American Institute of Architects – Chicago

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NON-COLLAPSE “HOME”

VERTICAL SEASONAL MIGRATION COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD IN MADAGASCAR FACING THE CLIMATE REFUGE ISSUE.

Climate change has a great continuous impact on the whole world, on every continent and every country, but it doesn’t treat everyone equally. In some ways, it exacerbates and even creates poverty in some regions in the world. People who live in an underdeveloped environment or have already been burdened by poverty, while they don’t have enough ability to cope with problems brought by climate change and extreme weather. Under these circumstances, losing everything, being tired of rebuilding their home, lack of food, water, and electricity, people are forced to leave their home, being the “Climate Refugee.”

Due to the prolonged droughts and the food insecurity in the southern region of Madagascar, the country is experiencing a domestic long-distance migration from the south to the central region, especially in dry season, during that period local people have to seek alternative income sources. The seasonal long-distanced migration is not only the normal life of people who live in the southern region, it is also a kind of burden to the urban environment in the central region, as 80% percent of the settlement is in terrible condition and without enough necessary facilities.

AIA Chicago Foundation 2024 "Roberta Feldman Architecture for Social Justice" winner "The Chicago Sukkah Design Fesitval"

The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, the public art and architecture festival founded by Assistant Professor Joseph Altshuler, is named the winner of the 2024 Roberta Feldman Architecture for Social Justice Award, administered by the AIA Chicago Foundation. The award recognizes excellence in built projects and design programs guided by the conviction that access to high quality architecture is not a privilege, it is a human right.

The AIA Chicago bestows this honor award to one project annually, celebrating the commitment of designers who work on behalf of the public good. The Chicago Sukkah Design Festival’s organizational framework and co-design process builds on the legacy of Roberta Feldman (Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Architecture), a trailblazer with a long career dedicated to democratic design and public-impact work. Altshuler serves as artistic director for the Festival’s first three editions (2022–2024), including the upcoming edition that opens to the public on Sunday, October 6.

Collaborators include fellow FAA faculty members Assistant Professor Nekita Thomas, exhibition and landscape design, and Assistant Professor Akima Brackeen, design/build contributor (2023) and community design support (2024).

Honorable Mention - AIA Chicago Award in Architecture 2023

“Stitching Networks: Transitioning ‘Scapes”

Product Description

“This project aims to find new public space and landscape models and structures for the city of Montcada i Reixac that link neighborhoods in the municipality and reinforce their morphological richness and their dynamic and connected condition to become a local and territorial articulation defined by a singular commitment in the city-nature relationship, capable of achieving optimal urban social and ecological cohesion. The projects aim to redesign spaces generated by mobility infrastructures–that used to disrupt continuities between fabrics and landscapes–as active connectors between neighborhoods, people, and its urban and natural landscapes. It also focuses on reconnecting landscape and urban fragments, promoting social cohesion and environmental qualities with human-centered tactics.” Read more about the project here.

Collaborators:

Bryan Cruz Lopez

Tasmia Kamal

Professor: Sara Bartumeus