Since Fall of 2005, the Department of Interior Architecture has been working with the City of Greensboro's Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to implement a dwelling replacement program in Greensboro. Typically when a house falls into a grave state of disrepair, it accumulates many code violations. Eventually, this unfortunate situation catches up with the owner and she/he must make the necessary repairs to the dwelling. In most cases, the City has resources to assist residents in rectifying the situation. The housing rehabilitation program is usually very helpful and able to provide the necessary assistance. However in some cases, the state of disrepair of a dwelling exceeds the City's allowable resources, the homeowner's ability to qualify--or both. The unfortunate ensuing inevitability is dwelling condemnation and homeowner eviction. In response to this, the Department of Interior Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has proposed a dwelling replacement program which is directed by faculty, "staffed" by students and funded by HCD. The Urban Studio project comes together once a year to rebuild an unsalvageable home for the owners on the current site. During this process, homeowners are temporarily relocated and the Urban Studio executes the project during the span of one academic semester. The Fall 2006 [us] project will be the house of Lillie and James Marshall located at 909 Dillard Street in the Glenwood neighborhood.
The urban studio [us] operates in partnership with, and is funded by, the City of Greensboro's Department of Housing and Community Development. [us] is also supported by several sponsors and affiliates. Students taking this studio will be responsible for designing and subsequently building a replacement home on the site of a house already slated for demolition. The studio is divided into 2 inter-dependent parts, the first being a group design "charrette." This design phase includes programming, design development and the production of all necessary documents. Moreover, client interviews, site analysis, precedent studies and interim presentations will be required. The construction phase will last the remainder of the semester and a "turn-key" home must be completed before December 15th of 2006.
-Robert Charest, Professor
1 comment:
As a former Iarc student, this makes me proud that the department goes beyond "talking the talk, but actually walks the walk" and gets things done! We were constantly challenged to think outside the box and not take the obvious and expected applcation of a design degree for granted and explore as well as educate others to the greater potential of it's use. My congrats to Robert, the Dept. and fellow IARCs that are making this happen. WELL DONE!!!
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