Education/training
Ryerson team travels to Pakistan for relief effortFor a group of Ryerson University architectural science students, reconstructing a community destroyed by an earthquake was much more than a chance to put their skills to the test. Theirs was also a humanitarian relief effort, that touched their hearts and those left devastated by the forces of nature. |
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 [ 2007-09-19 ] |
Meena Nijhawan, Craig Race, Ian MacBurnie, Cristian Stefanescu and James Tenyenhuis in Pakistan.
"HEARTBREAKING"
"I had tea with a man who lost his three-day-old son and wife to the earthquake and his was just one of thousands of tragic stories. It was really heartbreaking,"graduate James Tenyenhuis says. "I needed to do something to help."
The team spent a month in Pakistan as part of the Home in Muzaffarabad project. In addition to experiencing a foreign culture, students learned about sustainability and minimal housing design, says Ian MacBurnie, associate professor in the department of architectural science and project advisor.
Many of those killed in the earthquake were crushed by non-reinforced concrete roofs that collapsed. MacBurnie challenged his minimal housing class to create long-term solutions for the community. "We did design a project that ought to withstand any earthquake," he says. "That alone is a major contribution."
MacBurnie had participated in similar humanitarian efforts as a university student and wanted to extend the same opportunity to his students. "I know how life changing the experience was for me. This was an opportunity for students to challenge expectations, especially as it concerns their material world."
The experience was a moving one for students. "When we got there, there was so much destruction and devastation," says Tenyenhuis, an architect at a firm in Montreal. "Entire hillsides had been removed and there were ongoing difficulties associated with the earthquake."
The team oversaw construction of a one-storey home that is being used as the prototype for 27 additional houses. Funds for those homes will be raised through Cashmere for Kashmir and Ryerson University.
"We consulted with engineers while there," Tenyanhuis says. "Our design was still coming together as we built ... I did participate in construction and got down and dirty, hauling bricks all day, but we did have to supervise general labour."
Fellow team member Meena Nijhawan, now in her final year of studies, got more
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TRANSITION QUICK FACTS
In July, a Ryerson University team travelled to Pakistan to help reconstruct a community destroyed by the 2005 earthquake that killed more than 75,000 people. Nearly two years later, many survivors still live in temporary shelters.
Ryerson's team is the cornerstone of the Home in Muzaffarabad project, which is rebuilding a community of 28 rural families. Cashmere for Kashmir, a charitable organization run out of the United States and Britain, brought the project to Ryerson.
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