Tips: Lecture 4 March, 15.00, Övre Ateljén at the School of Architecture

Barefoot Architecture: a Swedish example

by Rod Hackney & Tia Kansara

Kansara Hackney Ltd (KH) aims to alleviate poverty through community 'barefoot' architecture, which began when one of the two directors, Dr Rod Hackney, realised that the root of the sustainability debate lay in tapping neglected human potential. To satisfy the UN-Habitat alleviation of slum conditions, KH involves local slum dwellers with professional enablers, who live and work within the shantytowns, through a self-help programme of renovation and social improvement.

The slum-energising programme began in 1971 with Dr Hackney’s house in Black Road, which like 1.5 million other UK homes, was classified by the government as a slum and "unfit for human habitation". Community 'barefoot' Architecture’s role in resisting the inevitable demolition of houses and championing of an alternative sustainable self-build programme, involves all slum residents.

Tia Kansara is an award-winning director of Kansara Hackney Ltd. In 2010, she wrote the brief and appointed the architects Foster+Partners for SAMBA‘s multi-million dollar headquarters, as the first female to judge a LEED platinum building in Saudi Arabia. She’s on London Business School Global Energy Summit’s executive committee, Co-director of the international CleanTechChallenge, the Gulf ambassador of the UCL Bartlett, Siemen’s list of Future Influencers and Global Ambassador of the Sandbox Network. Currently completing her Ph.D. at the Bartlett, University College London on designing future cities whilst creating the first energy baseline in the Gulf.