notably holds the extensive work of Prof. Wallace "Mac" Ruff
The Center's purpose is to record and survey the vernacular architecture for future generations of Melanesians to develop 'a new architectural vocabulary unique to the region and responsive to both climate and culture.' (Ruff, 1984)
The Village Studies program, first initiated in 1972, was re-instituted in 2011 through student research projects, which I co-led. An abstract of that research can be found by clicking on the button below:
IMAKE Studio
In 2008, as a Junior Architect, I had the privilege of taking part in the select team that conceptualized IMAKE Studio, the Tabla line of ottomans and Octavo (left) - a modular line of tables which allow for a variety of configurations and led to a design patent (click on website below for more information on these and other available products).
IMAKE Studio was developed as a design lab, that 'celebrate(s) the power of design through a process of making (and) engaging with diverse cultures globally. Central to our approach is the application of design thinking to a product, a process or an idea to arrive at unpredictable and innovative results.'