DAAP Cares Exhibit and Presentation Set for April 19

The University of Cincinnati’s nationally and internationally ranked College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) will host an exhibit and presentation titled “DAAP Cares” from

5-7 p.m., Tuesday, April 19

, at 2728 Short Vine Street, Corryville.

The event, free and open to the public, will display and recognize DAAP as a resource for research, innovation and development in terms of design, architecture, art and planning locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. For more information on the event, contact DAAP’s Michael Zaretsky at

zaretsml@ucmail.uc.edu

or Miranda Mote at

moteme@ucmail.uc.edu

ART IN THE MARKET

Art in the Market has offered summer opportunities to at-risk youths to work with art students and educators at DAAP in order to conceptualize, develop, create and install public works of art in the Findlay Market area and in Corryville. During the school year, the program has offered after-school art classes to 12-18 year olds. The result has been sculptures, banners, murals and more. The effort has involved DAAP’s School of Art, the college’s Community Design Center, the Citizen's Committee on Youth and Impact Over-the-Rhine.

Presenter:

Flavia Bastos, DAAP

FAIR AT UTOPIA

DAAP faculty have proposed a public art project in Utopia, Ky., as a means to and study of how to engage the residents of small towns in expressing community concerns and needs by means of a participatory approach that builds consensus while celebrating shared values. The first step would be a participatory art event that would engage a large number of residents. Utopia, Ky., was founded in 1844 by followers of French philosopher Charles Fourier, who advocated a utopian socialism based on equal sharing of labor and investments.

Presenters and potential project participants:

Mark Harris, Matt Lynch, Ryan Mulligan, Menelaos Triantafillou and Michael Zaretsky, DAAP; Kelly Frigard, Gary Knepp and Kim Taylor, Clermont College

HIV/AIDS PREVENTION CURRICULUM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
MEDICAL DEVICE REPAIR DIAGRAMS

Despite spending millions on HIV/AIDS prevention, many attempts to modify worldviews and sexual practices to stem the spread of this disease have been disappointing. This DAAP project reports on a classroom-based, mixed-methods research project for the design of an HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum for Swaziland. The aim was to transform Swazi worldviews and attitudes toward sexual practices. The curriculum, called "iMatter," reaches elementary and middle school children while they are still forming their conceptual and cultural identity and before they adopt sexual practices. "iMatter" was developed using a user-centered, evidence-based design process involving a global team of researchers, educational specialists, faculty, student designers, and indigenous experts. In 2005 a faculty/student team from UC traveled to Swaziland with funding support from the university and the Hope Education Foundation to conduce field research. The subsequent design concepts created by UC students were used in the deployed versions of "iMatter" which continues development through on-going research in Swaziland. Also partnering on this project was the U.S. President’s Plan for AIDS Relief.

Presenter:

Mike Zender, DAAP

BIKE SHARE

Last fall students in the School of Design participated in a class to design electric-assisted bikes, or e-bikes, for the future. This class followed on the heels of a head protection/helmet design course where students designed standard bike helmets as well as other sport and medical helmets.

Presenter:

Steve Doehler, DAAP

LOSANTIVILLE: A DESIGN COMMUNITY

Losantiville is a design collective, a place where people as diverse as architects, graphic designers, and furniture markers rent space and share tools in an Over-the-Rhine storefront. All are interested in commercializing unique and creative ideas in Cincinnati by sharing creative energy as well as collaborating on larger projects. Many of those involved are DAAP students specializing in fast prototyping and direct, personal feedback. (E-mail contact for the group is

hello@losantivilleltd.com

).

Presenter:

Matt Anthony, DAAP

ONE BRIGHT IDEA: FIRE FIGHTING FOR LESS THAN $1

UC graduate industrial design student and entrepreneur Noel Leon Gauthier has founded his own Ohio company (UMi Design and Development) and has submitted a patent – while also winning investments – for his innovative design called “FireStop.” The product is a one-button, fire-suppressant device made of inexpensive, recycled and recyclable materials and no moving valves. It can be manufactured for under $1 and so, could be made available inexpensively in low-income communities around the globe.

Presenter:

Noel Leon Gauthier, DAAP

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: TEMPORARY SHELTERS FOR THE HOMELESS

Millions were left homeless after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck central China in May 2008, and UC architecture faculty member Ming Tang designed a foldable bamboo house that could provide safe, temporary shelter for those affected by earthquakes and aftershocks. This innovative project was a 2010 finalist for a prestigious Earth Award, an international honor presented for ideas that could help save the planet. The central feature of the project is a kinetic bamboo structure that exhibits characteristics of umbrella and folded fans, with the potential for varying arrangements to meet diverse dwelling.

Presenter:

Ming Tang, DAAP

UC PARTNERSHIP BUILDS HEALTH CENTER IN TANZANIA

Until recently, anyone wanting medical care in the Tarime region surrounding the community of Roche, Tanzania, had to walk for miles to reach the nearest city. That included women in labor or people with serious injuries. Because of the need for medical facilities – combined with challenges related to the site – UC faculty and students in DAAP, the College of Medicine and the College of Engineering & Applied Science worked together to design a health center that was then built by the local community and includes features like earthquake-resistant masonry, natural cooling methods and more. The facility opened on April 1, 2011.

Presenter:

Michael Zaretsky, DAAP

SOLVING HAITI’S LONG-TERM HOUSING PROBLEM

While working for Architecture for Humanity in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, DAAP student Adam Saltzman worked on a project to document the various transitional shelter types that are being distributed by aid organizations in Haiti and helped develop a strategy for the conversion of these shelters into permanent houses. He participated in a series of site visits and interviews with residents about their shelters, the problems they were experiencing and any feedback or suggestions that they had to improve the design. He also discussed with residents their plans to rebuild a permanent house and how long they anticipated living in the shelters. Based on this information, he began to help with the design of kits which could be distributed to the residents of the shelters, including materials and tools allowing them to make the shelters more permanent, while also addressing the problems they had with the transitional housing.

Presenter:

Adam Saltzman, DAAP

AVOIDING IMPOSITION THROUGH METHODS OF MAKING

This thesis proposes that evaluation and rearrangement of the design process so as to reposition architects as essential contributors in future humanitarian building efforts.  More specifically, by beginning the design process with a study of local culture, particularly methods of making, architects becomes equipped to produce designs that reestablish the link between design and physical realization, possess cultural richness and responsibility and are suited to the needs of non-profit sponsors.

Presenter:

Emily Roush, DAAP

A COMMUNITY FOR AGING RESIDENTS

Three undergraduate architecture students are envisioning a neighborhood for aging residents. The site of vacant lots and abandoned buildings are designed in such a way that they both express their age and are made impressionable to the experiences of the residences. They sought to reactivate a neighborhood that we feel embodies a typical condition of the American inner city. They respect the neighborhood’s population and strive only to provide them with an environment to share their stories.

Presenters:

Margaret Grady, Benjamin Morris and Ingrid Schmidt, DAAP

MASTER INTERNATIONAL PEACE CORPS PROGRAM

 The School of Planning offers a Master’s International option that allows master’s students in planning to combine Peace Corps service within their studies. The program allows students to complete a first year in graduate school, serve in the Peace Corps for 27 months and then return for a final year of graduate studies. The volunteer stint usually includes a research project. So far, five DAAP graduate students have participated in the program, either in the past, currently or planning to do so.

Presenter:

Johanna Looye, DAAP

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE CITY

Students are studying organizations involved in social justice. Students will prepare a booklet of material on funding, opportunities, threats related to these organizations. They are studying organizations by means of the Community Shares of Greater Cincinnati.

Presenter:

Beth Honadle, DAAP

UC STUDENTS HIT THE STREETS TO SEE WHAT RESIDENTS THINK ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSIT AND THE STREETCAR

In 2010, three groups of UC students hit Cincinnati's streets to find out what everyday residents think about public transit and the Cincinnati Streetcar as part of a three-quarter-long project called Transforum. The purpose of the project was to start a dialogue about the future of multi-modal transportation in Cincinnati.

Presenter:

Peter Chamberlain, DAAP

DESIGNING AN EDIBLE EDUCATION

Through a permaculture design course offered by the Cincinnati Permaculture Guild, five volunteers – including three DAAP students representing programs in planning, architecture and industrial design – are designing outdoor classrooms and vegetative habitats that will complement the school’s curriculum. The goal is to design and implement an edible and regenerative landscape that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also low cost and low maintenance. Keeping in mind the Montessori ethic of hands-on learning and discovery, the new landscape will serve as an additional educational space of which both students and teachers can take advantage.  This project will be fully implemented.

Presenters:

Wade Johnson, Alex Dahlman and Matt Gillespie, DAAP

NIEHOFF URBAN DESIGN STUDIO AND COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER

The curriculum is community outreach and community transformation for a challenging, long-term series of design studios at UC. Food has been the focus of this effort which examines issues involving food service, outdoor markets, groceries and supermarkets in the inner city and low-income neighborhoods. What solutions can be devised to assure that current residents receive the services and goods they need? Is it possible to attract new residents and revive rundown areas with the power of vibrant food retail?

Presenters and participants:

Frank Russell, Jeff Tilman, Menelaos Triantafillou, Mahyar Arefi, Udo Greinacher, Michaele Pride, Terry Boling, Andrew Jacobs, Gil Born, Sooshin Choi and Kiril Stanilov, DAAP, and Colleen McTague, McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.