Every community addresses unique challenges that include three major elements of sustainability: the Social, Economic, and Environmental. There is a growing global movement that believes that every person has the right to live in a socially, economically and environmentally healthy community and that design can support a community in achieving this goal. Professionals experienced with design process work alongside locals who know their community and its needs to achieve the best of both worlds. Called “community-based design,” this practice of “trusting the local” is increasingly recognized as the most effective way to sustain the health and longevity of a place. The individuals who comprise the panel exemplify this multi-issue (SEED), community-based approach across a broad range of projects.
Kathleen Johnson has a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. In the spring of 2008 she participated in Derek Hoeferlin’s New Orleans studio. Though based in St. Louis, the studio worked with two clients from New Orleans on two separate projects related to the recovery of the city.
The first was a design-build exercise, which created a new chicken coop for God’s Vineyard, a community garden in the Lower Garden District. The second project involved designing a renovation and winning a JP Morgan Chase community development grant on behalf of the Goodwork Network, a non-profit business incubator from the Central City neighborhood.
Kathleen now lives in Chicago and is part of the international team at Hellmuth Obata and Kassabaum.
Mary Graham is a Fulbright Fellow who, after working in 2004 with Loriana Dembélé, the Italian Consulate to Mali and the President of Ji Duma, a Malian non-profit, established Practical Small Projects. She returned to Mali in 2005 and established Afriq Power, a solar enterprise that is run by locals and assembles manually photovoltaic solar panels and installs lighting, pumping and electric systems in wells, schools and health clinics. It is the first business of its kind in Africa. Mary holds an MA in International Policy Studies from The Monterey Institute of International Studies, where she specialized in international negotiation and analyzed governmental and international organizations' programs focusing on microenterprise development and solar energy in China, India and West Africa. Presentations of her work include US and international conferences and organizations such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the World Bank.
Nonya Grenader, FAIA, LEED AP
Nonya Grenader is principal of her own small firm –her projects have received design awards from AIA Houston and from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.
She has taught at RiceUniversity, School of Architecture for the past fifteen years where she is Professor in Practice and Associate Director of the Rice Building Workshop. Her work with students in the Workshop has focused on small affordable housing and resulted in numerous publications and several national awards: the NCARB Prize for the “Integration of Practice and Education” from the National Council of Registration Boards and the “Collaborative Practice Award” from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The Workshop is currently constructing a house that will be featured in the 2009 Solar Decathlon in WashingtonDC.
As President of the Rice Design Alliance, she worked with Houston’s AIA and the City of Houston as co-chair of the “99k House Competition” for affordable, sustainable housing.
