FAA 491 section PR or UP 494 section PR
Spring 2025
Community-Based Sustainable Design in Puerto Rico
Course begins week of January 21, 2025
Travel during spring break- March 15 to 22, 2025
Instructors: Clinical Assoc Prof Ken Salo kensalo@illinois.edu & Prof Faranak Miraftab faranak@illinois.edu
This course will engage multidisciplinary and mixed level students from FAA in dialogs on participatory methods to bridge the campus community divides frustrating productive collaborations for sustainable design in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students will after six weeks of 3hr lectures and discussions travel, during Spring break, to directly engage local academics, artists, activists, and communities working with Casa Pueblo in municipality of Adjuntas, PR. We will study and build on the internationally recognized cross cultural work of Casa Pueblo who, since 1980, created community self-reliance through energy independence based on localized cultural, science and art practices. Beyond adaptation, their mission is to provide energy security during climate emergencies, promote economic activity and create public spaces for “bottom-up” dialogs on solidarity, energy justice, and energy freedom for all.
Key course goals include
1. Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration through collectively engaging in community-based sustainable design projects.
2. Promote Grassroots Impact: Actively contribute to grassroots initiatives in Puerto Rico, aiming for tangible spatial, environmental, and social change.
3. Expand Cultural Understanding: Explore Puerto Rico's unique socio-political and cultural landscape, examining the impact of historical and ongoing colonization on institutional practices, governance, and urban planning.
4. Develop Critical Examination: Critically analyze place-making processes within the context of colonialism, exploring informal and insurgent methods that challenge conventional urban planning and contribute to environmental and societal improvement.
5. Advance in Documenting and Designing: Document and share Casa Pueblo’s projects for transformative change, while actively contributing to the improvement of Altos de Cuba through sustainable design interventions.
6. Embody and Apply Sustainability Principles: Integrate ecological and social dimensions into the design process, ensuring that sustainability principles, community engagement, and transdisciplinary collaboration are central to the design process and products.
7. Advance Understanding and Design of Collective Space: Advance today's understanding and design of collective space, emphasizing the importance of creating spaces that foster community engagement, empowerment, and sustainability.
8. Explore Designing Methods at a Wide Range of Scales
9. Test Innovative and Inclusive Ways of Curating Projects: Test innovative and inclusive ways of curating projects for the public, exploring methods that enhance accessibility and engagement with the broader community.
Course Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to ‘document, create, and communicate for change’ through the following different analytical and design processes:
Read more about Casa Pueblo and follow them on instragram.
Application Deadline:
December 8, 2024
Application Review:
This program can accommodate 14 undergraduate/graduate students. The priority deadline for applications is December 8, 2025. At that time, students majoring in FAA (Sustainable Design, Arch, LA, UP) will receive priority. All students must have a 2.00 GPA to be considered. No letter of recommendation is requested or needed. No prior experience with the Spanish language is needed, but it would be helpful for your project and engagement. If there is a surplus of interested students, a waitlist will be utilized.
Program Costs:
$2,300
SP 25 Puerto Rico Budget for Students.pdf
Program Fee cost includes:
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Round-trip airfare from Chicago to San Juan, Puerto Rico
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6 nights of lodging
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Transportation to Chicago Int'l Airport, Transportation between locations
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Any excursions
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Engagement with Casa Pueblo community
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International Insurance, UIUC application fee, FAA study abroad admin fee
Students may contact the office of financial aid, study abroad team at finaidscholarships@illinois.edu and provide the budget page PDF and their UIN to inquire about how financial aid may assist with the cost of this program.
Students will be responsible to pay for the cost of their own meals for the entire duration of the trip.
This budget is based on 14 students and is subject to change. Students will sign a Confirmation of Participation with an updated cost prior to accepting the offer to participate in the program.
Lodging and Location
Students will spend approximately 2 nights in Old San Juan and 4 nights in Adjuntas. Casa Pueblo is located near Adjuntas which is a small mountainside town.
About FAA 491:
Students accepted into the program will enroll in a full-semester, spring 2025 course, FAA 491 section PR for 4 credit hours which will serve as a SD Major Elective or in UP 494 section PR which will serve as a UP elective. LA, or ARCH students may discuss with their advisor if alternative credit may be possible.
This course will entail weekly meetings and work in a seminar/studio format, along with the spring break trip, and final project curation.
Students will be allowed to register once they are accepted into and commit to the program.
Course Structure and Format:
- Lectures and readings to learn about Puerto Rico’s colonial history and grassroots organizations in place, especially Casa Pueblo activism through years (seminar format)
- Documenting and mapping possible strategic areas and topics for intervention (studio format)
- Site travel. Trip to Puerto Rico. Visits to San Juan and Adjuntas. Participatory process with Altos de Cuba community (traveling class, field visits and charrette format)
- Project Curation to share with the community (presentation, exhibition, performative format)
