Patricia Andrasik , assistant professor, architecture, was featured in a Line/Shape/Space article about her project to design and build sustainable housing for displaced persons in Iraq. Her project to design housing for refugees using 3D printers was mentioned in a wrap up of "Stories that Wowed in 2016" in Redshift. See below.
From: Line/Shape/Space Date: May 10, 2016 Author: Matt Alderton
What is home? The question is simple. The answer, however, is anything but-especially for refugees, whose sense of home has been upended by physical violence, political unrest, and economic instability in their countries of origin.For them, home isn't a house in the suburbs, a loft downtown, or a cottage on the beach. It's not a city, a town, or even a nation. Because they've been robbed of the roofs over their heads and the soil beneath their feet, "home" for refugees ceases to be a place at all; rather, it's a state of mind, equal parts memory of the past and hope for the future.
Architect Patricia Andrasik knows she can never replace the sense of home that's been taken from refugees. But by developing sustainable housing, she believes they can be grounded once again in a time and place where they can build a life. Not home, perhaps, but a home.
"Housing is the primary building block of a person's life," says Andrasik, assistant professor and head of sustainability outreach at the Catholic University of America's School of Architecture and Planning in Washington, DC. "It's one of the primordial elements of a person's existence." ...
Read more about Andrasik's expertise .
From: What Can 3D Printing Do? Date: Jan. 3, 2017 Author: Brandon Au
Architect Patricia Andrasik is keen to provide refugees in Iraq with more than just shelter; she wants to create sustainable housing solutions that can become true homes. Like companies from China, which use giant 3D printers to prefabricate structures out of clay and cement, Andrasik employs 3D printing because it allows her to "build within a controlled context, simultaneously educating and involving the population about this alternative construction technique."
Andrasik also takes the area's unique cultural ecology, environment, and climatic conditions into consideration while integrating the homes into existing contexts. She hopes to provide not only homes but also opportunities. "My final objective is very simple," she says. "It's making families comfortable in their built environment so they're able to live happy, sustainable lives-wherever they are." ...
Read more about Andrasik's expertise .