Hector LaSala
W. Geoff Gjertson, AIA
Architects/Professors
Lafayette, Louisiana, U.S.

Link: Building Institute website

Submission: "Building Institute"

Situated Learning: The Building Institute
Since its inception, the Building Institute has aimed to open up new paths for the learning processes of our students by inserting them into a social context that they have rarely encountered in any meaningful way: the world of chronic poverty, homelessness, addiction, mental illness, and the non-profit agencies that are in the trenches of these societal battlefronts.

In order to achieve a critical and active learning opportunity for our students, our effort- the Building Institute, like the Rural Studio, deliberately places them into a slice of present day America where physical and societal conditions are at a crisis point. While their design and constructing skills generate the most visible outcomes, this should not diminish the impact that these participations have had on their capacity to reflect on their culture, social conditions, and communal needs. This sustained encounter by our students with at-risk populations has altered our students' critical and ethical thinking in ways that are hard to measure but are real nevertheless.

Mending Tears
Like most other architecture schools in the country, our university is located in a city that has urgent needs and critical tears in its social fabric that require immediate design intervention. For the last four years, these interventions have formed the basis of projects that, in the context of the academic semester, must yield quick results. Therefore, we have adopted a strategy that we term accelerated fabrications - projects designed and fabricated on a very fast track.

An added bonus of accelerated fabrications is their catalytic effect upon the communities where they are built. They work as a kind of environmental first-aid. Often these communities have been deprived for so long, this quick turn around offers them a tantalizing first glimpse of the larger vision our Building Institute can provide.

Finally, the effect of the Building Institute’s projects upon our students is profound. The responsibilities and ethics instilled through the projects have had both immediate and long-range effects now beginning to be revealed.



Acadiana Outreach Center Projects
In the Fall of 2003, the Center’s Director, Valerie Keller, requested the help of the School of Architecture in designing a storage system to aid in organizing donations; however, as a result of several visits to the site–a city block full of sprawled and disconnected structures–the students and faculty observed a terrible contradiction: while the Center’s mission is “Giving People Back Their God-Given Dignity,” the physical environment and facilities were depressing, coarse, and spiritually degrading.

In order to begin to immediately address the dominance of the degraded environment, one of the accelerated fabrications began to take shape. Upon the previously blank face of a ubiquitous metal building, our students designed and built an armature that does not attempt to conceal the banal flat surface but rather intensify light, materiality, texture and contrast. The armature has continued to evolve and grow over the last year accepting informational and inspirational signage and planters for climbing vines.

A barren alleyway was once the only connection between four halfway houses and the job training and rehabilitation center which serves the residents. Our students first created small installations (altars / alters) - inspired by the success stories and testimonials of residents who had graduated from the rehab program. These installations grace the walls of a meditative garden called the Signposts of Grace. Residents now can stop, rest and reflect upon the struggles and victories of their lives. The city selected the project as one of only a handful to fund as a pocket park.

To culminate the summer of work, students and faculty, in collaboration with residents of the halfway houses, local contractors and inmates from the local jail, designed and built a performance space for concerts and community events. Most importantly, the performance space provides a place to celebrate the center’s life-changing programs.

Bios:

Hector LaSala is Professor of Architecture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He was born in El Salvador and received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Louisiana in 1973. He completed his graduate studies at Texas A & M University in 1976. He has been a practicing architect for thirty years, primarily in residential design. Hector has been the recipient of the following awards: the 2003 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology, given by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning; the 2001 Excellence in Teaching Award, given by the University of Louisiana Foundation; and the 1998 Blue Key Faculty Excellence Award. He was also peer-nominated for the 2003 Ernest Boyer International Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is an advocate of education reform via the arts. He is a member of the Kennedy Center's Partners in Education since 1995. He has served this national program as a member of its Board of Advisors, 1996-1999, and as a member of the Nominating Review Committee, 1999-2000. He is the recipient of the 2004 Governor's Arts Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts Education. From 1996 to 2001, Professor LaSala was a member of the Curriculum Planning Committee for Leadership Lafayette, a program of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce. He served as a presenter to leadership classes on issues of education reform, arts and culture, and community design.

W. Geoff Gjertson, AIA is an architect and professor in Lafayette, Louisiana. Prof. Gjertson graduated from Rice University in 1992 with a Masters of Architecture degree. His thesis: The Masque and the Mask, consisted of the design of a traveling exhibition space for a collection of Native American Masks. Prof. Gjertson received his undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science in Design from Arizona State University in 1989. Prof. Gjertson has taught as an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette from 2000 till present. He currently teaches the Professional Practice sequence of courses as well as third and fourth-year Architectural Design. Prof. Gjertson is the co-director of the Building Institute, a “hands-on” design/build program which serves the local community. Prof. Gjertson has practiced architecture since 1994 and is licensed in the state of Louisiana. His private practice work such as the Golden Residence and previous work with Holly and Smith Architects such as the Columbia Theatre, Rolling Residence and the SLU Classroom Building have won several state and regional awards. Prof. Gjertson is currently the Vice-President of the South Louisiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. His work has been published in Professional and Academic Journals such as J.A.E., Architectural Record and ACSA Regional proceedings. Prof. Gjertson’s on-going research and interests include student design/ build service-learning, professional practice matters and national design competitions.

"U.S.: 3.5 million experience homelessness each year; 1.35 million are children"
"How Many People Experience Homelessness?," National Coalition for the Homeless, http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/How_Many.pdf (accessed March 15, 2006).