Regenerative Studies students team up with architecture students and go to Mexico City to learn about climate appropriate design

Habitat 21 is continuing its work to help provide low-cost sustainable shelter for people in developing countries through Pablo LaRoche’s spring quarter class, ARC 499: Low Cost Sustainable Housing. From June 15th through the 19th, LaRoche and students from ARC 499 traveled to Mexico City to work with architecture students and faculty from Universidad Autonoma in Mexico City on possibly adapting the Tijuana project to the city of Veracruz.

LaRoche visited Universidad Autonoma in December of 2008 as a keynote speaker in an international seminar and it was during this time that he and the faculty there decided to collaborate on low cost sustainable housing through a future project. This trip was the culmination of those plans.

During the visit, faculty in Mexico City gave Cal Poly Pomona students lectures on urban issues and climate appropriate design. Professor LaRoche lectured on energy modeling for low energy buildings. The class also toured local Barragán architecure. A visionary Mexican architect, Barragán is regarded as one of the most important architects of the 20th century. His buildings are renowned for their mastery of space and light, but Barragán was equally influential as a landscape architect and urban planner.

The ultimate goal of the trip was to experiment with the application of the students' individual research projects. A requirement of the course was that the students had to have participated in the Tijuana Project and that they be willing to participate in the design experience. The entire class worked together as a team in the design of their class projects, and this trip was unique in that it brought together both architecture students and Regenerative Studies Master’s Students for the first time. The architecture students who went on the trip were: Michael Yao, Jon Orr, Cynthy Harris, James Anderson, Yazmin Lozano. Regenerative Studies students who went were: Rael Berkowitz, Cristina Halstead, Michelle McFadden, and Eric Carbonnier.

MSRS Program Welcomes New Cohort

Fall, 2008 marked the beginning of the fifth year of our Master of Science program in Regenerative Studies. This year's cohort of graduate students, thirteen in all, is an accomplished and enthusiastic group. The students have a wide range of backgrounds that uphold the interdisciplinary approach of the program. We look forward to seeing great things from them and promise to keep you posted as they complete their first year and decide on their thesis subjects. Here is the first round of bios, with more to come!

Carolyn LaPrade

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Carolyn comes to the MSRS program with a Bachelors of Science in urban and Regional Planning from Cal Poly Pomona. She currently works as an environmental planner at RBF Consulting, a planning and engineering firm in Ontario. Carolyn's interests include passive solar design, organic gardening, and new regenerative or sustainable technologies and practices. She is always looking for problems to solve!

Myles McGray

Myles is a native Michigander and has a B.A. from Oakland University. His interests include design and implementation of sustainable built forms.

Rosemary Squires

Rosemary graduated in 2005 from Colorado State University with degrees in English and Asian Studies. She combined her interest in Asian culture with her passion for languages and teaching when she traveled abroad to teach English in Asia. The MSRS program brought Rosemary back to the states after teaching for nearly three years. While she is still exploring options for her thesis, some areas of interest include community gardens, food production management at the Lyle Center, and integration of regenerative topics into high school curricula.