Building After Katrina
Visions for the Gulf Coast |
| |
Edited by Betsy Roettger
Preface by Karen Van Lengen |
| 169 pages, 8 1/2 x 12 |
| 497 illustrations |
| Paper 978-0-9771024-5-7 • $25.00 |
 |
After the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in
the fall of 2005, entire towns, neighborhoods, and ecologies were
destroyed. What remains is a complex web of social, economic,
environmental, and cultural issues that demand new strategies
for inhabiting this land. During the spring semester of 2006,
the University of Virginia School of Architecture incorporated
these issues into the research and studio work of faculty and
students, as well undertaking hands-on projects in Louisiana and
Mississippi. Building After Katrina is the result of
that intense focus on a set of design problems. In this vibrant
collection, leading architects and theorists such as William Moorish,
Robin Dripps, and Peter Waldman, among others, present a collection
of innovative strategies developed with their students for rebuilding
Gulf Coast communities. While it is a critical time for the future
of the area that inspired this work, the work itself is deliberately
applicable to global design problems: How does one design an intervention
for a specific culture, ecology, and time? How do we respond to
both disaster relief and long-term restoration? How does the design
profession advance work at the intersection of architecture, landscape,
planning, and preservation? How do we propose designs that improve
the environmental underpinnings of a place while serving the diverse
cultures that shape public space? And how can the role of the
design professional become an essential voice in shaping policies
that affect our physical and cultural landscape?
Building After Katrina defines these questions broadly
and offers—in a large format, full-color book complete with numerous
drawings and photographs—a set of fresh approaches that will
challenge architects, planners, policy makers, and citizens alike.
Distributed for the University of Virginia School of Architecture
Betsy Roettger is Lecturer in Architecture
and Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Architecture and
Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia. Karen
Van Lengen is the Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor of
Architecture at the University of Virginia.
