Architecture students from the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union recently traveled to Puerto Rico to practice an in-depth approach to solution-based design. In collaboration with professors and students from the University of Puerto Rico, students from Cooper and UPR challenged themselves through an intensive programmatic tour of the island, emphasizing a need for housing. A shortage of housing is chronic to the island, and was further exacerbated by the damage caused by hurricanes Irma and Maria. “The advent of the hurricane offered an opportunity to engage in a social project that could make both immediate and long-term contributions to the island, but also to the discipline.” -Nader Tehrani

Students studied housing from diverse perspectives, ranging from a lack of promised pharmaceutical jobs preventing economic advancement in San Juan, to homemade techniques of preventing soil erosion thorough buried layers of fabric. Back in New York, students used their research to re-imagine the relationship between systemic factors in housing and propose location-specific designs.

To learn more about architecture students at Cooper and their work in Puerto Rico click HERE.

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