Architecture for Humanity

It doesn’t take much for me to get inspired about design but it’s rare that I can find nothing critical to say. I had the opportunity to see Cameron Sinclair speak about Architecture for Humanity today. It was a fantastic presentation given by an amazing architect doing incredible things. If you’re familiar with Habitat for Humanity, you can probably guess what his group does. This group creates architectural designs for under-served areas such as the Gulf Coast after Katrina, Sub-Saharan Africa, and areas hit by the tsunami of ‘04.

The talk was obviously inspiring for the work that was being done. But what I was most impressed with was the reflection upon their own design process and how it unfolds in this context. At one point he put up a slide just showing the principles they have taken away from these experiences and I found a lot of intersection with my own thoughts on HCI in the developing world. The group’s reflections seemed well-founded with an underlying concern for culture and geography. All too often it seems that designers in any field are looking for the panacea. This group “gets it”.

I found no room for criticism because this this group is practicing what they preach. They have had tremendous success in a lot of their projects. They have done so in many locales with varying cultures. There design solutions are all unique. Additionally, there is a strong emphasis on participatory involvement on the part of those that will live in these dwellings. They have realized that success will always rely on the stake that users will have in the solutions (he also mentioned that they do not allow sponsor’s names to be written anywhere on the structures they help fund).

Finally, the most interesting portion of his discussion was his emphasis on learning from the group’s failures. He didn’t spend much time dwelling on the point but it was an important one nonetheless. On the website for his current project: the Open Architecture Network the group has even listed failures (he showed this in the presentation but haven’t found it yet online). Everyone preaches that mistakes teach more than successes but this is an example of a group that actually practices it. It is, no doubt, hard to admit failure, but in the end we can all benefit from this humility as design community.