Portland State Magazine Fall 2011

Good design for all MOST NEW ARCHITECTURE designs-from mansions to museums-are for society's wealthiest five percent. Bue as architecture professor Sergio Palleroni explains, char approach defaults on civic obligation and ignores some of society's most interesting challenges. He looks for ways to include PSU architecture students in public interest projects, building "million-dollar ideas with $100 in parts from Home Depot." The irony is char chis selfless, public approach has brought Palleroni accolades from such people as Jane Goodall, Richard Gere, Prince Charles, and Richard Branson. Recencly, che American Institute of Archiceccs awarded Palleroni and three collaborarors its 2011 Latrobe Prize. Their winning proposal, selected from nearly 500, will look ac how architects do and could play a role in public interest projects. Ir is the first Latrobe Prize winner to address an issue ocher than a technical architecture challenge. Palleroni includes students from Portland Scace and ocher schools on his public interest projects. They've built an outdoor solar kitchen for squatter communities in Mexico using focused sunlight rather than wood burning ro cook the day's meals, accomplished with inexpensive and readily available materials. In Tunisia, they built solar bakeries for a community with a 7,000-year history of bread baking. And in Ladakh, India, they constructed an off-the-grid school with internationally renowned architectural engineering firm ARUP Associates, at the request of the Dalai Lama. C loser ro home, Palleroni's students worked with Habitat for Humanity to design a community center for families permanently displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. In Austin, Texas, they built affordable and energy efficient ''Alley Flats" for low-income families. And for schools in Oregon and elsewhere, they have come up with a new design for modular, portable classrooms. When Palleroni joined che PSU Department of Architecture in 2008, it had long offered a bachelor's degree program. This past June, he saw the first group of students graduate from Architecture's new master's program. Some of their projects, including orphanages and classrooms in Haiti, will keep current students busy for years ro come. Architecture professor Sergio Palleroni takes students around the world to design and build public projects. In Ladakh, India, (above) students worked with local pupils and Buddhist nuns stitching together military parachutes for a pavilion that symbolizes peace and unity amidst the chaos of war. 4 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE FALL 2011