The City of Portland as Laboratory

Students and faculty regularly interact with the Portland architectural profession and community. Students work in local offices, conduct research on pressing architectural and urban design issues, and investigate creative ways to provide design services to the community.

Recent Events:

On Monday, June 7, 2010, a group of Portland State University's architecture and engineering students constructed a home for Haiti. Headed by Architecture Assistant Professor Margarette Leite, these students teamed up with Portland-based Pacific Green Innovations to construct and display one of the 1000 HOMES FOR HAITI that the company plans to build for the earthquake-ravaged country. Aside from its humanitarian purpose, this home is special because of its revolutionary new construction material, Swisscell. Swisscell is a recycled paper honeycomb panel that is completely fire- and water-proof and is rigit enough to make the home earthquake- and hurricane-proof. The home, which purportedly can be built by four individuals in four hours, was assembled in the entry courtyard of Shattuck Hall on the PSU campus, and was on display through July 19. It was disassembled and moved to its new site in Beaverton, Oregon.* In addition, an exhibit of Haitian house designs by Architects Without Borders - Oregon, The Basic Initiative and KPFF Structural Engineering was on display inside the home. These designs are part of the earthquake-resistant Confined Masonry Toolkit being assembled by Haiti ReWired for distribution through Haitian masonry training programs. The purpose of the house construction and the exhibit was to serve as a reminder of teh tragedy in Haiti as well as to give students some hands-on experience with modular contruction and this promising new materials.

For more information, please contact mleite@pdx.edu.

* The new location for the model Haiti House is on Cedar Hills Blvd between SW Westgate Drive and SW Millikan Way, next to the MAX Lightrail Stop in Beaverton, Oregon.