Architecture for Humanity New York
Architecture for Humanity New York is the New York City chapter of Architecture for Humanity. We provide a platform for socially responsible design advocacy; partnering design professionals with local non-profit organizations, schools, government agencies and community groups, we create innovative, sustainable, affordable solutions to humanitarian issues. (Learn More)
Battery Urban Farm: Barter Partner
Battery Urban Farm is a one acre educational farm, located in the historic Battery, the 25 acre park at the tip of Manhattan. The turkey-shaped farm is home to over 80 varieties of organically-grown vegetables, fruits, flowers, grains, and companion plants. Battery Urban Farm is open for the growing season, from April through November. During this time local teachers, parents, students and our downtown community are welcome to join us in planting, cultivating and harvesting fresh organic produce. Battery Urban Farm is bartering with Flock House residents in exchange for food from the urban farm, residents will photograph events at the urban farm and provide new signage. http://www.thebattery.org/projects/battery-urban-farm/
Tim Corrigan: Electrical Engineering Advisor
Tim Corrigan is electrical engineer with a B.E. from City College where he focused on robotics and control systems, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in power engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In a past life he worked in IT as a system integrator and project manager for 12 years. Tim works with Green Power Solutions, a NYC based renewable energy integrator. He is also working on various permaculture projects at his family’s farm in Albany County, including microwind and microhydro power generation, ground source heat pumps, electric vehicles and straw bale structures.
Veronica Flores: Flock House Builder
Veronica Flores was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Flores’ is an emerging artist working between Guadalajara and NY. She studied Architecture in Guadalajara and completed a degree in sociology and development in London at Roehampton University. In 1997 she discovered an interest in carpentry while working in a wood workshop in London and has since designed and produced several pieces of furniture. Flores’ background in architecture and sociology informs her newly found interest in art. She started her art practice at the end of 2005 and has since been involved in alternative plastic tecniques. She was an artist in residence at Braziers workshop 2007 in Oxfordshire, England. She has exhibited at the Raul Anguiano Museum and in the City Museum of Guadalajara. Her artwork is represented by the Curro y Poncho Gallery in Guadalajara.
Lonny Grafman: Sustainability Advisor
Lonny Grafman is an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University; the co-founder and instructor in a summer abroad, full immersion, Spanish language and appropriate technology program in Parras, Mexico; and the executive editor of the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering. In addition, he is the President of The Appropedia Foundation, sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives. Academically, Lonny seeks ways to increase knowledge of the world through exposure and synthesis, highlighting that science, culture and language are inextricably linked. He seeks to demonstrate this connection through service-learning based education, working to improve existing conditions by leveraging local knowledge, materials, wealth and labor through transparency and stakeholder participation. Lonny supports and develops tools to catalyze and strengthen networks of positive change, to help us be better ancestors.
Grant Goldner: Director of Living Systems R&D
Grant Goldner is an 18 year old multidisciplinary creator from New York City. Design titan, Philippe Stack catalyzed a passion for creating, something intrinsic to Grant all along. Moved by the great power nature imposed on humans, he created art that spoke to merging the industrial world with the natural. This passion manifested into envisioning the emulation of nature's genius into technology. He now attends Parsons the New School for Design focusing on biomimicry. Grant seeks out opportunities of mutual learning and exchange.
Brian House: The Rhythmanalysis Lab
Flock House is collaborating with The Rhythmanalysis Lab on a sensor system that will monitor the activity of each habitat unit. Data are continuously recorded via a network of wireless, low-power sensors, and are mapped temporally to reveal diurnal patterns and the rhythmic counterpoint among the unit's living systems and the surrounding environment. The Rhythmanalysis Lab is a project of Eyebeam resident Brian House. Link > http://rhythmanalysislab.org
Md. Sarowar Jahan: Living Systems Advisor
Sarowar Jahan Mithu is a photographer and entrepreneur from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Sarowar studied English literature, practices fine arts photography, and is an official tour guide for Bangladesh with the firm Guide Tours, Ltd. He is working on a sustainable shrimp farm in southwest Bangladesh. Being a tour guide, he has traveled extensively over the country.
Gabriel Krause: Designer
Gabriel Krause is a designer and entrepreneur and has spent the last seven years designing a diverse array of artifacts and processes, such as workplace automation systems, custom architectural millworks, low power designer lighting, grey water treatment systems and other appropriate technology projects. His fascination for design, aesthetics, and our relationship with the environment, first manifested in the creation of SEED (Students at Evergreen for Ecological Design) in Olympia, Washington. Gabriel completed his B.A. in applied mathematical modeling, with a minor in dance, at Humboldt State University. As a designer, creator, and conservationist, he has discovered that modeling a concept reduces design flaws and wasted resources, while providing foresight on the building process and insight into end-use functionality. Gabriel is an active member of the Appropedia Foundation technical team, supporting collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development.
Greg Lindquist: Aesthetic Advisor and Editorial Consultant
Greg Lindquist is an artist and writer. His recent show of paintings "You are Nature" opened at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC. Recently, he has participated in the group shows "Planet of Slums," co-curated by La Toya Ruby Frazier and Omar Lopez-Chahoud and "No One is an Island" at LMCC's exhibition space on Governor’s Island curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud. He also is the Art Books in Review Editor at The Brooklyn Rail, contributing editor to artcritical.com and contributing writer at ARTnews. Lindquist is interested in the model of artist-consultant that Robert Smithson developed in the late 1960s in which he gave aesthetic advice on large development projects, such as airplane terminals. He will approach Flock Houses with the concern of translating ideas into specific and appealing form in these self-contained living environments.
Mary Mattingly: Founder
Mary Mattingly's work proposes a peripatetic world where populations depend on both migration and integrated communities. She creates autonomous living systems, from wearable environments called Wearable Homes to water-based habitats such as the Waterpod that explore the intersection between autonomy and interdependence. Her work has been exhibited at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the International Center of Photography, Palais de Tokyo, the New York Public Library, the Neuberger Museum of Art, Robert Mann Gallery, Seoul Art Center, LianzhouFoto, and Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. Her work has been featured in ArtForum, Cabinet Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Le Monde Magazine, ICON, Sculpture Magazine, Aperture, BBC News, and MSNBC.
Sophie Nichols: Living Systems Designer
Sophie Nichols currently works with the Buckminster Fuller Institute. She's worked on several small farm development projects, large scale art installations, completed an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist, and worked in the office of Diller Scofidio and Renfro. She studied visual art and design at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University.
Barak Pliskin: Architectural Signatory
Barak Pliskin is an architect with Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects.
Sara Reisman: Flock House Curator
Sara Reisman is Director of Percent for Art at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs where she oversees the City of New York's permanent public art commissioning program. As an independent curator, Reisman has curated exhibitions in New York City and elsewhere that have focused on public and social practice, site-specificity, and modes of cultural and political identification.
Slippery Slope Farm: Planting Partner
Slippery Slope Farm is a modern sub-irrigated Brooklyn rooftop micro-farm started out of a personal love of food. While planning my micro-farm, I discovered Bob Hyland, urban food innovator and blogger known as "greenscaper" who advocates sub-irrigation planters as the modern way to grow food in the city. The incredible benefits of sub-irrigation not only convinced me to change my planting design, they have inspired an entirely new perspective on growing food in the city. http://www.slipperyslopefarm.us/
Melissa Umberger: Urban Planning and Mapping Collaborator
A strong advocate for planning for a sustainable New York, Melissa Umberger is pursuing a M.S. in City and Regional Planning at Pratt Institute. For the past two years, she has worked at the Pratt Center for Community Development as an Environmental Justice Fellow and GIS specialist. She currently works as a Planning Fellow for Brooklyn Community Board Six, specifically on the Gowanus Canal Corridor Brownfield Opportunity of Area (BOA). This project aims to revitalize brownfield sites surrounding the canal through economic development proposals that will encourage green industrial growth. Some of her strengths include graphic design, demographic analysis, and proficiency in GIS. Her thesis is focused on disaster planning and the role of mapping and information graphics play in communicating preparedness.
Robert Wall: Design/Build
Rob Wall
is an architect at the design-build firm Peter Gluck & Partners in Harlem. Other work has included assisting artists and arts organizationssuch as Sens Production, andcompany & Co, Noah Fischer and others on site specific installations and performances in under-used or vacant spaces in New York City and Montreal. Wall also has designed and built sets for theater/dance productions and is an occasional guest studio critic at Pratt Institute School of Art & Design in Brooklyn. A series of portable architectural studio kits he designed are currently being used by the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council for arts production and performance at sites throughout New York City including the Governors Island Art Center.
Rand Weeks: AEDA (Alternative Energy Design Associates) Energy Systems Design/Install
Rand Weeks
is a sustainable energy designer and installer. He was chief of electromechanical engineering for the 1000 Days Mars Ocean Odyssey (1000days.net). Other work has included solar installation for the Waterpod Project, power design for the Harbor School FLUPSY and he is also the principal US Installation engineer for BioRock. Recently he has published in innovative technicues for estuary restoration.
Amelia Woodside: Building Collaborator
Amelia Woodside is a Portland, Oregon native and a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. She harbors a passion for sustainability, writing and art. During college she studied ecological art, international development and ecology. Presently, Amelia writes for iCrates, an online music magazine based in Berlin. In the future, she plans to continue photographing, writing and traveling without an itinerary.
DESIGN CHARRETTE PARTICIPANTS:
Kate Cahill: Architect
Ian Daniel: Curator, Filmmaker
Anna Kunz: Artist
Lonny Grafman: Sustainability Advisor
Gabe Krause: Small Space Designer
Kelly Loudenberg: Filmmaker
Mary Mattingly: Founder
Christopher Robbins: Artist
Barak Pliskin: Architectural Signatory
Matthew Williamson: Architect
Raphael Zollinger: Advisor