Shelter

Catalog description

Home, which might have been a simple rock shelter in prehistoric times, now includes constructions in extravagant skyscrapers, inner-city slums, endless suburbs, and many more manifestations. Access to adequate shelter is a universally accepted human right, yet few people live in countries where this right is guaranteed. This course looks at our relationship with shelter, the physical structure that protects us from the elements. In particular, the course highlights the social and environmental impacts of how we build our homes, how we pay for them, and what happens when we cannot afford one. Two billion new homes need to be built before the end of this century just to meet the needs of a growing human population, all while meeting the need to reduce the impact of their construction on the environment. The course includes hands-on workshops that introduce students to building with reinforced concrete, the most commonly used material in home construction today, as well as other building materials used to create human shelter.