This blog is here for one simple reason: for people to learn about what the world is pursuing involving design in developing countries. As a student just beginning to discover this myself I'll be learning more about this world with you. My desire is to examine what is being done and to critically ascertain how we can move forward in the future and help the world with the skills we have been given. Some may say this work is pointless or that design freedom may be too “limited” yet I propose that the best design and the greatest designers are those who respond to the human condition. In the developing world that condition if far from what many of us can ever imagine. Instead of accepting this condition we can change it.
I spent this summer working to design a school and orphanage in Liberia called African Dream Academy, this dream was dreamt by people from a nation torn and scarred from 20 years of civil war, brutality and instability. Still reeling from these horrors schools are few and far between and almost always in poor condition, housing for orphans is deplorable. They have few engineers and almost no architects, construction is rudimentary and more often than unsafe. Materials are bought along the side of the road or salvaged from scrap piles, concrete is mixed with all sorts of mystery materials, people live in shacks and makeshift structures. Despite many of these debilitating factors, I saw in Liberia hope. They believe in rebuilding and restarting; they need Architecture for that to become a reality.
"Social Justice Design" seems like a strange phrase, but social justice does not simply apply to exploitation, slavery or abuse it applies to the very places in which people live, where they go to school, where the work or play. People deserve to live in houses which will not kill them when an earthquake hits or wash away in a flood. They deserve to learn in a classrooms with a roof over their head and basic ventilation. They deserve to have a Medical Clinic within walking distance with beds for those who are sick, rooms for operation and proper sanitation. The deserve the simple structures which will help them to stay alive and give them basic opportunities. The primary cause for a lack of these types of structures is a lack of good design. Whether an architecture student, practicing architect, engineer or design professional you have a responsibility. You have received your education not for you alone but so you can help others.
-Jess Libby,
