The word “architect” is reminiscent of a person who designs aesthetically appealing houses, buildings and outdoor areas. But architects do so much more than visually appealing: they build better communities by increasing accessibility, tackling inequalities, protecting the environment and improving life.
“Architecture,” explains Brendan Wittttruck, March '11, Maud '11, McM '11, “is a life of service.” Wittstruck, a landscape architect and urban designer in Dunaway in Austin, Texas, focuses on involving nature in urban areas.
I wanted to use my bachelor's degree in art to solve urgent climate problems. A career in architecture seemed the best next step to merge my interests in art and sustainability. Washu convinced me with the focus on community design. But when a good friend in Washu encouraged me to prove an urban design intro course, I found that this was the effect that I was looking for. Somehow I was a landscape architect, but I still stick to a large part of the design training that I received in architecture.
Landscape architecture and urban design can have a positive effect on the broader ecology and combine people With green rooms within cities so that these areas become more livable. The integration of landscape design into people's life has so many advantages. Trees and other plants improve air quality and the local climate. Data show that green rooms shorten hospital visits and improve moods. And parking access is a large indicator of the quality of life in cities.
In order to make urban areas more livable, we have to deal with inequalities. When it comes to public spaces, it is so important to take into account who we design and make sure that we do not miss the people. Will this room be comfortable and safe for women? Did we think about the needs of the parents? Is there accessibility for strollers? What happens when the “eyes on the street” are biased? Urban design as a practice is to rethink older ideas of environmental design that intentionally and unintentionally excluded many people from participating in the public sector.
Removing motorways is another way to improve urban life. Since I did my thesis about the motorway removal in Washu, the “Freeway Fighters” movement has gained dynamics. At the national level, there is a striking pattern of highway projects that brace the color communities and weaken the connection between the communities. Motorways in cities simply make no sense: they take up too much space, cut neighborhoods, pollute and can actually make traffic worse. Their alleged advantages are completely put in the shade through their negative effects on the urban environment and the surrounding communities.
One of my early projects recently came to the circle. Shortly after graduating in Washu, I was part of a design team for the Colony Park Sustainable Community initiative in Austin, who laid 208 hectares of urban land on the way to the mixed usage community. It is an important effort to concentrate on making basic services and housing buildings into a historically under -supplied color community that does not even have a grocery store. I helped develop the sustainability guidelines for this master plan and now led the site design of a natural play area for a health clinic. It is exciting to deal with the design of a plan that I developed over a decade ago!