Cameron Sinclair, entrepreneur, humanitarian architect and designer, has worked on hundreds of projects set up in more than 60 countries. The architect stressed that natural disasters are actually “caused by human beings.” In this sense, he explained that “in areas where there are political and financial reasons to ignore building codes, it is mainly the population that ends up at risk, precisely because these codes are not followed.”

In parallel, the architect, founder of Worldchanging Institute, highlighted the work of the NGOs “that hire engineers and architects who have a code of ethics that our profession follows and should follow. And our job is to avoid causing future damage. And so, in most cases, these buildings are much more resilient.”

Sinclair encouraged students to follow their vocation and to work with passion. “I think the only impediments in the humanitarian space that a designer or an architect face is the lack of entrepreneurship,” he stated. “You can’t expect to be the architect or the designer who outlines an idea and delivers it. You actually have to be the entrepreneur who makes those projects happen. Design doesn’t change the world. Implementation does.”

According to Sinclair, architects must change their mentality about humanitarian and emergency architecture. “If any of these students were to talk to architecture professionals about what they are doing, it wouldn’t be seen as something great. They wouldn’t attain the same status as if they were to work for a renowned architect. But they must be confident and realise that the work they are doing is ethically and socially at the top of the architecture profession and they should be proud to have pointed their creativity toward social need,” he said.

Sinclair pointed out the value of the University Master’s Degree in International Cooperation: Sustainable Emergency Architecture, directed by Carmen Mendoza-Arroyo. “It is one of the only master’s degrees in the world that trains design professionals to respond to humanitarian needs. I would like students to feel safe enough to use their voice, because they learned it here. They must discover how to put everything they learned into action.”

Sinclair has developed shelters, education and health centres for more than 2.6 million people affected by humanitarian crises. He is also designer at Armony of Harmony, an organisation that transforms decommissioned weapons into musical instruments, working with artists and involving schools in using music as a tool for social transformation.