Our Crowdfunding Groups
Studio Andino is an option studio offered every Spring semester to advanced undergraduates and graduate students in all College of Design majors. The studio projects investigate urban conditions in Lima, Peru. We are interested in domestic settings, public spaces, ecosystems, and infrastructure. This range of scales and topics provokes discussion and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. Every year the studio attracts a mix of majors and involves faculty and students from all departments in the College of Design. In addition to carrying out traditional theoretical studio design work in Ames, students partner with students, faculty, and NGOs in Lima to conduct design-build projects in marginal neighborhoods in the metropolitan region. We travel to Peru in March for this work and take a few days off to visit Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and the Pacific Coast beach.
Donations to this fund will pay for materials and tools, transportation, food and water for students, and other expenses directly associated with the design-build projects. Any funds that exceed our basic goals will help reduce the cost of student travel to Peru.
For more information and pictures visit Studio Andino on Facebook or check out our Peruvian partners Intuy Lab and Alto Peru Surf (also on Facebook). A video produced for the 2016 crowdfunding campaign, What is Studio Andino?, is available on YouTube.
In 2017 we will work in the Chorrillos municipality, home to an artisanal fishing community that has been the subject of on-going research by our colleagues in ISU’s Anthropology Department. In 2015 Studio Andino worked with local fishers to build a seafood market table prototype and developed a master plan for future development of the wharf and beach area. In 2016, the studio recycled one of the many beached boats as public art furniture. In 2017 we will continue our work at the wharf and develop a new participatory design-build project with community members in Alto Peru, which is home to many families of fishers. This work, a playground, will be a collaboration with Intuy Lab and Alto Peru Surf, an NGO that works in the neighborhood.
Each year the Studio hosts one or more of our Peruvian collaborators at the beginning of the semester. This year we plan to bring 2 or 3 Intuy Lab professionals to Ames for a 3-day workshop that addresses interdisciplinary, cross-cultural participatory design. This workshop will be open to the public and will include contributions from several other College of Design faculty and our partners in Anthropology.
ISU FACULTY: CLARE CARDINAL-PETT, ARCHITECTURE
Clare Cardinal-Pett, Associate Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University, directs the studio which has multiple educational goals. The course is an important element of the College of Design’s study abroad options—offering the only experience in Latin America. It also addresses a global issue—unplanned and unregulated urbanization—in the context of one of the world’s most interesting cities. The unique partnership with Peruvian students, faculty, organizations, and local communities is a special opportunity for learning that extends the land grant mission into an international context.
MAXIMILLIAN VIATORI, ANTHROPOLOGY
Max Viatori, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Iowa State University, is a socio-cultural anthropologist and Professor-in-Charge of the department. He has been a Studio Andino collaborator since 2014. His research explores ethnic, racial and class inequalities and their relationships to state politics, governance and the control of natural resources. His work with artisanal fishers in Peru examines their struggles to maintain access to productive marine resources.
HECTOR BOMBIELLA, ANTHROPOLOGY
Hector Bombiella is currently a faculty member in anthropology at Iowa State University, where he recently earned a PHD in Sustainable Agriculture and Sociology. Max Viatori helped direct his dissertation, Place-based communities and urban ecologies: The case of the artisanal fishing community of the bay of Chorrillos, Peru. Hector practiced law for 5 years in his native Colombia before coming to Iowa State, where he first completed a Master's Degree in Political Science. Hector has been a Studio Andino collaborator since 2015.
LIMA FACULTY: CRISTINA DREIFUSS, ARCHITECTURE
Our partners in Peru include INTUY Lab, an urban research institute, directed by Cristina Dreifuss, PhD, Professor of Architecture at the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC) where many of the Peruvian students involved with Studio Andino study. Professor Dreifuss provides leadership and coordination for projects in Lima and visits the studio in Ames at the beginning of the semester.
STUDIO HISTORY
Over the past five years we have studied three different neighborhoods in Lima, conducted design charrettes with students from UPC in the city, and developed three design-build projects in collaboration with our local partners and ISU Anthropology faculty members Max Viatori and Hector Bombiella. The design/build projects include a children’s microlibrary in Comas, shade structures and playground equipment in Manchay, and a fish market display table prototype and a wooden boat recycled as public art furniture at the Chorrillos wharf. In 2014 students gathered 600 donated children’s books, which they packed in luggage for the microlibrary. In 2014 a Studio Andino project by Han Fan and Kellen Pacheco placed 3rd in the Shelter Global international competition. Read more about this project here. A slideshow of work from previous studios is available @ YouTube
At our jobsites we rely on members of the local community to help out in various ways. Our projects provide extra income for these families, many of whom live on less than $10 a day. Your small donation here goes far.
Donations of $20 will help support our daily transportation costs. We pay local drivers for short errands near our work sites as well as trips to and from our hotel in Miraflores.
We buy food, water, tools and hardware from shops in the neighborhoods where we work. The prices are generally very low and the opportunity to interact with local people invaluable.
Building materials are another large component of the project budget. We try to spend our money in the neighborhoods where we work, which means many small loads of things like paint, lumber, and bamboo--that rarely cost more than $100--are delivered in a small car or taxi.
Each year we provide small stipends to our Peruvian partners and local craftsmen to help manage the project site preparation, offer expertise, or coordinate the construction process. Without these “boots on the ground” we would not be able to accomplish so much in such a short period of time.
Studio Andino 2016 will be working at two sites in the Chorrillos municipality, one in the Alto Peru neighborhood and one at the fishing wharf. A donation of $500 will help fund our more ambitious design-build projects such as the reclamation and repurposing beached wooden boats for both sites. $500 buys one boat.
Each year the Studio hosts one or more of our Peruvian collaborators at the beginning of the semester. This year we plan to bring 2 or 3 INTUY Lab professionals to Ames for a 3-day workshop that addresses interdisciplinary, cross-cultural participatory design. This workshop will be open to the public and will include contributions from several other College of Design faculty and our partners in Anthropology. A $1000 gift will help support this event.