Architects without borders

I am sitting in the small mustard yellow office of Global Visionaries. The room is decorated with ethnic masks in a community center on top of Beacon Hill. It’s a far contrast to the secured, C-3 cool gray office with a panoramic view of the Cascade Mountains that I was just working in an hour ago.

Twelve volunteers of varying cultures and backgrounds surround me with their attention focused on coordinating the necessary data to start developing the site plans for our cause. Our effort is to design a school in Guatemala through Architects Without Borders. We are presented with a slew of challenges, including heavy rains in the region, earth quakes, an aggressive time schedule involving over 30 volunteers, and a volcano in the back drop. The room seems to glow as the sun sets and I ask myself, “how the hell is an Industrial Designer in Aviation design going to help tackle this unfamiliar challenge?”

To be continued…
http://awb-seattle.org/ http://www.global-visionaries.org/