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[photo courtesy Wayne Troyer]

A pleasant surprise was waiting in the Life Without Buildings inbox this morning: construction photos of the Make it Right homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. Make it Right is a program established by actor/architectural hobbyist Brad Pitt that has been designed to be a catalyst for redevelopment in the Lower 9 — a neighborhood many people thought would (and should) never be rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. Make it Right set a goal of building 150 new homes, all of which consider Cradle-to-Cradle sensibilities and employ methods of construction that make the buildings easy to replicate. Each house is built for $150,000 and paid for with donations — many via the project’s website. MIR works with local community organizations to find residents for the slowly emerging neighborhood, and once they’re approved, the new residents select the home they wish to build from a 13 different designs by local, national, and international architecture firm. So to some extent, the neighborhood is shaped by the people who live there. While it’s probably safe to assume that the almost insulting design by MVRDV will never get built, some of the more conventional choices are already well under construction.

KIERAN TIMBERLAKE ASSOCIATES:

[image via Make it Right 9]

The Garden Prototype, designed by Philadelphia-based Kieran Timberlake Associates, is a “flexible, integrated system designed to accommodate a range of customizable options.” The prototype home will be stick-built but the project was designed to be adaptable for eventual off-site fabrication. Not only that, but much like when buying a new car, “options” are available so owners can customize the home to their tastes and create a more diverse collection of homes should the Garden Prototype be built en masse. No word yet on the “Sport” model.

GRAFT

[photo courtesy Wayne Troyer]

[image via Make it Right 9]

Next up is a home designed by Pitt’s architectural confederates, GRAFT, an international office who believe that “Architecture is a deliberate recreation of a new and special reality that grows from our response to life.” What a beautiful sentiment. Their design is sort of a slanty, elevated creole cottage. There’s no description of the project on either the MIR or GRAFT websites, so there may be some sort of deeper purpose or but just from looking at these photos and renderings, its just sort of ugly and unnecessarily fragmented. We’re not buying into this “new and special reality.”

CONCORDIA ARCHITECTS

[photo courtesy Wayne Troyer]

[image via Make it Right 9]

The Lagniappe (rough translation: “a little something extra”) House, was designed by New Orleans firm Concordia Architects as a flexible weaving of indoor and outdoors spaces. Although not as sexy as some of the other projects, the Lagniappe house is a responsible, thoughtful response to the New Orleans climate and lifestyle. An extensive and pleasantly straightforward (re: non-archi-babble) description of the project can be read on Concordia’s website.

It’s always great to see some construction—especially of a contemporary-ish nature—in New Orleans, but one could argue that the people who spoke out against rebuilding the 9th Ward were right. The neighborhood feels incredibly isolated from the rest of New Orleans and the money raised for the MIR program would perhaps have been better spent rebuilding homes in the city’s central neighborhoods — areas close to existing, not to mention functional, infrastructure. Rebuilding homes is one thing, but rebuilding fire & police stations, restaurants, and grocery stores in a city still struggling with crime and housing is quite another. But maybe that’s a post for another time. For now, let’s just ruthlessly admire and/or ruthlessly critique these new efforts to interpret and update the New Orleans Vernacular.

see also:
The Making of a Make It Right House [LWB]