Cape Verde Field Trip and Studio

Course Overview
In a fast globalizing world, exposure to varied cultures is a key component to education.  We can expand the classroom, increase the breadth of the free exchange of ideas and provide a different setting for continuing discourse.  As designers we need to understand how others live – and to successfully carry out our craft, we are dependent on client and user satisfaction.  We must also respond to ecological conditions.  We must observe how peoples’ lives are organized, as well as the environmental, social and cultural conditions within which these patterns exist.  Observing such relationships in a different culture and a different environment affords us the opportunity to shatter our stereotypes, re-evaluate our perceptions and sharpen our sensitivity to the individual, cultural and environmental richness in any context.

Cape Verdean culture is a mélange which is at once West African and Portuguese.  The country is an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic, 450 km (300 miles) off the west coast of Senegal.  It is about the size of Rhode Island with about 40% of the population.  Formed from volcanoes, the soil is fertile but rain is sporadic averaging 24 cm (9.5 inches) a year, with frequent droughts and dust storms blown in from the Sahara.  Other than salt, the islands have few natural resources – much of its energy needs and many goods are imported.  Over the years, trade was been dominated by fisheries and ship building, but like many small island nations, Cape Verde is susceptible to cultural influence from abroad and global economic forces.  It has resulted in increased migration, from rural areas to urban areas, as well as emigration abroad.  In recent years, the capital Praia and other urban areas in Cape Verde have grown by over 50%.  Such explosive growth is common across the globe – especially in the global south, posing serious challenges to governments, planners, policy makers and other stakeholders.  We hope our investigations can be useful for its people and will prove instructive in understanding the relevant mechanisms and challenges of sustainable growth faced by many communities around the world.

UWinteriM Tour 
(Arch 497/797, Art Hist 497/797 or Urb Plan 497/797: Study Abroad – 3 credits)
During the winter session, we will visit Cape Verde.  We will document our observations of the built and natural environment as a context for social relations and potential sustainable resource uses.  Working with local NGOs and the Research Center in Local Development and Territory Planning at the Universidade de Cabo Verde, we will learn about the ecology, culture and society of Cape Verde.  We will live with and interview families in a community in Praia.  We will attempt to understand how Cape Verdeans use the land and sea to provide shelter, food, energy, water and other resources.  Cape Verde provides a venue to engage in pressing issues that many small island nations and African countries face.  These include global climate change, cultural and economic marginalization, as well as infrastructure deficiencies.

Spring Studio 
(Arch 645/845: Studies in Urban & Community Design Theory – 6 credits)
Upon return to Milwaukee, we will continue to research the islands’ culture and ecology in the subsequent studio.  The studio will culminate in proposals of various culture-specific design solutions to address contemporary infrastructure problems in a Cape Verdean urban, residential neighborhood – most likely an informal settlement to be determined between now and the end of our trip.  These include but are not limited to; (1) alternative energy production, (2) rainwater collection, purification and distribution, (3) waste treatment and disposal.  The design work will begin with a neighborhood plan that will include systems that operate at the neighborhood scale.  The students will work in teams assigned to the design of each of these facilities.   Each student will also design a residence for their host family.  Each student will ascertain the demand for energy, daylight, natural ventilation, water provision and waste disposal for each residence, and then determine how much of that demand can be met by the neighborhood systems and the overall design.  These must be carried out in ways that are ecologically sensitive, culturally relevant and integrated into the fabric of that neighborhood.

Cape Verde Studio web log