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Vulnerable Spaces and the Social Role of Architecture
M. Arch. THESIS MIDTERM BY: DANIELLE BAROZINSKY THESIS CHAIR: STEVE COOKE THESIS COMMITTEE: JOSUE ROBLES CARABALLO, EVAN MARKIEWICZ, k.
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table of contents
5 Introduction 7 UNPACKING: Blog Series 65 Interviews 73 Research
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introduction
My name is Danielle Barozinsky and I am a graduate student in the School of Architecture and Community Design at the University of South Florida, Tampa. In August 2016, I began to look for programs that worked globally to solve social, environmental, health, and economic issues in impoverished communities, primarily through built projects. In the spring of 2017, I was connected with Evan Markiewicz , an architect and the co-founder of Viviendas León, a non-profit organization working in rural communities outside of León, Nicaragua for about 20 years. I expressed my interest in visiting a community for an extended amount of time in order to learn about culture, building techniques, communication, technology, and desires for their community. A year later I was able to. The core research for my masters thesis project began with my two-week stay in León, and like you’ll find in this document, continuted with breaking down the interviews, breaking down the data from VL given to me throughout this process, and the research that followed my trip involving shame, vulnerability, and building community through people and architecture. k.
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5 Introduction 9 UNPACKING: Blog Series 65 Interviews 73 Research
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UNPACKING BLOG SERIES BY DANIELLE BAROZINSKY
Traveling to a new city is like stepping into somebody else’s territory. Tethered to the convenience and nuisances of familiarity, senses are more aware than usual, tuning ears to the voices that fall over streets, eagerly trying to understand the other’s language and hoping your footprint isn’t as harsh as the unusualness of it all. I was waiting for cues that would only come once in awhile. This trip in particular required a plane dropping me into the center of the Americas, where Spanish is dominant and the grounds have been trampled and controlled by U.S. leaders only a few years ago. Abused and mislead, beaten and washed away by hurricanes, blanketed in ash from volcanoes, seeded and sown soil for the sugar cane plantations, services and fresh tortillas delivered to your gate. Nicaragua has scars incomparable to other countries, but within the scars I’ve found, there are stories, people, dignity stolen and reborn, freshness of the morning breeze and watered gardens, streets invaded with song to the Virgin Mary, savor in traditions... soup, fingers wrapped on edges of the chair arm in anticipation for the sun to set and family to return home. In this effort to document my two-week trip in Leon, through pairing narrative to image and researching the work of ViviendasLeon, I hope to unpack the nuances that reveal themselves through the writing. I hope to tell a story that I couldn’t tell you in the moment of the photo because there was so much more to the curtains flowing in my bedroom and the posture of the woman on her farm than I can show. I cannot leave these photos to be on their own, although they would still mean a lot to me. This is a trip that cannot go unpacked just because I’ve returned home. These narratives deserve a place somewhere, so I’ll put them in this book.
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IMAGE 1 : My Bedroom
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1 I felt alone, in a way, as soon as I stepped off of the airplane, as if all of the people around me were not real, speaking different tongues, waiting in lines to receive a stamp and leave. Amongst the hundreds of people picking up, leaving, coming home, confused and in a hurry. A small amount of guilt was inhaled with the air that filled my lungs. It’s the way you feel when you know leaders of your country maimed and controlled thousands of people who used to walk the ground you’ve just stepped upon, along with feelings of privilege to come and go as you like, but there was Martin. So I moved on, noticing landscape that cars pass through. People and dogs running, crossing, women with large baskets of cut fruit balanced on heads, honking as a permissive gesture, those resting on stoops, those with backpacks and uniforms, small pearls on a long string that lead to the landscape where farms were plotted and cows and horses tied to fence posts along the road. Then one by one, the mention of a city, house by house, we were at my homestay, greeted by Hortencia. My room was my respite. My window working most properly when the door was propped open. The Virgin Mary, one small table and bed sheet, two fans, two outlets taking turns. All for me, but not mine to have. Have you ever wanted to yell, out of excitement, terror, joy and confusion, but you’re in somebody else’s house, and the garden outside of your window has somebody else’s dog, and the food you ate tonight came from somebody else’s farm, and you want to throw it all to the wind and hold on to it all at one time, but you do nothing, except sit and eat what you’ve been given, because in the moment it’s the most respectful thing you can do.
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IMAGE 2 : Drying Towel
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There is a layer forming, sweat, the stick of the bus seat that was welded into an old school bus, oils from handling money, humidity. It was my second day and my 6 month idea of the VL office being air conditioned was proved to be only a dream. How odd that I designed a house over the summer in one of my courses that included natural ventilation without having any experience or idea of what that would be like. Air conditioning is only used when you’re driving in the staff truck or when somebody at home is feeling sick. Soap is always in a plastic container and I can never drink the water unless it’s purified. Learning to say “can I have a bottle of water” or “purified water please” became the primary goal. I don’t know why the towel is hanging in the photo, but the fact that there was a very long string being used for a tiny towel, and that was intriguing, as was the way the sun was softly entering the room from the opening above.
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IMAGE 3 : Viviendas Leรณn Office in the city
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This isn’t what it normally looked like. This photo is more for the purpose of showing a space uninhabited by people and electricity in the city of Leon. The office for Viviendas Leon is situated in what used to be a house, but was split in two. Most houses may have looked like this, I could only see through gate doors sometimes as I walked through the streets. It was an overwhelmingly warm and bumpy ride to get here from the house. The busses here are old, mildly refurbished school busses. They fill up quick in the mornings, some with loud music which I really enjoyed, but most times just really bumpy. As I would step into the double doors of the office, greeted by the motorcycles and staff, it was a few steps down the hall past the small courtyard space, and sat at the table as I waited for my spanish teacher, or for an interview with one of the staff members. Fans on, dim lights, fresh coffee and that bathtub. I liked the colors of the walls, yellows and turquoise that complimented the purple plants, the brick designs and the small stairs that take you to more offices with windows. There’s only one window down here. I like that it’s used to deliver food, welcome in people, and to see the small display of items in the front of the office, items made by the people of Goyena. I’ve never had to accomplish anything in a space like this. It’s funny that I imagined an indoor, airconditioned office, but this was not that. Here, I found myself always wanting to walk, to find cooler air, to stare into space, drink more water, eat another snack, anything but focus. Martin was sure I knew my way around, but as soon as he left, I drew a map so I could find my way around on my own. I included only places I’d been where there was wifi and food. Christian and I would try to exchange a few words the most, and I wanted so badly to speak fluently to the women in the office, because even in my broken understanding of spanish, I respected them so much. Their labor and time given to this type of work is so admireable.
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IMAGE 4 : Basílica de la Asunción, Catedral de León
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“Don’t buy or consume fruit you can’t peel on your own” said Martin. Playing by the rules. I missed mango. My homestay grandmother brought me one on my last morning. She was amongst the kindest and most welcoming women I’d been with. Going home to Abuela meant I could sit at the table with her, or the porch, speak or not speak, and it was all okay. The walls of the white church had been repainted a glorious white, the entire thing, besides this wall that hadn’t had its turn yet. On one side I would see tourists enter a small door to walk up to the roof, and then the other, being elevated from the roadway, was only occupied by a seller, some travelers, the scaffolding. When you google “Leon” you’ll see images of this church. Martin walked me through and asked if I really appreciated the architecture but I really just appreciated that when you stood in the middle of it, this unfamiliar breeze would go right through the building, passing over you on its way. You don’t feel that breeze anywhere else in the city. I wonder if the church is a relief to anyone in that way.
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IMAGE 5 : Basílica de la Asunción, Catedral de León, Rooftop
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IMAGE 6 : The Kennedy Chair
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Kennedy sat in one of these chairs once and then all of a sudden this house owned about 10 of them. The rocking chair. The place for hands to wrap themselves around arm rests, for feet to gently push, heel-to-toe and fall back toe-to-heel. Where Abuela or her brother would sit in the hours when meals were not being cooked and visitors only passed through. I knew when I came home to my gate, I’d have some sort of welcoming home by those sitting in the chairs. I would lock the gate behind me, step up into the house to set down my bag, then bring the spanish version of Harry Potter out with me, along with my spanish notes, to sit with my family. One afternoon, when the whole family was around, the uncle and dad offered me a beer, and something was so refreshing about a tall Tona and my book, outside with my family. Another day I sat with my homestay sister, Ali, her boyfriend and some of the girls staying for the semester of school and I could only guess what the conversation was about. Uno was a card game we could all get in on. Another few days were spent with a visiting team of high schoolers from Connecticut, and our porch was the meeting grounds, so having lots of english company from a bunch of energetic high schoolers who probably shared the culture shock was comforting. These chairs were the ones Martin and I sat in the first night I flew in and we talked for a couple hours and I realized I was in really good company for the week. The chairs on my porch in Florida don’t hold anyone. No one waters the gardens in my neighborhood to cool down the porch, and neighbors don’t come by to sit with you for a while. It was a nice change. These chairs were our common ground.
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IMAGE 7 : The Abuelas
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The Ladies, the mamas, the abuelas, the ones who kept watch over visitors in the city. It was this group of women and a couple men who, when students or volunteers came from abroad, would host them in their homes. They gathered on the carport, shaded by old and lush trees, seated in the conveniece of plastic chairs, walked over the cool tiles and surrounded by the sounds of the street - the dogs, the children, cars and fireworks. These gatherings were hosted by my abuela who had lived there for about 50 years. It is a neighorhood association located about 2 miles south of the city center that decided to open their doors, and welcome in people like myself who didn’t know much outside of home. Ali, my homestay sister, said abuela had been doing this as long as she could remember. We were also right accross the street from an ice cream shop whose owner was also a host in this group; it’s where Martin was staying.
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IMAGE 8 : Ceiling Creature
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In my house in the states, my mom would do everything she could to keep the bugs out. It’s like most homes in the states. We pay somebody to kill anything that enters our homes, lives under our home, or may potentially enter the home. We use poison that’s toxic to our pets and ourselves, the plants. It’s absurd when I think about it. I asked why they let the geckos in the house here in my homestay. My sister told me it’s because they eat the bugs on the ceiling. Sometimes, late at night, you’ll hear a loud thud, and it’s because a gecko fell. I’m learning how much to rely on simple things like watering gardens and letting geckos in the house and keeping my window open. It’s warmer this way, but then I don’t have to run a hot shower. It all makes more sense.
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IMAGE 9 : Mountains into Cerro Negro
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This was the first day I got to leave the city besides my visit to Goyena. Lucila had a friend who would take me on a volcano tour (boarding down Volcano Negro, elevation: 728 m.). On the way, we passed people and their horses walking along the grassy cart roads and volcanic soil. Don Jaime drove us through the thickness of green until we reached a hut closer to the top of the volcano. We had gotten there early, so we were the first to walk up the trail. This was an active volcano that Lenny knew really well. Lenny’s uncle was the mayor of León when the country was at war and tourism was nonexistent. Eventually, he decided to use the volcano as an attraction, meaning Lenny had been coming here for a long time. He spent some time living in the states as well so his english was fluent and it made for good company. He was the kind of guy you’d expect to take you up a volcano, kind of wild and long haired, had lots of stories from travelling and his boots were damaged from the number of times he’d been in the volcanic rocks. It was the first time I felt free, out of discomfort; I was running on top of a giant and hot mountain where I could see the river of black that formed after past erruptions and the country was quiet for once. I wanted to lie in the warm bed of rocks and soak in the quiet for a while. Lenny helped me get prepared for the ride down. Nothing was holding me back, except that if you didn’t sit right, your seat would dig into the soil and the board would slow down. Eventually I caught the hang of it and looked up as I allowed myself to slide down into a giant pool of soft, charcoal looking piles of rocks, the horizon raising, leaving Lenny behind, on my own. It’s the only place in the world you can do this. It was hard to leave.
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IMAGE 10 : Danielle on top Volcano Cerro Negro
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IMAGE 11 : Backseat Rider
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After leaving a festival in Subtiava, filled with smells of traditional sweets and stews, the roads through Leรณn were slow to drain, the buildings dark and trees turning into silhouettes. People crowded under awnings and sat on porch stoops while the storm passed by. Cold air rushed through the vents as Don Jaime and Lucila preferred. I spoke little, observed mostly, and tasted the sweet brown sugar and peanut candy I had just bought. This trip has been like being in the backseat.
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IMAGE 12 : Pop-up Tents for La GritarĂa
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70 years ago, Volcano Cerro Negro began to errupt. The city of León was afraid the ash would burry the city again like León Viejo in the 1600s. After two weeks of unrelenting spews of ash, a bishop was sent to the volcano and built an alter to Mary, and coincidentally, the volcano yielded. It was a huge moment for the people, and thus, they celebrate every year. At least this is what I understood through broken English. To celebrate Gritaría Chiquita, Nicaraguans travel to León to post up tents like this one, pass out candy or walk around the whole city to recieve candy. They prepare with traditional sweets, set up altars in their homes, and line the streets with vendors that will stay open through the night. What’s funny is that the one I experienced in August is just a small version of the December celebration, apparently, but I couldn’t believe how crowded it already was. The church bells were ringing, people began to scramble through the streets, they crowded around gates and doors into people’s homes excitedly saying “Quien causa tante la gria?” Ali, my homestay sister taught me the response, but there were so many hands reaching out and so many voices repeating that I ended up just passing items through the gate bars. There were babies, children with backpacks, moms and dads, brothers and sisters, teenagers. It was like halloween in the U.S. except everyone was invited to participate here. Later on I went with some of the girls I was living with and experienced the exchange as the receiver, and at midnight, I was woken up by the entire city setting off fireworks.
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IMAGE 13 : Wrapping homemade cookies for La GritarĂa
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IMAGE 14 : Traditional meal by Abuela for La GritarĂa
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IMAGE 15 : Collection of goods from La GritarĂa
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IMAGE 16 : Electric City
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One night during my first week, the electricity went out. I was on my phone in bed when at the same moment I saw my internet disappear, my light went out and the fans began to slow their speed into nothing. “If I don’t move, I won’t create heat,” I thought. It was so quiet, this whole part of town. Dogs were barking. Foot steps began to creep into the kitchen from bedrooms to find flashlights and matches for candles. Everything was calm, everyone was calm. Twenty minutes, the same thickness of sweat, no movement in the air, and the fans turned back on. What a significant thing, the stillness of air is welcome here.
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IMAGE 17 : Ali watering the porch plants
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A few of us sat outside during the late afternoon. I asked Ali why the porch felt cooler. “Because I watered the plants,� she responded.
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IMAGE 18 : Homestay Porch
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IMAGE 19 : Abuela and Mom cleaning up after dinner
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Abuela cooked dinner most nights. Her hands, steady holding the pan, a small shakiness holding the spatula. A woman of 80 years has probably cooked thousands of meals. She was slow to step across the room, careful to listen. She has a good sense of humor, and smiled when we realized something wasn’t translating. She began to repeat “OK!” after I would say it, because it was our common understanding. She would do so much before retiring to a rocking chair. She would be sure I had anything I could need or want. She was married to a sweet man I’m sure, because her son, who also lived in the house, was a very kind, welcoming and funny father. They have his guitar in the house still, which they let me play on for a bit. Once she found out I didn’t like the instant coffee, she began to serve me fresh brewed coffee, sweet and black, in a little glass teapot. It’s sitting on the lower shelf, second to the left in the image. On my last day, I wanted to bring her flowers, so Lucila brought me to a floral shop a few miles away. When I was picking them out, I pointed to a particular leaf that had long and thin leaves spread from the base of it. The shop owner smiled and said something in spanish to Lucila. She told me I had pointed to a leaf that is used for bouquets given in times of death. I began to laugh too, and chose yellow flowers that were nearby. As soon as I returned to give them to abuela, she broadened her smile. Ali translated for me the story about the leaf to Abuela, and Abuela told me she wouldn’t have cared, gave me a warm hug, and I was on my way again. I wonder if its a grandmother thing, the amount of grace and forgiveness she has towards everyone.
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IMAGE 20 : Sylvia showing us her home garden
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IMAGE 21 : Community Center in Goyena, bracelet making
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On one of the afternoons working with Viviendas León, we took off down a road made of small and large rocks, creating a slow and bumpy ride to the community center. As we approached what looked like the end of a driveway, a young girl appeared waiting for a ride. The staff has done this often enough that the youth who wanted to participate in the center activity that day could catch a ride in the staff truck, so we stopped to let her in. The women in truck and Don Jaime would welcome each girl with enthusiasm and by name until the truck was full and we made it to the center. When we approached the community center, there were groups of girls, wandering dogs, siblings carrying their baby sisters and brothers, and some kids guiding a horse in the opposite direction, and girls cleaning flip flops under the running water pump. Brenda unlocked the door and the kids rushed in, ages 6 to 18, and she had them form a circle for their first activity. “Introduce yourself and then say something you like about the person on your right,” she said. There was a giggling response, some kind words, and everyone participated. I watched as afterwards they all scattered around the room, sat at the tables and began to make bracelets and conversation with each other. It was like girl scout camp down in Miami. I was learning a lot from observing. In this case I noticed how a space that took 7 years to construct could hold such positive community building and provide a place for the youth to learn, create, and sell at such a young age, all under the guidance of the staff. The trust fostered here was being expanded into the homes like Sylvia’s, who I interviewed at the end of my trip. I realized this day that my research would have to build off of the current mutual respect shared by the organization and the community.
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IMAGE 22 : Co-op makes blankets, napkins, and bags in the city of Leรณn
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IMAGE 23 : Ali’s first cake
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I had wandered alone all day until I managed to get in contact with Ali, my homestay sister, and we met up at the only McDonalds in town. After I scarfed down the familiar cold and creamy oreo McFlurry, we headed to the grocery store to grab chocolate chip cookie mix. I was missing home and the gooiness of a warm, homemade cookie. Ali pointed at the Betty Crocker Lemon Poppyseed Muffin mix and ask, “what is that?” Unsure of how to describe what a poppyseed was, I told her “they’re good,” and we bought that mix as well. We spent the night making cookies and a cake, from trying to keep the dough cold to lighting a gas oven; apparently Ali had never baked in the kitchen either. The cookies burned on the bottom, and the cake came out a bit uneven, slightly overcooked on the surface, but she carefully covered the top with the lemon glaze and powdered sugar. The smells from the kitchen were inviting people in from the porch. I decided this night that if I’m ever too busy to bake a cake, then I’m too busy. The whole cake was gone before the next afternoon.
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IMAGE 24 : Saturday Tourism
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IMAGE 25 : Lucila and Don Jaime at our last meal together
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This is Lucila and Don Jaime at the Norome Resort on Laguna de Apoya. I had received the best hospitality from before I had landed in Nicaragua until I was tucked into my hotel room two weeks later. On this day, they drove me to a floral shop, from León down to Managua, through a couple villages, to the top of the Masaya volcano, stopped for lunch (Laguna de Apoya) and a separate stop for popsicles, before leaving me on my own in my hotel room. Through my entire trip, Lucila had welcomed me to celebrate family birthdays, try new food, and the two of them (her and Don Jaime) brought me to Poneloya so I could finally see the beach. They were my main guardians, and Lucila the translator between Don Jaime and I. I learned that he worked at a gas station in Miami for a while, he has a son and sometimes puts on english songs in the truck that I could sing along to. He would never let me take a taxi if he could help it, just to be sure I made it home. He makes a good father. Lucila is quick to speak the truth and return her ceviche when it’s not made correctly. She also did anything she could to help me do whatever I had wanted or needed (including buying a block of cheese and tortillas when I craved it). I learned spanish in packed car rides, through ordering food and taxi fares, felt the night wind standing in the back of the truck bed after a night out dancing, smelled the sweetness of rum standing in the bodegas of the Fleur de Caña factory, tasted soups and candies that I’d never had before and stared into the inside of a smoking volcano. I couldn’t thank the staff enough for all they did to help me learn as much as possible in a short amount of time. Everyday, I was treated as family by the whole staff and my homestay family.
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5 Introduction 9 UNPACKING: Blog Series 65 Interviews 73 Research
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interviews
I only did two interviews while I was in Nicaragua. One of my biggest reasons for this was that I was only able to visit Goyena three times and only three women on the VL staff spoke fluent english. I wanted to be sure that I spent time observing and learning a little more spanish before I jumped into asking questions or taking photos of anyone. My interview with Indiana occurred during my first week. In an hour and a half, she shared her personal story, how she found Viviendas León with Evan, and what they’ve been doing in the past 20 years. It was extremely informative and unveiled the real issues that need addressing while working in communities like Goyena and their approach on empowerment. It helped me understand the context that I was stepping into when I visited Goyena and later I approached her to ask if housing was strictly the issue that I was there to study. She disagreed, sort of. I got the sense there was something else that would work better. She mentioned during our interview that the staff had introduced therapy and counseling to this group and that there was now a group of women who came to the office for group counseling. It was working and healing and it was something completely new to the community. How can a space cultivate trust? I latched on to “safe spaces” and “power of vulnerability” as I threw questions onto paper. These are the questions I asked in my second interview with Sylvia, and from there I began my thesis research. 69
INTERVIEW WITH INDIANA GARCIA Co-Founder of Viviendas Leรณn Notes by: Danielle
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INTERVIEW WITH SYLVIA Recorded via Voice Memo 8.15.17 Translator: Luclia (VL Staff) Typed by: Danielle
IMAGE 4 : Sylvia and her daughter
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What do you like about your community? She does like the community because here she can find a better way to live. In the city I think it is difficult. I like working in the field, raising pigs and plants, and there is a lot of fruit. How have the programs changed the way you live? She just finished third grade, so this has enriched my knowledge a lot because I didn’t even finish primary school. They taught me how to improve my life conditions, because we have the training from the family gardens, that way I learned how to make my living through that. Having limited economic resources is not an obstacle for us, through the programs they teach us how to make a living through hard work.
What would make your community better? Working together What’s your favorite space in your home? La salle. It’s a space to rest, and also from there you can see the dining table and you can see the other spaces in the house? How does light in your home make you feel? It feels good, and it also helps with humidity inside the house. What is the most important thing in your home? If you lost everything in your home, besides people, what one thing would you save? The water. It’s the most important.
What makes your community feel safe or unsafe? It is safe. I was born here, raised here and I haven’t seen any problems. What other places do you feel are safe besides the home? This is what I enjoy the most, and the place where we get the honey from and also when she visits the community center. What has she enjoyed about the community center? Programs/events? When they have the trainings, because [it’s because of the training]. What do you like most about your home? My garden. 30 minutes a week What do you not like about your home? What kind of improvements would you make about your home? The toilet (el servicia sanitary)
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research
The following two pages are a few of the notes I took from the Viviendas León website and their Human Capacity Training survey results that I read over before visiting Nicaragua. I’ve included them for anyone reading this document that is not familiar with the organization or the community of Goyena. After those 4 pages, I’ve attached the document I wrote at the end of the Masters Project 1 semester. It sums up my research, and includes drawings, problems, and my next steps. It should help you as a reader understand the breadth of my research from August 2016 to December 2017. The final project is subject to change.
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GOYENA, SUTIABA; LEON, NICARAGUA SURVEY RESULTS AUGUST 2011 General data surveys. The survey applied, allowed a census of the population of the five communities that form the study area: Aristides Sanchez, Goyena Sur, Las Pampas, Parcels and Nueva Vida. The study covered 356 families distributed as follows; • Aristides Sanchez: 98 (27.5%) • Goyena Sur: 110 (30.9%) • Las Pampas: 42 (11.8%) • Las Parcelas: 36 (10.1% • Nueva Vida: 70 (19.7%) Data from the survey have the following limitations:, as analyzed with the interviewers and members of the organization that conducted the study, respondents did not provide accurate information regarding income and resource ownership, usually tended to give lower figures than reality; this was caused by the idea that if they say the true they can be excluded to receive donations or other assistance. Therefore, it is recommended that in case of economic actions that require more precise information, the results provided by the database can be retaken and adjusted to reality specially those as per capita income and ability to pay. Also in some items, as in the case of the bathrooms and septic possession, among other issues that could be considered sensitive, there are a significant number of surveys (up to 71 in the first case), where there was no response, in our opinion as a matter of shame. *Page 1 of Survey Results
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“This situation regarding the posession of the land indicates that the implementation of development activites based on agriculture present a serious limitation. Therefore, the proposals in this regard should be based on intensive production methods, use of animal and/or vegetable, low demand for land, vertical installations and other similar techniques.� *Page 3 of Survey Results
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VIVIENDASLEON VIVIENDAS LEON embodies an ongoing commitment to innovative sustainable development in Nicaragua since its founding in 2003. Based in the indigeous region of Sutiaba near León, ViviendasLeón works with communities creating integrated solutions to the interrelated issues contributing to poverty. By expanding the products they offer, our honey cooperative (COABE) and the Youth Arts Program have been able to grow and increase their financial benefits. Both programs are examples of how ViviendasLeón launches economic cooperatives to help Nicaraguans achieve financial independence. ViviendasLeón is unique in that we take a long-term view and four step approach to rural development. • •
Human Capacity Training (HCT) Environmental Science and Reforestation Education
• Supported launch • Ongoing support Human Capacity Training (HCT): Our first step is when we address members' socialemotional as well as practical challenges, and identify members’ skills so that they develop the agency, physical and human resources needed to launch such projects. Environmental science and reforestation education: Where participants implement the skills and tools acquired in HCT to start family farms. In the process, they learn how monocrop agriculture and pollution in the recent past have damaged their local environment, which is why the family farming methods are environmentally friendly and rooted in sustainability. Supported launch: Once members have successfully maintained a sustainable farm, they have the opportunity to launch or join other business cooperatives and projects, such as the COABE honey co-op and the art program. Ongoing support: So that these co-ops can further grow. For example, our staff in León reached out to COOPEMUPROT, a woman’s organization from the city of Ticuantepe that has beekeeping as one of its economic development activities. Since November, the organization has been teaching COABE members how to convert honey (as well as other materials found inside the 80
hives) into cosmetic products to expand their market. Now, our beekeeping cooperative is producing liquid soap, hand sanitizer, body creams, face soap, shampoo, and conditioner using bee honey and propolis, a type of glue that bees apply to strengthen the cells of their hives. By diversifying its products and making the best of every available resource, the collective is expanding its customer base and growing its market.
TO ELIMINATE RURAL POVERTY BY BUILDING SELF SUFFICIENT COMMUNITIES. - VL MISSION At the same time, the Goyena Community Center’s youth art program is also increasing the variety of merchandise it can sell by teaching students how to recycle materials and create handicrafts and jewelry. Twice a week, students at the center make necklaces and bracelets with nylon string and scrap metal. Additionally they craft reclaimed wood and beads into earrings as well as knot fabric to form macramé textiles. At the end of the week, students have been selling their artwork in Goyena to earn some extra spending money. A wider range of products has both the honey cooperative and the art program youth more motivated, as more variety means a larger market and by extension more income. With creativity and optimization, both organizations have grown and developed their cooperatives to increase the financial benefits of their respective members.
HOW WE WORK
Our development program was designed to address many of the bi-products of inter-generational poverty - lost confidence, motivation and lack of support We do this by taking a ‘capabilities to confidence’ approach - helping people build skills and see that they are capable we start all participants with our Human Capacity Training to address the ongoing issues associated with poverty We do this with an ‘asset based view’ - looking at the problem through the lens of what assets there are vs. what deficits We do this with by taking a ‘narrow but deep’ approach – working with small groups of Participants over a 4 year period We do this by taking a ‘customizable’ approach - identifying programs and launching businesses based on what Participants are excited about We do this by taking a ‘side by side’ approach – supporting participants with an established team on the ground, and with student and family groups providing periodic infusions of manpower and energy We do this with a ‘community development’ approach facilitating group collaboration and community building We do this because our goal is to create permanent, impactful and sustainable development.
Our Global Education program was designed to enable US students and families to understand poverty from all angles, to learn about and contribute to development programs that are working We do this by bringing groups of students and families to Nicaragua for Global Education trips We do this with a ‘side by side’ approach – where participants contribute to the efforts of our on-going real, development programs We do this with a ‘capabilities to confidence’ approach with experiences that build skills, give kids the confidence that they can do it, that they can make an impact now We do this with an ‘immersive’ approach – where participants can stay in homestays with local families; are exposed to unfamiliar environments and new experiences; where they get to experience poverty from all angles, from inside the community We do this with a ‘customizable’ approach – where groups can select from a series of cultural, educational and exploration oriented experiences We do this with an ‘insider’s’ approach – having a Leon based team that have operated within the same community for over 15 years We do this because impactful development is both local and global, requiring person to person engagement, and community building across borders
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thesis abstract
Where poverty and poor mental health are fostered by the lack of space for open and safe dialogue, we lose the ability to protect human dignity and fight the lifelong effects of trauma. Goyena, a community outside of León, Nicaragua, has experienced what local Non-Profit “Viviendas León” calls the bi-products of intergenerational poverty - lost confidence, motivation and lack of support. Through the 20 years that VL has been offering trainings to address these issues, they also began to address mental health issues identified by professional psychologists and therapists brought into the community. Having researched the several conditions that affect this specific group of people, I want to answer two questions: what is a vulnerable space and what is the social role of design in a community that does not fully recognize mental health as a need? Being vulnerable demands stepping into uncertainty, but reaps space for growth and change to occur. In order to empower human beings faced with extreme trauma and poverty, the role of design is to cultivate the proper environment for vulnerability to occur. From a social role, the project approach will bind the gap between expert and non-expert and training the community to be capable of building these spaces on their own. The outcome of this project will discover how to create these spaces for vulnerability. k.
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Vulnerable Spaces and the Social Role of Architecture Danielle Barozinsky University of South Florida SACD December 12, 2017
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THESIS/MISSION STATEMENT The mission of this project is to introduce an architectural study and design that provides a foundation for people to be vulnerable and learn how to create those opportunities for others in their community. Without the ability to be vulnerable, the ability to step forward into uncertainty because of past events, a community facing intergenerational poverty will not be able to grow or strengthen on its own. The significance of architecture is that it is a global condition, and because all human beings will inhabit various forms of architecture throughout their life, how vital is it that there is an architecture that helps people be honest, learn to care for things and people, and become more dependent on themselves in a healthy way, much like a counselor helps their clients? EXTRACTION When watching a documentary called “Living on One Dollar,� I learned about a community in Guatemala that, despite the absence of a bank, had a system created by 12 men who would put in $11 each month. The total collected would be given to one man in the group to use as he needed (family health, house repairs, food, etc.). That way, when the wife of one of the men was sick, he would be able to take her to a doctor sooner rather than spend a year saving up enough to pay the medical bill. It also allowed them to supply the community kitchen which was in need of repair.
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This concept of a shared system, a system that everyone put into and everyone received from, inspired me to begin researching other cultures or communities that do the same, and looking for a way to learn from them in person. It was a few months later that I was put in touch with a gentleman named Evan Markiewicz, an architect and the co-founder of a non-profit organization called “Viviendas León.” He listened well to my interests as a person and an architecture student, that I was looking for a group that worked with, and had established strong relationships with, the poorer communities of Central American countries. I was not sure what my project would be, but I knew there was a skill I had, a community working on eliminating poverty, and beautiful culture to learn from. At this moment, Evan had made an offer that I could go and observe, interact, and work alongside of the organization working in León, Nicaragua if that was something I wanted. Six months later, I found myself flying over the lush green landscape of the countryside in Nicaragua, noticing giant craters where lava had and still pours from and into the rivers of black. Traveling to a new city is like stepping into somebody else’s territory. Tethered to the convenience and nuisances of familiarity, my senses were more aware than usual, tuning my ears to the voices that fell over streets, eagerly trying to understand the others’ language and hoping my footprint was not as harsh as the unusualness of the whole experience. The grounds had been trampled and controlled by U.S. leaders only a few years ago. Abused and mislead, beaten and washed away by hurricanes, blanketed in
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ash from volcanoes, seeded and sown soil for the sugar cane plantations, services and fresh tortillas delivered to your gate, Nicaragua is filled with scars. Within the scars I found, there were stories, people, dignity stolen and reborn, freshness of the morning breeze and watered gardens, streets invaded with song to the Virgin Mary, savor in traditions like soup, fingers wrapped on the edges of chair arms in anticipation for the sun to set and family to return home. It was two weeks of observing and listening, learning and asking questions.
1.
Drawings derived from images of light and ventilation conditions within the office, my bedroom, and the house porch. These conditions are much more noticeable in the absence of air conditioning and formal lighting. Lineweight and shading were intended to shape the light and absence of light, direction of wind, or the edges of objects highlighted by light. In each image, I was alone, so I’m trying to draw out the things more noticeable in isolation.
The afternoon I addressed Indiana, the other co-founder of the organization, I asked her if it was important for me to spend the second week documenting housing, the conditions, and building materials. It was a question that anticipated “improving housing conditions” as an answer to combating poverty; but in the moment that the question left my mouth, we both realized it was a different condition that needed to be met, a need for counseling, a safe space. In my interview with her earlier that week, the statement that struck me most was when she began to critique charity. She said, “When people were
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suffering war, we were giving handouts. Cultivating gardens wasn’t a thought… They didn’t know their abuse could be treated.” Indiana had mentioned that VL had hired professional psychologists to help the organization understand the mental conditions they were working with poverty-induced anxiety and stress, domestic violence, child abandonment, anger management - in order to address these issues appropriately. What I learned from this is that humans can create an environment where trust and mutual respect act as a foundation for vulnerability and change to occur as people acknowledged their trauma and worked towards healing. We are talking about a community made up of 250-300 families; some have been wiped out of their homes when a mudslide killed 10,000 people after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, seen their capital torched by fire and communities bombarded during war, had their land leveled, flooded, and shaken during earthquakes, tossed between political warfare and leadership. So if my architectural answer to devastation this enormous is by providing a new housing type, then I would be completely negating the opportunity to introduce a new form of architecture that considered the security needed for a person to be honest with themselves, where they can identify the mental effects of trauma and be treated and trained to overcome the obstacles they face from their reality. Immediately following the conversation, she went back to her desk and I went to pen and paper, coming up with questions that I could ask somebody in the community. Safe spaces.
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Two days before I left, I was able to sit with Sylvia, one of the women living in Goyena, and Lucila, a staff member of VL and my translator for the time. I began the conversation by asking “What do you like about your community?” and “How have the programs changed the way you live?” to which she responded that she had never been past third grade, and that the programs and trainings had taught her how to improve her life conditions and make a living. I then wondered about the conditions of her home, if her home made her feel safe or unsafe and why. She responded to this series of questions, “I enjoy home the most… the living room… it’s a space to rest, and also from there you can see the dining table and you can see the other spaces in the house.” What I found so profound was her admiration of being in a central place, where she could observe what was happening in her house, as if she could identify beauty in the monotony of everyday life. The home is also where she and some of the women meet when working on the honey products they make and sell. The home is a space for community, productivity, and rest. One of my final questions was, “what would make your community better” to which she replied, “working together.” What was interesting about this was that Indiana had mentioned the difficulty in making a shareable place for the separate communities within and surrounding Goyena, that people become territorial over spaces where they’ve put their money into building. So I knew this would be something to address in my project, a space that could be shared and show the power created by people working together.
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Upon my return home, I recorded my interviews, read through my notes, and began my research by looking into shame. Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael identify shame in this way: “shame divides us from ourselves, just as it divides us from others, and because we still yearn for reunion, shame is deeply disturbing” (Allen, 29). I wondered “if shame causes division, then what causes shame and how are people suffering from it?” To understand what shame is, I read a book called “Shame: The Human Nemesis.” written by David Allen, Medical Doctor and Master of Public Health. Throughout Allen’s book, he addresses the various identifiers of shame, which are all instinctive reactions to a lack of one of three human needs: safety, connection, and a sense of control. Allen states, “[people] cannot be treated effectively until the shame is identified, defined, confronted, and resolved” (Allen, 37). What this tells me is that the first step towards change takes a relationship, rooted in trust and mutual respect, where transparency is encouraged, for somebody dealing with deeply rooted shame to identify their personal struggle. M.D. Abigail Brenner would say this is the point where you “take full responsibility of yourself, grieve the loss, gather your strengths, make a plan for the immediate future, and create a ritual” (Brenner, 1). Can design create spaces that allow for vulnerability so that communities dealing with trauma like in Goyena can have safe spaces to mourn their loss, to gather strength, to resolve their issues? What the community has seen is that when these issues are not taken care of, the results are child
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abandonment, marital issues, domestic violence, anger management problems, and depression, all on top of intergenerational poverty. I recalled my interview with Indiana where she said this: “Nicaraguans were raised under very aggressive conditions and weren’t given ways to deal with the abuse.” Viviendas León has begun offering counseling sessions in their office located in the city, available for the women in Goyena. But what about architecture? Can architecture, space, light, and design help heal people? What is the role of architecture in this situation? Is shame a human condition treatable through a space the person is in? The second book I read was called “Daring Greatly,” written by Brene Brown, Phd., LMSW, who studied shame in women for 4 years before being confronted and challenged to include men, which she then did and continued her research for another 8 years. I chose to read it after a conversation with a friend who mentioned the book and a section where Brown discussed what she had learned from including men in her studies. It hit me then that as a woman, in order to combat shame, I had to know what vulnerability was and how both women and men experienced it. Brown says this about Vulnerability: “Vulnerability is not weakness. Vulnerability is emotional risk, exposure, uncertainty, it fuels our daily lives, it is our most accurate measurement of courage. To be vulnerable, to let ourselves be seen, to be honest.
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Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change. The two most powerful words when we’re in struggle: me too.” (Brown, 2) Her philosophy inspired me to imagine an architectural design condition that becomes this “birthplace for change,” a space where somebody can hear the words “me too.” I had already seen it in Goyena’s community center. While reading, I also learned that vulnerability is not only admitting to parts of one’s past, but stepping into uncertainty of the present and future. Vulnerability is an action. “To be alive is to be vulnerable,” Madeleine L’engle says (Brown, 43). Being vulnerable comes with feelings that affect our soul, dignity, pride, and nature. It feels deeply disturbing to imagine losing part of our identity, a relationship, our job, so one does whatever he or she can do to preserve what they have, and it sometimes results in cutting people off, putting others down, losing an opportunity to become better or healthier. In the context of Goyena, avoiding change prevents people from becoming leaders in their community based off experience with gender roles, unresolved conflict, cultural norms, and domestic violence. When Brown asked her study groups about the importance of being vulnerable, she was responded to by a series of questions about trust. She states: “...the answers to these questions emerged from the data. The bad news is that it’s a chicken-or-the-egg issue: We need to feel trust to be vulnerable and we need to be vulnerable in order to trust.” (Brown, 47)
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I thought about design, how it also cannot directly solve this issue of trust and vulnerability, but by understanding the environment or relationships necessary for helping, perhaps it could. In the context of Goyena, the VL staff has already created a foundation of trust that helped women get to the point of receiving counseling or allowing them to offer each other support. This made me think about their community center. It took 7 years to build, but now is a large space, outdoor and indoor, that is only used when the staff is hosting gatherings or trainings. Because of this, there is a notion of “purpose” and “productivity” that people identify with the center. I thought, if a purposeful and productive space, with the right people, was where some could speak truthfully, honestly, and openly with one another, and that these trainings were improving the lives of those living in the community, how much stronger would they be if there were more spaces like that. The trainings offered by VL are teaching people how to care for their businesses, farms, families and selves. Could architecture also teach people how to care? Kim Trogal writes a chapter in “The Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice” called “Caring: Making Connections, Making Commons.” She talks about the correlation she found between care and architecture: “I think to bring care into understandings of the ‘Social Production of Architecture’ means considering the paradigms in which things are both produced and taken care of’; it means considering the spatiality of
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interdependence and care (collective care, commoning and mutual aid).� (Trogal, 43) The significance of this passage is that it was the first one I’d seen that paired a human trait (caring) and applied it to the role of architecture. It makes me think about the honey business that a few people have started in Goyena. During my time with Sylvia in Nicaragua, I asked if a place to make their honey-based products would be something she and the other workers would like. She said yes, and said it should be sanitary and have places to store the products they had made. I had asked this with the anticipation of her answer, because in the back of my mind, I knew my project would have to be something that expanded upon the characteristics of the current community center and a business already existing within the community. Based on the above statement by Trogal, this project would consider the paradigms in which the honey would be produced and the bees taken care of. It would certainly give purpose to the space, purpose for somebody to be in the space and purpose to care in that space. Building with and for purpose in the context of this community is important. One of the commons that Trogal mentioned is based on the connection of object and task within a particular community: “Kropotkin tells of wine growers who formed associations, consisting of between 10 and 30 growers, who had a steam-powered water pump in common ownership. There was thus a network of people attached to this object, which moved across private space. The group or part of the group
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would cooperate in such a way that each vineyard could be irrigated... considered ordinary... the object and task that connected.” (Trogal, 45) It is this common practice that works for the sake of the ordinary task in that area. So then I must consider the spatiality of practice based on an ordinary task and the care that is necessary for that task. Trogal also mentioned a community that in a time of need (somebody needing to rebuild their house) would come together, use the common building material that they used on all of their houses, and help rebuild the home. This means, one way to bring people together through a project would be to use a common material that the community of Goyena is familiar with and perhaps introduce this communal act of building as a task members of Goyena can be taught to do as another form of training. I think the biggest takeaway from Trogal’s writing on care and architecture is the power in people working together based on two things: a task and the need for human connection. Earlier, I mentioned how Indiana had criticized charity, and Nabeel Hamdi, author of “Placemakers Guide to Building Community,” I think explains what she was trying to say. Hamdi says that it is not enough to provide for communities such as Goyena, because to provide them with something beyond their education, professionalism, or ability would be the opposite of empowerment. He suggests closing the gap between expert and non-expert, and the way I see it, anything introduced to Goyena in terms of a building must also be constructed by the community members, designed in a way that plays to their
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strengths, and uses local materials. This way, the profession of architecture can play a sociable role in communities living in poverty rather than oppressive. A huge element of the project includes the role of the counselor. First, I needed to understand the difference between counseling in the United States and Central America before I assumed the nature of it. Lucky for me, a study had been done to show the impact of Honduran counseling on North American practices, and Honduras being the country just north of Nicaragua means the characteristics should be similar. One of the major differences they found between the two is that North American counseling is individualist, formal, and structured while Honduran counseling was found to be spontaneous, collective, flexible, and relational. Some of the interviewed counselors expressed the spontaneity like this: “Counseling not just in his office, but more often out in the street, under a tree, on a bus, and in the neighborhoods... Counselors were more likely to conduct professional practice as an adjunct to other salaried responsibilities such as teaching, ministry, or community developers.â€? (Sells, 6). This makes sense that the organization, Viviendas LeĂłn acts indirectly as the counselor in situations across the community. If the need for a counselor is fulfilled through the staff and their training programs, is there a spatiality defined by caregiving needs? Does this look like a space for a caregiver, or is their presence simply required to be in the space? However, the counselor can be in
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several places, “the counseling is woven into the fabric of their culture, society, and daily living,” which means a multi-part project could also work (Sells, 7). What does this all come down to? At this point in my research, having a better grasp on the mental, social and spatial needs and elements of caring, vulnerability, and communities, I had to move my focus into the community of Goyena. Goyena, located 9 km west of the city in the countryside, is made up of 250-300 families and 75-80% of children educated up to 6th grade (now seeing up to 11th). It has little agricultural development and a lack of jobs besides labor on sugarcane and peanut plantations, and the community is mostly women while men and sons leave for 6-10 months of the year to work in other countries. The average monthly income is about $120/month and the average lifespan is 55 years old. From this we see majority women and children, a lack of education, and slim chances of making any money within the context of their community. Viviendas León’s mission is to “eliminate rural poverty by building self-sufficient communities,” and through the last 20 years has helped Goyena become self-sufficient by training them in reforestation, family farming, business, and human capacity training. This is what they’ve said about the process so far: “Through organized, deliberate and conscious community engagement, we continuously assess the conditions and commitment to making change in the rural communities of Leon, Nicaragua. As development objectives are identified and qualified, we respond with creative solutions that are based
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on available resources, skills, talent, and supported by our partnerships, interns and volunteers who help to implement projects that result in permanent change.� (VL) In 2012, VL began a honey co-op business called the Little Honey Bee company as a project to support the graduates of the human capacity training. In their first year, they raised $400 with 6 people and 10 hives. The first half of my project is to design a place for the production of these honey products to occur based on the need for sanitation and storage, and to also provide another safe environment to support mental health and growth. Before beginning the design phase, I looked into a couple projects done by other non-profit organizations that worked in rural communities facing poverty (VL, 1). During my first presentation, one of the largest critiques was to find what the global organizations were doing about this type of work dealing with mental illness, abuse and trauma. One of the groups I found, Mass Design Group, a non-profit organization based in Boston, MA, addressed the needs for healthcare, affordable housing, and minimizing infections through one of their projects called the Butaro Hospital. While the project didn’t directly deal with trauma, it did use building qualities to help people heal. During the building process, they were able to hire almost 4,000 locals, train them and offer food, housing, water and healthcare, and use only human physical labor (except for one bulldozer). I think this time period reflects the philosophy of Nabeel Hamdi and Viviendas León by training the community to be a part of the empowerment through
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building onto their physical environment for the sake of their health and broadening their building skills while utilizing local resources. This is the “social role” of architecture I am talking about in my thesis statement. (MASS, 1)
2. Sketches of the Butaro hospital study the hierarchy of color, light, landscaping, outdoor procession, ceiling height. One of the goals with this project was to use design that heals, which they experimented through use of these hierarchical elements.
Another organization called Give Volunteers does work in Nicaragua as well. In the past, they’ve built a school using sand-filled water bottles as bricks, and then placed the school in a more central location than their container school. The result of that was educating the community on proper recycling, sustainable building solutions, and a rise in numbers of students attending classes offered (Give, 1).
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3. The first drawing is from the idea of isolation, common space, and semi-private space being in one entity. The second is the notion of grandeur, how it can be overwhelming and provoke a response, being vulnerable by allowing the self to be in awe of something grandeur. The third and fourth image were ideas about isolation, how we notice certain spatial elements or detail in a space we may not if there was somebody distracting us, and how that sense of focus can provoke internal reflection on self.
4. This series of sketches were from personal experiences of vulnerability, the feeling of being alone, overwhelmed with the past, the inability to escape anger or shame, the beauty of light in darkness. The theme of this series would be the beauty of light in dark places, as a metaphor for healing.
ISSUES One of the issues I’ve encountered throughout my extraction process was finding successful and failed projects done by global organizations such as Habitat for Humanity or UNESCO. It’s common to find their story about it, but not a lot of research or follow-up is provided. I have just been put into contact with a woman who works for the UN, specifically with women and children, who should be able to give some insight there. Another has been a lack of developed maps of Nicaragua, zero GIS maps, and poor aerial quality images, which makes analyzing site difficult, but the VL staff has been very helpful in providing what they can, which is substantial. The amount of community input I need is also lacking in terms of Goyena’s thoughts on safe spaces, the importance of
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vulnerability, and where they’d like common spaces or their honey co-op to be (technically this would be a task for myself to perform). This will be really important in deciding which locations are used most often, where density is, or connecting the several parts of the community. I should be able to speak more with the co-founders of VL on this, including permissions for interviews and photos that I plan on using in further documentation. Also, vulnerability is simply difficult for human beings, so considering the spatiality of what allows people to be vulnerable is mostly based on human needs to be cared for and be connected to one another. Programmatically, one honey co-op wouldn't be enough for the semester. Are there any other possible businesses that can support this thesis or opportunities to bring the community together? Perhaps engage nodes of meeting, waiting, and visiting spots. Lastly, this community is still fighting cultural gender roles. I am not attempting to directly change those roles or make a statement about them as much as I’m hoping to provide other options of empowering people through their strengths and broadening their knowledge of architecture and design as a tool to bring healing and connection. NEXT STEPS By using similar approaches based on the strengths of my precedent studies (including psychological evidence), the overall goals would be to start with a design for the honey co-op, move onto smaller installation opportunities, then connect these physically as a means of bringing stronger connections to a predominately walking community.
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Each project must include a common space for common tasks and gatherings for everyone who wants to participate, small enough to keep the intimacy, and large enough to allow for larger production. The design must incorporate sustainable design and include natural ventilation and cooling techniques that are used in Central America. Starting with the Honey Co-op, the first design will provide security and reliability of materials, encourage care for the environment, and provide proper storage and space for the honey production and products. Spatially, the design will include space for communal gatherings and semi-private spaces in the case where privacy is needed. Materiality will be based off of local materials, potentially using volcanic rock, perforated bricks, and wooden pallets. The construction of the projects should be understood through proper training to the community members as a way to introduce new and sustainable building techniques for future projects as well. Most importantly, the design process should heavily play to women’s strengths because the majority of people in the community around to receive training on how to build will be women. After the honey co-op design, there will be a series of elements in places of public common gathering as opportunities to create conversation between people, and others that are more for security purposes for those walking alone. These locations will influence a physical path that can help connect the communities and give identity.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, D. F. (2010). Shame: The human nemesis. Washington D.C: Eleuthera Publications. Brenner, Abigail M.D. (2011, April 6) 5 Ways to find Closure from the Past, Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ blog/in-flux/201104/5-ways-find-closure-the-past Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. New York, NY: Gotham Books. Hamdi, N. (2010). The placemaker's guide to building community. [electronic resource]. London ; Washington, D.C. : Earthscan, 2010. Not Just Aid, Impact. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://viviendasleon.org/projects/ Our Mission and Methodology. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.givevolunteers.org/why-give/our-mission/ Petrescu, D., & Trogal, K. (2017). The social (re)production of architecture: Politics, values and actions in contemporary practice. Sells, J. N., Giordano, F. G., Bokar, L., Klein, J., Sierra, G. P., & Thume, B. (2007). The Effect of Honduran Counseling Practices on the North American Counseling Profession: The Power of Poverty. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 85(4), 431-439. The Butaro District Hospital. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://massdesigngroup.org/work/design/butaro-district-hospital
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contact
Danielle Barozinsky dbarozinsky@mail.usf.edu k.