Good Deeds, Good Design

It may come as no surprise that only 2% of new-home buyers work directly with an architect to design the space in which they live. Indeed, architects are usually seen as a luxury that most of us, the other 98%, cannot afford.

Why don’t more people call on the services of architects? With fierce competition for few commissions, why don’t architects seek out other sources of work and income?

Fortunately, many of today’s practitioners are taking initiatives to change this situation by addressing the underserved, particularly the poor. Good Deeds, Good Design presents the best new thoughts and practices in this exciting movement toward an architecture that serves everyone.

In this book, architecture firms, community design centers, design/build program, and service-based organizations offer their plans for building for the rest of us. Twenty-nine essays and case studies offer a clear, direct, and inspiring message in numerous illustrated examples. In doing so, Good Deeds, Good Design raises both design and social issues that have excited a large and expanding number of people who would like to see good design for all.


Forward

    Designing for the 98% without Architects by Bryan Bell

Introduction
    Two Questions for Architecture by Robert Gutman

Chapter 1: Tools for Change
    Finding Clients by Bryan Bell
    Reconfigurable Systems by George Elvin
    Direct-to-You by Kristine J. Renner Wade
    Timely Tactics by Michael Rios
    Making a Studio Project Real by Victoria Ballard Bell

Chapter 2: Tuning Established Models
    Community Design Centers by Rex Curry
    Use of Design with Habitat for Humanity by Evan Harrel
    Nirmithi Kendra by Amy Hause
    Red Feather Development Group Interviewed by Jeff Evans

Chapter 3: Building with a Community
    Rebuilding Bayview by Maurice D. Cox
    Activist Practice by Roberta M. Feldman
    The Dream Tree Project by Mark S. Goldman
    Mobile Studio by MaraLee Gabler
    Expanding the Role of the Architect by M. Scott Ball
    Communication by Andrea Dietz

Chapter 4: Relating Social Needs to Design
    The Role of the Citizen Architect by Samuel Mockbee
    Sustainable Community Planning by Julia Bourke
    Homeownership for Low-Income Households in Public Housing by Charles Hoch & Tracy Lanier
    Architecture as Artifact by Bryan Bell
    Light by Jae Cha

Chapter 5: Looking Deeper into Design/Build
    Six-Square House by Kim Neuscheler
    Archeworks by Monica Chada
    Small Town Center by Shannon Criss
    KU Studio 804 by Jessica Bristow
    Outreach Studio by Marcus Hurley

Afterward
    Further Forward by Jason Pearson

Reviews of Good Deeds, Good Design

Azure:

"This collection of engaging, inspiring essays raises a challenge that should be fundamental to architects everywhere...Through this small book, one finds compelling evidence that even a single modest project by a single modest design team can make an enduring difference in individual lives - and in whole communities - that have been hard-pressed and disenfranchised." (4/2004)

Architectural Record:

"...disarmingly honest. This book is a good starting point for...all designers interested in combining good design with good deeds." (5/2004)

ReadyMade:

"A great primer on how to build for the underserved. It even includes an essay by the late archangel of re-use, Samuel Mokbee. Get to work." (winter 2004)

City Magazine:

". . . explores the best new ideas and practices in an 'emerging movement toward an architecture that serves a broader population.'" (June 2003)

Period Homes:

"This book is as much a how-to manual as it is a how-to-think-about-it text. It's publication is an event, offering hope at a time when so many Americans are forced to reside in substandard housing. . . .Readers can open the bookto any page and find themselves quickly drawn into a fascinating and informative account of how disadvantaged people have been able to triumph over the odds against them. Simply as an inspirational tool, the book is impressive; but it's how-to case histories raise it to a higher level,making it a compendium of available pathways to respectable and responsible architecture for the underprivileged. Whether you're an architect, teacher, urban planner, or social activist, GOOD DEEDS, GOOD DESIGN will be one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal, a treasure trove of information on how to go from the way things are to the way they ought to be. " (1/2005)

I.D. Magazine:

"For Bryan Bell, the fact that 'only 2% of new home buyers work directly with an architect to design the space in which they live" is a problem...in this book, he is helping bring good design to the other 98 percent." (2/2004) 

Arhitectural Review:

"Here is an American equivalent of the useful 'Community Planning Handbook' that Nick Wates edited for Earthscan in 2000. It begins with the finding that in the United States only two per cent of new home occupiers have the services of an architect. The authors also remind us that low-income people are not simple. They know what their needs are and what measures might give them choice in the environment that they seek. It is important that professionals should grasp the key fact that what the poor lack is access to the finance needed to manage the habitat."