Admiral Ackbar, It’s a trap! - How over-simplification creates a distorted vision of Humanitarian Design.

This week Bruce Nussbaum, noted design critic and professor of Innovation and Design at the Parsons School of Design, took shot across the bow with his piece "Is Humanitarian Design the New Imperialism?". Sounds scary, doesn't it?

He's got a thing for imperialism as in December 2009 he wondered if green was the "New Imperialism". I'm seriously wondering if Mr. Nussbaum is really an avid Star Wars junky and is trying to figure out who the design version Palpatine is. I know Bruce, he’s a decent guy and his intentions are pure. While some of his points are extremely valid, his over-generalization of the recent revival of the humanitarian design movement floats somewhere between misguided and ridiculous. In the great battle over our collective future, Admiral Ackbar, it’s a trap!

Having been involved in this work for almost half my life I've seen a transformation for the 'western intervention' view played out by Bruce into a complex global network of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural and diverse teams working locally hand in hand with communities on the ground. This new movement has striven to collaborate and partner with local designers and in our organization it is a requirement. If you look at all the designers and architects working on projects right now the majority live and work in the communities they are designing/building for.

Let’s look a four projects we've been involved in and all the folks involved in the building process;

Khayelitsha Football for Hope Centre, Khayelitsha, South Africa
Project Partners: Grassroot Soccer, streetfootballworld, FIFA and Architecture for Humanity
Architect of Record: ARG Design (South African)
Architecture for Humanity Staff and Design Fellow: Eugene da Silva (South African), Oana Stanescu (Romanian), Christine Lara (American)
Engineers: Henry Fagan and Partners (South African)

Homeless World Cup Legacy Center, Santa Cruz, Brazil
Project Partners: Homeless World Cup, Nike Gamechangers, Bola Pra Frente, Organização Civil de Ação Social and Architecture for Humanity
Architect of Record: Lompreta Nolte Arquitetos (German/Brazilian) and Nanda Eskes Arquitetura (Brazilian)
Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow: Daniel Feldman (Colombian)

SIDAREC Technology and Media Lab, Nairobi, Kenya
Project Partners: SIDAREC, 50x15 Foundation, Architecture for Humanity and AMD
Architect of Record: Planning Systems (Kenyan)
Concept Design Team: The Global Studio (American)
Architecture for Humanity Design Fellow: Isaac Mugumbule (Ugandan)
Engineers: EAMS (Kenyan), EcoPlan Limited (Kenyan) and Mangat IB Patel and Partners (Kenyan)

Navajo Elder Straw Bale Housing, Arizona, United States
Project Partners: Indigenous Community Enterprises, Navajo Housing Authority, Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, Rose Architectural Fellowship, Architecture for Humanity, USDA and Ford Foundation
Design Team: Nathaniel Corum (American) and Indigenous Community Enterprises (Navajo non-profit) in collaboration with Navajo elders and other tribal members
Engineers: Art Fust (American) and Bill Druc (American)

It's in the details
Nussbaum reminds us the importance to recognize all members of the team working on projects. The fact is the media tend to over simplify projects, process and involvement - especially in the design world. They have limited space and are forced to focus on the few. Ie. Architect (who they can easily interview/contact) designs building (in an interesting location) that improves X (insert systemic issue of poverty here). For those fortunate to be able to converse with writers and journalists, it is our responsibility to define the story of the project that explains all the stakeholders involved. We are, collectively, a global community tackling global issues through local intervention and playing defense is a losing strategy (think Brazil in the World Cup!). We need to encourage thousands of designers to create a million solutions to tackle a millions of issues.

Local Designers Create Real Change
Now let's add another layer on top of the distributed network of global designers, the local response. In addition to our 40+ design fellowships we have dozens of city based chapters around the world all focused on local issues with an army of local building professionals. In our organization alone this represents somewhere between 3-5,000 building professionals. In Dhaka, Bangladesh the team is working on issues of climate adaptation, homelessness is being tackled in New York, urban farming grows in Detroit, etc. In every major city around the world are design and construction professionals dedicating time towards bettering their communities - the problem is there is simply not enough outlets to discover, discuss and critique this work.

Beauty in Complexity
The true beauty of the humanitarian design movement is its’ complexity and depth. In 2005 we wrote Design Like You Give A Damn, to highlight 80 groups working in this field and a year later we used the 2006 TED Prize to support and encourage as many designers to participate in the Open Architecture Network. The network is for designers to manage their projects and to discover and be inspired by others . In time it will grow into a robust learning tool for future generations of humanitarian designers.

Design Education
Finally let's look at the training of the design professional. Fifteen years ago the term 'humanitarian design' was barely uttered. In schools of architecture and design it was dismissed as the ugly stepchild of the industry. On more than one occasion I remember being told by esteemed professors 'we don't do that sort of work'. Almost all of the design schools are located the west, teaching a 20th century curriculum and priced so even middle-class families cannot send their children to become the designers of the future. Given that 90% of the work for humanitarian design is in emerging markets, shouldn’t we be training our future professionals for this scenario and in this scenario? We need to be looking at systems to bridge the global inequalities in design education, while teaching community-led practices that are at the heart of humanitarian design.

Nathaniel Corum, the lead designer for the Navajo project listed above, runs our education outreach program. Rather than bringing students to San Francisco, he goes to them. In 2010 he taught a studio focusing on issues facing the pacific rim. The studio was taught in four countries in three continents. Next year we are running an indigenous lands studio, bringing together like-minded designers focused on local issues.

Let's not fall into the trap of who's best and who's not when we have BP filling our oceans with oil, large hidden corporations taking major reconstruction contracts and poor government policy is forcing inadequate housing to remain the status quo. If you want to take on an imperialist empire, you're going to have to shoot a little higher than pro-bono designers.

Admiral Ackbar, it’s a trap!

Cheers
Cameron Sinclair

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On a side note. At the exact same time and on the same site, Fast Co Design, a fellow journalist wrote about the legacy facility of the homeless world cup. It was a supportive piece but not without in that cynical underpinnings of design journalism.

It's lead was "it’ll be lost-my-job in the U.S. v. toothless in Scotland" complete with quips like "some angles the ramp looks like a cardboard box." (the ramp actually leads to the phase two facility) and "The moral of the story here is that a feel-good sporting event -- one that draws nonprofits, bleeding hearts, and PR-slavering corporations in equal measure -- is being exploited for local interests." rather than focus on the local design partnership and the true value of the center.