Pretty in pink

September 1, 2009 | Bruce N. Wright

It has been four years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in a crippling blow. Much has been written about the aftermath of the destruction and of the painfully slow rebuilding process. One of the more visible efforts to help reestablish a community in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans (arguably the most devastated neighborhood of the city) has been movie actor Brad Pitt’s Make It Right (MIR) initiative.

To kick off the initiative, Pitt hired international architect GRAFT to design a temporary installation of pink fabric structures randomly placed around the Lower 9th Ward to bring widespread media attention to the effort. Since then, the MIR group has raised funds to hire several architects to design many replacement homes and have the designs built. Most recently, MIR announced the completion of 14 duplex houses designed by as many architects. (See www.makeitrightnola.org)

There are many examples around the world of designers applying their talents to solving emergency shelter needs—some overly complex and of doubtful efficacy, some simple and effective. Fabric is ideal for these applications for a number of good reasons, not the least because it has low-embodied energy compared to more rigid manufactured materials and thus a smaller carbon footprint. And, for the same reason it is relatively easy to transport anywhere. But many architects overlook this durable, sustainable material when approached to design for disaster relief. Why? Could it be a bias against lightweight materials in the face of the forces of nature? We should not shrink from the use of these high-strength, but light weight options. Nature itself provides us with an abundance of examples contrary to this human bias: i.e., eggshells, spider webs, feathers and more.

Within this issue we examine a number of highly efficient and sophisticated systems of shelter designed for disaster relief use. All utilize the unique and sustainable benefits of fabric in some way. Perhaps, with designs as these, future efforts to meet disaster relief needs can, in the words of the Pink Project, “not dwell on the past, but rather empower the future.”

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