Rural Housing
Studio
Rural Housing Studio is a pioneer project that established and initiated by architect and researcher Michiel Smits in the Netherlands and in Africa, especially in Kenya.
The aim is to bring professional architects and student of architecture together in order to design and build on a real site rural houses in Kenya.
The project will take place in Mt. Elgon, Kenya and it will last for 5 months.
Rural Housing Studio is a part of Michiel's Smits PhD and is supported by T.U. Delft and Avans University of Applied Sciences.
OUR TEAM
Michiel smits
Michiel Smits is an architect, university lecturer and a fourth year PhD researcher. Starting from his technical training he has been involved as a pro-bono engineer and designer in rural Sub-Sahara Africa since 2004. After developing many public buildings and housing in rural Kenya he concluded that the existing approach of himself and local NGOs did not articulate a suitable answer for the communities they were intended to. Which was the main departure point and motivation to pursue a PhD in Architecture.
His aim is to formulate a support that allows engineers to assess local capacities and use them to make informed design and building decisions. Ultimately helping engineers to articulate minor interventions that support local inhabitants and communities to build by themselves. Hopefully encouraging self-reliant and resilient communities.
Combining a position as a lecturer at Avans University of applied Science and Delft University of Technology he uses MSc and BSc students to formulate and test his support in rural Kenya. From August 2017 till January 2018, four students and four international architects will test the support in the field. The outcomes of the field experiments plus the assessment of the support will form the main body of his manuscript titled: “Inhabitant Inclusive Housing Design Support.
PROJECT LEADER|
ARCHITECT | RESEARCHER
Rural Housing
Project | Team IV
Rural Housing Project | Team IV is one of the teams that consist the Rural Housing Family.
The project will focus on the family needs, will try to establish participatory design with respect to the users and to the culture of the tribe.
Among others the scope is to design a house according to the principles of sustainability and using local materials and with respect to the landscape of Mt. Elgon, nature and local people, giving the opportunity to the family to live in a self - sustained way.
DESPOINA KOUINOGLOU
Despoina is a candidate at Postgraduate Programm of Studies in Landscape Architecture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th), Greece. And her thesis focuses on refugees sheltering projects and the connection of the refugee camps with the local communities. She is graduate of the Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry & Natural Environment, A.U.Th, with focus on Horticulture and Viticulture and main specialization in Floriculture and Landscape Architecture. Her thesis examined the streams and rivers in urban and suburban environment, technical flood control projects, while her applied research focused on sustainable design in the landscape of the regional canal in Thessaloniki. She was an intern at the Aristotle University Farm. She participated in many conferences and workshops, including ECOWEEK in London, Thessaloniki, Prishtina, Crete and she was an active member of the ECOWEEK Greenhouse in Thessaloniki in 2012. Since 2015 Despoina is the head organized and coordinator of ECOWEEK in Greece and the coordinator and assistant of a series of ECOWEEK events abroad. Recently she was participating as a workshop leader in Greece and abroad.
PROJECT MANAGER|
AGRONOMIST |
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
ATDHE LILA
PARTICIPANT|
STUDENT OF BUILD ENVIRONMENT AT AVANS UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
Atdhe Lila is a second year student of Build Environment at Avans University of Applied Sciences. He has worked for a short period of time as a carpenter. Also he has worked as a merchandiser at a grocery store. Atdhe is focused on the Rural Housing Project. As an intern the project in Kenya will be a great source of knowledge and development for him. That is the reason why he wants to give something back to the people in Kenya. He wants to add his creative and communicative skills to the project in order to fulfill the dreams of a Kenyan family.