GRAFT: Innovative Elevated Design for Post-Katrina New Orleans

(Above is the design proposed by GRAFT for the Make It Right project. GRAFT will receive a $10,000 stipend with every house sold.)

A main challenge for the Make It Right (MIR) rebuilding project in the post-Katrina New Orleans was elevating the project houses five feet off the ground. This was problematic because a “Life Safety Standard” limited construction costs and emphasized the importance of preserving the region's “traditional resemblance between porch and street.”

GRAFT, a full service architectural firm located in three global cities, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Beijing, took up the MIR design challenge. GRAFT had been the architectural firm that redesigned actor Brad Pitt’s Hollywood home. When Brad Pitt launched the MIR initiative to help Katrina victims in New Orleans, he persuaded to join the MIR panel of architectural firms.

GRAFT was established in 1998 in Los Angeles, California by Lars Krückeberg and Wolfram Putz. Thomas Willemeit joined the firm in 2001 and opened an office in Berlin, Germany the same year. In 2005, Gregor Hoheisel, who had been partner in Los Angeles in 2000 to 2001, became Partner of GRAFT Beijing, founded in 2001. In 2007, Alejandra Lillo became partner for GRAFT LA.

GRAFT designs and manages a wide range of projects in multiple disciplines and locations. They are known for their Urban Planning, Exhibition Design, and Music techniques. Their professional experience covers a wide variety of building types in Arts, Education, Institutional, Commercial and Residential sectors.

“GRAFT has always maintained an interest in crossing the boundaries between disciplines and "grafting" the creative potentials and methodologies of different realities.” Grafting is the joining of two separate structures, such as two stems. This is reflected in the firm's expansion into the fields of music, car design, art installations, academic projects, web design and "eventings". They view architecture as a means for crossing cultures and disciplines.

We live in a world with increasing needs for flexibility and major transformations. This firm has been awarded numerous awards in Europe as well as in the United States for contributing to major transformations in arts, design, and construction. In New Orleans, Graft hopes that its design will add aesthetics as well as safety to the new constructions in the flood-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward.

Inno-Native Home Architecture from Africa

Joe Addo, CEO of Constructs – an innovative architectural firm in Ghana in West Africa, designed a home that would come to be a test for him and his wife as a new couple. He says that every relationship is like a building: you have to start from the bottom up.

Joe Osae-Addo was born in Ghana, West Africa, and trained at the Architectural Association in London. He worked in Finland, the UK and the USA and had an architectural practice in Los Angeles in 1991. Addo’s work is guided by the ‘genus-loci’ idea, the architectural philosophy term coined by Christian Norberg-Schulz and that translates as “sense of place” or “spirit of place”. Architecture based on the genus-loci idea should respond to site specific elements and meet the needs of people who will interact with it. Addo moved back to Ghana in 2004 and is currently the CEO of Constructs LLC, an inno-native design firm based in Accra and Tamale in Ghana, West Africa.

Combining the terms “innovative” and “native”, the “inno-native” architecture of the projects undertaken by Constructs pay special attention to what is important to local communities and how site, climate, materials, and weather interact to create designs and architectures that are suited to native conditions of the project.


Addo’s residence was built on family land in his hometown of Accra, Ghana. The stylish and eco-friendly home is perfect for the new couple because they were both born there. Incorporating the eco-friendly atmosphere Joe decided to harness nature’s elements. The trees, wind, sun, and water were used to create harmony.




























The architect was determined to build with the materials found primarily in rural areas: timber and adobe mud blocks. “Adobe mud block doesn’t exist in cities in Ghana, which meant I had to create it,” says Addo. Even though the house is on the grid, solar panels provide backup power for lighting and heating water, and deep timber overhangs to provide shade.

Joe Addo wanted a “no air-conditioning” philosophy. His wife didn’t agree seeing that temperatures could reach around the 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By raising the structure three feet off the ground on a wooden deck, they could take advantage of cooling under-floor breezes. “For cross ventilation, the house has sliding slatted-wood screens that neighbors thought were crazy in the damp, hot climate, and floor-to-ceiling jalousie windows.”

The Addo residence “features a timber framed wall & roof structure with non-bearing adobe blocks which reduce total construction costs by 50% compared to a similarly specified concrete structure.” He recruited workers from Ghana that did not have much experience in his unique design methods. The purpose is to help people in Ghana increase their knowledge of new and locally adaptive architectural methods.

Firms like Constructs and “inno-native” architects like Joe Addo are building the foundations for improving the habitats and living conditions of the billions of citizens of developing nations.

The Pink Concept

“The Pink Project” is the specific proposal led by actor Brad Pitt and Make It Right. This aim of this project is to bring the world’s attention to the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. But the main focus is not on the destruction; rather it is on the renovation effort that the “Pink Project” is bringing to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans.

The “pink” buildings are Pitt’s way of communicating to American citizens worldwide, to help rebuild the neighborhood in the Lower 9th Ward. The plans are to raise $150,000 per home for 150 homes, totaling a price tag of $22,500,000. Anyone interested in donating to the project can do so on the website by sponsoring a whole house or smaller aspects that result in the final completion.

Each pink building is constructed of a large framework. Specifically, each building is made up of four modular pieces. These four modular pieces make moving and assembly much more efficient and timely. Over a period of six weeks, the 150 buildings will be placed in their designated locations until all the donations have been completed.

Previously, Pitt sponsored an architecture competition organized by Global Green with the goal of generating ideas on how to rebuild sustainability. Several of those designs are currently under construction in the Lower 9th Ward.

Make It Right assembled a team of fourteen local, national and international architecture firms. The four main guiding principles for the designs are:

1) Safety
2) Affordability
3) Sustainability
4) High design quality

The International Firms include:

• Adjaye Architects – London, England
• Constructs – Accra, Ghana
• Graft – Berlin, Germany
• MVRDV – Rotterdam, Holland
• Shigeru Ban Architects – Tokyo, Japan

The Make It Right Project: Lower 9th Ward

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. “Levee breaches created floodwaters that tore houses off their foundations, threw houses on top of cars, and left the entire community homeless.”

Brad Pitt targeted this location not only because of the severe damage but because it was one of the richest cultural communities in the country. Make It Right wants to rehabilitate the community and bring the history back to its roots.

Even through all the efforts of rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward, crime is still a major concern. Some residents asked the architects if bars would protect the houses’ windows, or if the architects could position windows high off the ground and locate bedrooms away from exterior walls. They are in the process of discussing and addressing these concerns.

There are several community groups that have joined together to rebuild the community. Some include: New Life Intracoastal Community Development Corporation, Common Ground Relief and All Congregations Together (A.C.T.).

The Make It Right core team assembled by Pitt includes experts such as William McDonough, a world leader in environmental architecture. Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, a firm that specializes is redevelopment is also involved in the project. A third company involved is Graft, an international leading architecture firm.

A Vision is more than a Mission

The intention of a genuine mission statement is to keep members and users aware of the organization's present business purpose. A strategic vision shows the route an organization intends to take in developing and strengthening their business and surroundings. It also outlines the destination for the organization’s actions and provides a rationale for going there.

“Improving conditions and addressing the global housing crisis should be a high priority for national governments and international donors, but, for reasons that are not clear, it is not. In many countries around the world, opportunities to achieve economic, social, and civic development goals through housing-related initiatives are being missed.” (World Urban Forum)
There are many organizations dedicated to these causes. A leader is Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), a nonprofit housing organization. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make shelter a priority.

Habitat for Humanity has shown that building homes does more than simply putting a roof over someone’s head. In clean, decent, stable housing:

· Families can provide stability for their children
· A family’s sense of dignity and pride grow
· Health, physical safety, and security improve
· Educational and job prospects increase

The main focus of Habitat for Humanity is to decrease poverty by increasing the housing supply across the globe. Sufficient housing is vitally important to health of the world’s economies and communities. “The United Nations projects that by the year 2030 an additional 3 billion people, about 40 percent of the world’s population, will need access to housing.” Their mission is to prevent this dramatic escalation of the housing crisis. If the international agencies want to succeed in the fight against poverty, then the expansion of housing has to become a priority.

Engineers Without Borders International assist collaboration among its members toward improving the quality of life of the disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, the executions of sustainable engineering projects, contribute to the experience of engineers, and to the education of students. Their vision is to be recognized and respected as an international organization whose members deliver stable solutions to developing communities worldwide and make use of their diverse technical expertise to solve critical problems affecting the health of our planet. One advocate said, “We see a world where ALL people have access to the knowledge and resources with which to meet their basic human needs and rise out of poverty.”

Engineers Without Borders International advocates strong values and underscores the participating engineers’ beliefs in their international vision. They believe that if change starts now, it can interrupt and even reverse the cycle of poverty. Their partnerships with other organizations are important for development. Members and partners have to be willing to assist in building toward a more equitable and sustainable world. Sustainable projects allow the capacity for people to solve their own problems.

Education is a valuable asset in Engineers Without Borders International. It develops a new generation of engineers, who will benefit from seeing the many components of engineering solutions as well as problems in developing communities.

Yet another organization devoted to sustainable and social building is Make It Right. In December 2006, Brad Pitt organized a group of experts in New Orleans to brainstorm about building green affordable housing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Pitt realized that an opportunity existed to build houses that were not only stronger and healthier, but that had less of a negative effect on the environment.

After discussing the obstacles associated with rebuilding the devastated area, the group determined that the project would be focused on green affordable housing while incorporating innovative designs. The group settled on the goal of constructing 150 homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. This area was one of the most devastated areas of New Orleans. Pitt hopes that this project would become a catalyst for recovery and redevelopment throughout the Lower 9th Ward and across the city of New Orleans.

Pitt said, “Having listened to one former resident's plea to help "make this right," I was inspired to name the project "Make It Right" (MIR).

Welcome to the "Building on Dreams" blog

The typical b-school student is instrumental, driven by concerns of job and money. It is not that Ana Alves, the creator of this blog, has anything against money. In fact, someday she may become an entrepreneur with tons of money.

What is distinctive about Ana's approach to business is the desire to see how personal goals and skills, in her case the desire to be globally minded and to employ her skills in building and construction, can be matched to her social goal of assisting those who need such skills -- in various parts of the world.

The needs for building skills arise in various settings -- reconstruction after natural disasters, building habitats for those lacking good housing, and constructing simple infrastructures to help communities. Ana explores all these settings.

In this blog, Ana Alves and her associates explore the worldwide trends in socially oriented building and architectural activities.

We hope that as the blog builds, one posting at a time, so does the world of needed housing and infrastructure, one nail at a time.

Nik Dholakia, Ph.D.
Professor
College of Business Administration
University of Rhode Island