Something few people know about Brad Pitt is that he is an ardent follower of Architecture. Though formally educated as a journalist, his interest has driven him as far as taking an informal internship at Frank Gehry's Los Angeles office.
But why is it that I talk about it now? It is because today he is involved in one of the most important reconstruction projects in the world, that of New Orleans, affected by the furious Hurricane Katrina in mid 2005.
In Dec. 2006, Pitt and a group of experts, explored the possibility of building green, affordable houses for the displaced residents.
A competition was organized, to develop ideas on rebuilding this community in a sustainable manner.
The result of this is the Make It Right (MIR) Project.
The goal of this project is to build 150 homes in the Lower 9th ward, which was one of the worst hit by the hurricane.
Brad Pitt commissioned 13 architectural firms, that includes the 2005 Pritzker Winner Thom Mayne's firm Morphosis, MVRDV and Shigeru Ban, to create a 1,200-square-foot house for about $150,000.
The MIR team created a set of guide lines for the designers such that important goals of the organisation were met.
The four main guiding principle for the designs were
But why is it that I talk about it now? It is because today he is involved in one of the most important reconstruction projects in the world, that of New Orleans, affected by the furious Hurricane Katrina in mid 2005.
In Dec. 2006, Pitt and a group of experts, explored the possibility of building green, affordable houses for the displaced residents.
A competition was organized, to develop ideas on rebuilding this community in a sustainable manner.
The result of this is the Make It Right (MIR) Project.
The goal of this project is to build 150 homes in the Lower 9th ward, which was one of the worst hit by the hurricane.
Brad Pitt commissioned 13 architectural firms, that includes the 2005 Pritzker Winner Thom Mayne's firm Morphosis, MVRDV and Shigeru Ban, to create a 1,200-square-foot house for about $150,000.
The MIR team created a set of guide lines for the designers such that important goals of the organisation were met.
The four main guiding principle for the designs were
- Safety
- Affordability
- Sustainability
- High design quality
Last week Brid Pitt made public the 13 architects designs. Some of the visually interesting designs were that of
Adjaye Architects London, England
Concordia
Morphosis
Trahan
MVRDV
Wah?!! Is that before or after Katrina? I guess that was the idea.
One of the concerns that the residents raised was that many of the designs are on stilts. The stilts are provided for obvious reasons, but it also drives the cost of the building up by a lot, making it, lets say, not so affordable. But then hey, you dont get to rebuild a town everyday, make it good when you have the chance. "Make it RIght". So long as its done quickly.
Right now as I right this blog, 27 of the 150 houses have been sponsered for.
