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The second part included painting the home of a resident whose dwelling was located near where Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017.<\/p>\nTwenty-two Dunwoody architecture students hopped on a plane bound for the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico during spring break.<\/p>\n
The students soaked up some sunshine and culture, but the main reason for the trip was to help residents of the country ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017.<\/p>\n
Initially, the scope of the trip was two-fold. It included a site visit to a piece of land in a mountainous region of the island, taking photos and making sketches\u00a0for the third year studio class to work on once they returned to Dunwoody.<\/p>\n
Local residents, driven by the need to be less reliant on ships bringing weekly supplies, want to buy and redevelop the property into a community center and farmer\u2019s market. Dunwoody students will create designs for the project and produce marketing materials, which will help secure loans for residents to buy the land.<\/p>\n
The second part included painting the home of a resident whose dwelling was located near where Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017.<\/p>\n
That expanded to include designing and building a pergola for the same resident.<\/p>\n
Dunwoody\u2019s Architecture program has a relationship with Ponce Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS), an advocacy group in the southern part of the island.<\/p>\n
Puerto Rican native Laura Cayere-King, an adjunct instructor in the Architecture program, and program manager, John Dwyer visited Puerto Rico in 2017, following the hurricane to meet with NHS and locate a neighborhood they could work with. That visit guided the efforts of last year\u2019s studio class, designing hurricane-proof homes for residents.<\/p>\n
NHS directed this year\u2019s group to the home of Maribel Martinez Gonzalez who had only received enough funding to rebuild her home on half of the original foundation.<\/p>\n
Cayere-King organized the spring break service trip to paint Martinez Gonzalez\u2019s\u00a0home because recovery aid did not pay for painting costs.<\/p>\n
She wanted to do something that would be impactful, but manageable.<\/p>\n
\u201cPainting is something that we can do easily without a lot of knowledge from all of the students,\u201d Cayere-King said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/overview-of-Casa-Maribel.jpg\")
Student Aaron McCauley had a larger vision and proposed adding an outdoor, covered space over the rest of the foundation. \u201cI was impressed with the effort NHS Ponce had made to rebuild Maribel\u2019s house as well as the quality of new construction given to her on a limited budget,\u201d McCauley said. \u201cThe foundation for a new home had been built, but a home is more than just floors, walls, and roofs. I believed that Dunwoody\u2019s students and faculty had the knowledge, and drive to bolster the resilient rebuilding efforts of NHS Ponce by beautifying her home and creating a dignifying and welcoming space for Maribel to enjoy with friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathaniel Nelson, a member of the Dunwoody student chapter of American Institute of Architecture<\/p>\n Students (AIAS) Freedom By Design (FBD) team, took the idea and ran with it. Nelson assembled a team to transform the skeletal remains of her old home.<\/p>\n \u201cThe students really made it into a life of its own,\u201d Cayere-King said.<\/p>\n Kolang Vang, an architecture student, said Martinez Gonzalez had a lovely, direct view of the ocean from her home, but the sun\u2019s scorching afternoon rays would shine right through her front door.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept an eye on her and every so often she would move her chair into the shade because the sun would change and she would have to go from outside the house to the inside,\u201d Vang said. \u201cIt was just so hot. We just wanted to give her a space that was habitable.\u201d<\/p>\n Student Ted Tuggle, who became public relations manager for the FBD team, said seeing Martinez Gonzalez\u2019s home for the first time was \u201cempowering.\u201d<\/p>\n The group spent one day preparing and three days building the new space.<\/p>\n Finding the right materials and logistics emerged as the biggest challenges.<\/p>\n FEMA was \u201cleaving almost nothing available for local projects,\u201d Erik Hall, an Architecture student and development manager for the FBD team said. \u201cThis meant we had a minimum three-hour road trip time for mid-day material runs.\u201d<\/p>\n The group cleared the area, began construction on the pergola, putting beams in place, and topping it with corrugated metal panels. They also painted the house.<\/p>\n \u201cProjects like this are what it\u2019s really all about,\u201d Nelson said.\u00a0\u201cHaving the opportunity to use design and our skills to better the world, even if only a little at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n On the evening they finished the project, they adorned the pergola with a string of lights and outdoor furniture and presented it to Martinez Gonzalez who broke down in tears.<\/p>\n \u201cMaribel didn\u2019t speak much English, so her main forms of communication were hugs, tears of joy, and making us delicious, authentic food,\u201d Hall said.\u00a0 \u201cWatching it get built from what it was when we got there to what it looks like now is such a difference,\u201d Vang said. \u201c I think we made a really great impact on her.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson said progress is happening on the island, but not at the rate we are accustomed to on the mainland.\u00a0Two years after the hurricane \u201cthere are still many buildings that are laying in ruin, and still many with tarps for roofs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis trip benefits students who not only get to immerse themselves in a culture, but realize there are implications to a building that is bigger than just shelter,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cIt\u2019s not all pretty \u2013 it\u2019s emotional and it\u2019s trying.\u201d<\/p>\n Now the group affiliated with Freedom By Design has a greater impact and broader reach.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have founded TEN Architecture; an architectural design group intended to identify widespread problems, develop distributable solutions, fundraise, and implement,\u201d Tuggle said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis experience has changed all of us in many ways,\u201d Nelson said.\u00a0\u201cWe were able to see firsthand the impact of this project.\u00a0It was one of the most rewarding things we have done in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twenty-two Dunwoody architecture students hopped on a plane bound for the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico during spring break. The students soaked up some sunshine and culture, but the main reason for the trip was to help residents of the country ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Initially, the scope of the trip was two-fold. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[223],"class_list":["post-4584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-news","tag-architecture"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Nathanial-Nelson-Puertor-Rico.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/painting-and-construction.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/metal-roof.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Maribels-slab.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thank-you.jpg\")
Bridget Reynolds, Dean of\u00a0Construction Sciences & Building Technology Programs at Dunwoody,\u00a0hopes students were able to gain a greater understanding of global humanity.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dunwoody.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/group.jpg\")
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