Thanks to an agreement with the nongovernmental organization Vicente Ferrer Foundation, the students in the subject Cooperation I had the opportunity to put their architectural know-how to the test by designing a house for Andhra Pradesh, one of the poorest areas in India.
The main objective of Cooperation I is to situate students in the context of cooperation through architecture. Architectural cooperation often implies carrying out projects in contexts with extreme weather conditions and a serious lack of common materials.
The work with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation offers students not just a framework for understanding how cooperation projects are comprehensively carried out, but also the opportunity to develop a course-long project that comes from the foundation itself.
This year the proposal was the development of a prototype of rural housing for families from the local Chenchu tribe made only of bamboo, wood and stone. The subject Cooperation I helped students carry out an active search as they tried to understand the local architecture and culture and come up with a structure that is both accessible and ecological.
The Vicente Ferrer Foundation is currently in the first phase of its work with the Chenchu tribe, who live in the central forests of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The tribe has the highest poverty rate in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
