An International Two-Week Workshop in Louisiana

The workshop was a collaboration of students from throughout the MIT community and from universities abroad. Twenty students from MIT and abroad participated in 1-week of hands-on repair and rebuilding of hurricane damaged housing on the bayous of Louisiana, followed by 1-week of design and construction of housing elements for the on-going Lift House project.

Partner universities from previous international workshops each selected 2-3 students to participate. Workshop headquarters and accommodation were in the "Good Earth Volunteer Village" in Houma, Louisiana.

The program was divided into 2 phases:

• 1-week active building where participants worked on repairing damaged houses and on completing the prototype Lift House in a "learn and do" approach.
• Using their newly acquired skills and confidence, during the second week, the participants designed and built full-size sustainable and environmentally appropriate elements for the Lift House prototypes.

Additional activities included:

• An understanding of the bayou culture through tours and discussions with community groups.
• Field visits to the devastated areas of New Orleans with expert-led discussions on the rebuilding efforts.

Faculty was drawn from the ongoing "Sustainable Housing on the Bayou Initiative" of TRAC - a coastal Louisiana disaster recovery and preparedness organization, Oxfam America - an international aid organization, and the SIGUS Group in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT.