Celebrating ‘Architects without Architects’

SIGUS organized a 1-week workshop in the El Balsamo community in El Salvador, partnering with students from the Dr. Jose Matias Delgado University in El Salvador and students from the University of California, Berkeley, and supported by the NGO ‘REDES’.

The workshop revisited a village that was designed in 2004 by students in an earlier SIGUS workshop.  They had carried out an action-planning workshop approach with the earthquake-displaced community.   The houses were then built by self-help and completed in 2005.   

For information on the 2004 village design, The Earthquake Challenge: Resettlement Design” San Cayetano, El Salvador >>>

From 8-15 June 2011 we returned to our village friends and surveyed what happened:  Does the village plan work?  Are families pleased with their houses? Have the houses been expanded from the original core?  What could we learn to be better practitioners?

We interviewed each family and tracked changes in their house.  We learned about their expectations, and discussed their thoughts about their village plan.  We explored with the community issues impacting the village today, and explored future initiatives for community improvement.

Reflections from the El Balsamo Workshop

Do you want to volunteer for summer work with REDES?