Anselmo Canfora in the News
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
From WVTF Public Radio:
Seeking Shelter: Initiative ReCover - 4.21.09
People who survive a natural disaster are often faced with a second tragedy-- leaving their homes to live in trailers or tents. WVTF's Sandy Hausman reports on some architectural students who hope to solve that problem with a new kind of housing.
[follow link to hear the broadcast story]
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
[from the UVa Research News article by Melissa Maki, with minor adaptations]
When Anselmo Canfora, assistant professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, began to design transitional disaster relief structures with students in his studio class two years ago, he couldn't have imagined the eventual impact of their efforts.
The course has evolved into a full program — called Initiative recover — with projects that reach as far as Africa.
Initiative reCOVER emphasizes humanitarian design principles. The general idea is to provide free design expertise to organizations that assist people in need. Through the program, Canfora and his students are designing both temporary and permanent structures, from short-term housing to assist with global disaster relief to a primary school in Uganda.
Canfora views one of his main responsibilities as a professor as bridging the gap between academic design problems and applied research. He engages students each spring term with Studio reCOVER, an architectural design studio component of Initiative reCOVER.
In 2008, Studio reCOVER partnered with non-profit Building Tomorrow to realize the Ugandan school project. Canfora and several students followed up with a January Term trip to Gita, Uganda this year to check on the school's construction. The Building Tomorrow Academy, to be completed this month, will serve 325 children and will be the first permanent public school structure in Gita.
Before even beginning to design the school, students spent a considerable amount of time learning about local culture and building methods as well as researching the environment, politics and community. Canfora stresses the importance of understanding context in a project like this in order to counter the tendency to impose Western values or building practices and ultimately to help designers make more informed decisions and facilitate local stakeholder trust.
The students faced some real-world design challenges and limitations. "The school has no mechanical systems," Canfora said. "There's no water, no sewage, no electricity — because of the lack of municipal utilities to the building site, we sited and designed the building using passive design strategies."
Studio reCOVER was able to fundamentally improve some of the construction and structural detailing of the school building, Canfora said. As a result, the classrooms will have better ambient light and air quality.
Ideally, Canfora would like the school to have access to electricity and potable water as well. Through a unique partnership with Studio reCOVER and the Engineering in Context program, led by Dana Elzey, associate professor of materials science and engineering, a solar energy and water filtration system was also designed for the school. Canfora is now trying to secure further funding to enable this second phase of the project.
Initiative reCOVER recently received both University and private funding in order to build its own infrastructure. A new and improved fabrication facility, the Victor Elmaleh Fabrications Laboratory, funded by a gift from Victor (BArch'42) and Sono Elmaleh, will enable the implementation of more sophisticated fabrication processes to improve the quality of future design/build projects.
This spring, Studio reCOVER is collaborating with Charlottesville's Building Goodness Foundation to design and build a transitional disaster relief shelter prototype with Gulf Coast hurricane victims in mind. This summer and fall, students will continue to develop a working prototype using the new fabrication facility and equipment.
The new facility represents a significant gain for Initiative reCOVER and the School of Architecture in general.
"It allows us to infuse our program and our physical plant with new technology, which is what I believe to be a very critical aspect of an evolving architecture curriculum," Canfora said. "It's important that we incorporate, as best as we can, new and emerging technologies, methods and techniques of designing and building to help advance our research — to help advance the discipline of architecture."
During the past two years, several students, faculty, alumni and partner organizations have worked on the Studio reCOVER team:
Spring 2007 - Studio reCOVER Disaster Relief Shelters
Architecture Students
Ama Cobbina
Din Botsford
Ko Kuwabara
Edward Layton
Greta Modesitt
Dolores O'Connor
Timothy Ouyang
Allison Powell
Melinda Sathre
Rosalyn Schmitt
Tamar Shafrir
Lauren Shirley
Spring 2008 - Studio reCOVER with Building Tomorrow - Primary School in Gita
Project Coordinator
Jeff Ponitz, Post-Graduate Assistant
Research Assistants (Volunteer)
Din Botsford
Dolores O’Connor
Lauren Shirley
Partner Organization
Building Tomorrow, Inc.
George Srour, Director
Joseph Bagambaki Kaliisa, In-Country Director
Partner Program
Engineering In Context
Dana Elzey, Associate Professor of Engineering and Engineering In Context Program Director
Maggie Kirkpatrick, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering BT, EIC, and reCOVER liaison;
Bobby Renz & Evan Johnson, Mechanical Engineering;
Colin Powell & Nicolette Leung, Civil Engineering;
Alison Agüero, Systems Engineering;
Spring 2009 - Studio reCOVER With Building Goodness Foundation – Gulf Coast Transitional Disaster Relief Shelter Prototype
Architecture Students
Kristen Henderson
Sarah Kott
Ariel Poliner
Shirin Reklaoui
Tommy Schaperkotter
Dorothy Shepard
Leila Schey
Kristy Simpson
Jess Vranas
Cara Warren
Engineering Students
Robert Arthur
Bennett Han
Partner Organization
Building Goodness Foundation
Michael Stoneking, Director
Shure Visiting Professor in Architecture, 2009
Bryan Bell
Partner Architecture + Engineering Firm
Arup Associates, UK (Arup Cause Program)
Ewan Smith
Thursday, October 23, 2008
[by Jane Ford, UVa News Services]
October 23, 2008 ? To the beat of native drums, Building Tomorrow and the village of Gita, Uganda, celebrated the Oct. 14 groundbreaking of the Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita.
Supported by the University of Virginia, the academy will provide the first-ever permanent public school structure within about a nine-mile radius. It will open by mid-2009 and serving approximately 325 children.
U.Va.'s student chapter of Building Tomorrow ? an international non-profit organization empowering young people to raise funds and awareness to benefit vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa ? provided the financial backing for the 2,800-square-foot building.
The design came from 15 U.Va. architecture students in Studio reCOVER, an initiative that focuses on research, design and fabrication of humanitarian designs that are shared with the general public, disaster relief agencies and those in need of assistance, with an ultimate goal of designing and building safe, healthy and sustainable communities around the world.
The construction of the Building Tomorrow Academy of Gita marks the first time in the national organization's history that a cross-disciplinary team from the same campus provided both funding and the construction design for a project.
"We have come to this place to partner with you," Building Tomorrow country director Joseph Kalisa said to scores of community members at the groundbreaking. "And now we look to you to provide the hands and feet needed to make this new place of learning a reality."
Anselmo Canfora, a U.Va. assistant professor of architecture and the director of recover, said he shared the excitement of Gita's children, parents and grandparents. "I would like to acknowledge all of the hard work and dedication of the Initiative reCOVER architecture students who worked in collaboration with School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty and students, Arup Partners and Building Tomorrow."
Consistent with Building Tomorrow's cost-sharing model, members of the Gita community will provide more than 25,000 hours of donated labor to build the new academy, located approximately 18 miles from the Kampala city center.
Today, Building Tomorrow provides classroom space for more than 1,000 children and will more than double that by the end of 2009 with the construction and opening of at least four new Building Tomorrow Academies.
Friday, May 9, 2008
[from UVa News Services, by Jeffrey Hanna]
"Contagious" is perhaps the best word to describe the excitement surrounding a project to build schools for impoverished rural communities in Uganda through a partnership between the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science and its School of Architecture.
That excitement would certainly go a long way to explain why more than 700 students took turns riding stationary bikes in the pouring rain at a project fundraiser, held March 31 through April 4 on the Lawn, as muddied Irish step dancers, a cappella groups and belly dancers cheered them on.
The energy driving it all was perhaps nowhere more evident than in the voice of second-year student Meredyth Gilmore, president of the U.Va. chapter of Building Tomorrow. She proudly explained that, with the $17,610 generated by the bikers added to funds raised through a similar event last year, the organization now has more than enough to build a school in Uganda.
"Everybody's giving their time, their money, their innovation ? whatever they can to help out this one community that's halfway around the world whose needs are so great," she said, crediting the support that spread like wildfire among the student body, the faculty and the local community.
Near the top of that list of supporters are the fourth-year Engineering in Context students working with Dana Elzey, associate professor of materials science and director of the Engineering School's international programs, and the architecture students working with assistant professor Anselmo Canfora in his "Studio reCOVER."
They've worked together since last year to design the school's physical structure and its water collection, filtration, sanitation and solar lighting systems, and they are tremendously excited by Building Tomorrow's effective and high-impact approach that pushes every dollar to its maximum use.
By partnering with the Ugandan Ministry of Education, which pays for the teachers, and working closely with the community leaders to ensure local investment in the form of donated labor, the organization builds strong consensus. That's crucial when you consider that in the Wakiso district of Uganda, where the school will go, approximately 330,000 children have no access to education.
The students are excited by the prospect of seeing their design implemented and used. Bridging the gap between academia and practice is what Studio reCOVER and Engineering in Context are all about.
[for complete article, follow link in headline]
Friday, May 2, 2008
Dean Karen Van Lengen, Assistant Professor of Architecture Anselmo Canfora, and students from Canfora's Fall 2007 ReCOVER Studio will participate in "Shigeru Ban and The Architecture of Disaster Relief," a symposium sponsored by the Meridian International Center in Washington, D.C.
The symposium events include a series of panel discussions, an open forum, and the construction of three temporary paper shelters of Shigeru Ban's design to be installed on the National Mall and at the National Building Museum.
On Thursday, May 8, Meridian will co-host an Open Forum at the National Building Museum featuring a panel of Shigeru Ban, Dean Karen Van Lengen, and several architecture students each from Keio University's Shigeru Ban Laboratory and the UVa School of Architecture, presenting new design ideas for global disaster relief.
For registration and additional information, follow the provided link.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Din Botsford, Dolores O?Connor, and Lauren Shirley, members of the Class of 2007 in the architecture program, have received a AIA NY Chapter's Stewardson Keefe LeBrun travel grant which will help facilitate their travel to Lira, Uganda for about one month late this summer. The team began to work on their proposal for safe and sanitary refugee housing in Asst. Professor Anselmo Canfora?s re:COVER studio during the spring semester. In the studio, teams of students developed designs for temporary shelter that would be appropriate to peoples in various situations all over the world.
The goal of Botsford, O?Connor, and Shirley?s work is to create housing for the people of Northern Uganda that will provide Ugandans with a means of self-sustenance. In the grant proposal they state: ?We believe that by designing shelters independently equipped with sustainable sanitation technologies, entire communities can improve their quality of life and flourish without dependency on government resources or continuous foreign aid.?
The team?s design calls for the creation of three units: one for sleeping, one for rainwater collection, and one for solar cooking, which when assembled from pallet racks form a temporary home. During their stay in Uganda, the team members expect to fine tune their design based on the specific needs of the 1.5 million displaced people in the northern region of that nation.
Thursday, December 16, 2004
A paper entitled, [Im]Material Translations : Mies in Michigan, authored by Asst. Professor of Architecture Anselmo Canfora and two former colleagues at the University of Michigan, John Comazzi and Gretchen Wilkins, has been awarded an Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 2004-2005 Faculty Design Award.
Each year, the ACSA honors work that advances the reflective nature of
practice and teaching by recognizing and encouraging outstanding work in
architecture and related environmental design fields as a theoretical
endeavor.
Prof. Canfora will present the paper at the annual ACSA meeting March 3-6 in Chicago.
