Design Corps

SFI8 SPEAKERS

Panel III: social . sustainability

Panelists
Simon Trace, Practical Action (Rugby, United Kingdom)
Jim Diers, Department of Neighborhoods (Seattle, WA)
Jennifer Toy and Chelina Odbert, Kounkuey Design Initiative (Cambridge, MA)

Moderator
Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design

Simon Trace took up his appointment as CEO of Practical Action in October 2005. Prior to this appointment, he was Strategic Development Director for the UK NGO WaterAid. A civil engineer by training, Simon also studied anthropology. Simon's career has principally been in community development, in the fields of soil and water conservation or water and sanitation, and he has spent time with a number of agencies, including periods of secondment to CARE and Unicef. He also spent a total of 10 years in Zambia and Nepal prior to moving to London to take up a series of positions with WaterAid, including Asia Regional Manager and Head of International Operations.

Jim Diers has a passion for getting people engaged with their communities and in the decisions that affect their lives. Since moving to Seattle in 1976, he put that passion to work for a direct-action neighborhood association, a community development corporation, a community foundation, and the nation's largest health care cooperative. He was appointed the first director of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods in 1988 where he served under three mayors over the next 14 years.

Currently, Jim works for the University of Washington where he teaches courses in community organizing and development and connects university resources with community initiatives. Jim also serves on the faculty of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and travels internationally to deliver speeches, present workshops, and provide technical assistance to community associations, non-profit organizations, and local governments.

Jim received a BA and an honorary doctorate from Grinnell College. His work in the Department of Neighborhoods was recognized with an Innovations Award from the Kennedy School of Government, a Full Inclusion Award from the American Association on Developmental Disabilities, and the Public Employee of the Year Award from the Municipal League of King County.

Jim's book, Neighbor Power: Building Community the Seattle Way, is available through the University of Washington Press. More information can be found on Jim's website: www.neighborpower.org.

The mission of the Kounkuey Design Initiative, a project begun by Jen Toy and Chelina Odbert, is to generate and implement entrepreneurial landscape strategies in slum communities of developing countries. Their process is an iterative community process that provokes dialogue between residents, designers, technical consultants, government officials and the private sector. Since 2006, Kounkuey has been working on a pilot project in the Kibera slum of Nairobi,

Kenya

. As a group, our strategy is practical: to reclaim waste spaces along the rivers that currently run through Kibera for new community amenities. Through the design of such a space, they seek to address priority concerns such as youth idleness, the few economic opportunities, and a complete lack of trash and sanitation services. They hope that by demonstrating the success of this project - physically, socially, and economically - the PPS (Productive Public Space) model can catalyze + kick-start the larger, more systemic programs out there for improving conditions in Kibera. PPS is a testing ground for different technologies + partnerships, offering the support of local leaders and the community, a replicable model, and, most importantly, a different perspective and potential solution to the "problems" facing Kibera.

Hashim Sarkis is the Aga Khan Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim Societies. He teaches courses in the history and theory of architecture, such as Practices in Democracy, Constructing Vision: A History and Theory of Perspective's Applications in Architecture, Developing Worlds: Planning and Design in the Middle East and Latin America After WWII, and Green Modern: A History of Environmental Consciousness in Architecture from Patrick Geddes to the Present, and design studios: The Architecture of Geography: Istanbul, Mixed-Use Development, and the Panoramic Condition; Makina/Madina: Reconfiguring the Relationship Between Geography and Event in the City of Fez; Intermodal Istanbul; Square One: Martyrs' Square, Downtown Beirut, Lebanon; and A Field of Schools: Rethinking the Relationship between School and City in San Diego.

Sarkis is a practicing architect between Cambridge and Lebanon. His projects include a housing complex for the fishermen of Tyre, a park in downtown Beirut, two schools in the North Lebanon region, and several urban and landscape projects.

He is author of several books and articles including Circa 1958: Lebanon in the Pictures and Plans of Constantinos Doxiadis (Beirut: Dar Annahar, 2003), editor of CASE: Le Corbusier’s Venice Hospital (Munich: Prestel, 2001), co-editor with Peter G. Rowe of Projecting Beirut (Munich: Prestel, 1998), and executive editor of the CASE publication series (GSD/Prestel).

Sarkis directs the Aga Khan Program of Activities at the GSD. (/academic/upd/agakhan)

From 2002-2005 he was also Director of the Master of Design Studies Program (MDes) and the Doctorate of Design (DDes) program. He received his BArch and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, his MArch from the GSD, and his PhD in architecture from Harvard University.