GULF COAST DesignLab
Environmental Activism by Design | A community outreach program for the Gulf Coast | The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture
EQUITY THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
The Gulf Coast DesignLab is the first long-running ecologically based program that fosters environmental activism within the field of design and for the public. Through our hands-on approach of civic engagement, our students partner with nonprofits and governmental agencies whose mission is to bring about equity through environmental education. For over ten years our students have learned to become better designers by designing and building places for the public—particularly middle and high school students from underserved neighborhoods—where our community partners can advance ecological literacy and promote environmental stewardship practices.
This is important for all communities but even more so in underserved inner-city neighborhoods where many of its citizens are under-educated, under-paid and who disproportionately suffer environmental injustices. Environmental Activism by Design addresses just that. Working closely with their stakeholders, our students do what young designers do best, design inspiring place for the public. But they take that a step further by building what they design, places where, teachers, biologists, ecologists and artists can work with the public using field-based educational practices. As they learn to become more thoughtful designers, this approach benefits the coastal communities where our students work, helping them better adapt to climate crisis by more deeply understanding local ecologies, which can help them develop better conservation habits that restore and protect their environment, for now and for future generations.
SMALL DEEDS FOR BIG PROBLEMS
Quoting Howard Zinn, “Small acts when multiplied by millions of people can change the world.” Changing people’s attitudes about their environment won’t happen by further polemics and debate, but by grassroots efforts underpinned by a better understanding of the environmental changes taking place in their own backyards. The kind of change that’s needed occurs when communities roll up their sleeves to work, using a ground up inclusive approach. This is beginning to happen the world over, organizations, volunteer groups and individuals coming together and working to make their home and environment a more resilient place, a better world for all.
In that spirit, our students help repair environmental damage through service-learning projects. These have included growing and planting coastal prairie and wetland grasses, repairing coastal erosion by regenerating oyster reefs, reestablishing coastal live oak motts, cleaning trash from wildlife refuges and, helping communities recover after damaging storms. This way, our students enlarge their worldview by stepping back from big “A” architecture and working side-by-side with community members. Doing this, they’re better prepared for professional practice by becoming better earth citizens, capable of making places that show respect towards others, through goodwill and care, by re-imaging and expressing the beauty of the world.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO APPLIED RESEARCH
As part of this multidisciplinary approach, DesignLab students team up with those who understand the challenges Gulf Coast communities face. People practiced in their particular fields, typically outside the realm of architectural design—ecologists, marine biologists, artists, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and meteorologists, just to name a few—have been part of the program in our cross-disciplinary way of learning. Using a multi-disciplined approach, students study and learn to work with their respective local conditions—anything from applying what they’ve learned about global weather patterns, collaborating with those who specialize in extracting heavy metals from soils, or using the geomorphology of a site to inform design, even studying the heartbeat of oysters as a way to gauge the health of an estuary.
The Gulf Coast DesignLab is a one-semester advanced design lab with accompanying investigative seminar that focuses on the ethics of design in the Anthropocene. The program is open to creative and resourceful students who would like to test their design skills using a first-hand approach. Through field-based research, students can expand their design capabilities through environmental activism by design. In this interconnected approach, students are encouraged to challenge their own design priorities while learning to become an effective catalyst for change.
MORE ABOUT THE GULF COAST DESIGNLAB APPROACH →
Coleman Coker is director for the Gulf Coast DesignLab. He is a Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at Austin. Teaching for decades now, Coker is a recognized practitioner, regularly acknowledged for his approach to design excellence. As principal of Mockbee/Coker Architects and later buildingstudio he has over forty years experience in design, thirty years of that as principal of his own firms. His lifelong commitment to design excellence coupled with his belief that we’re brought closer to the world through thoughtful building that considers the whole instead of just its parts, and his love for passing on what he’s learned to the next generation gives his students a foundation from which to explore their own unique interests and achieve a meaningful educational experience.
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