What is the Social Role of Architecture Beyond the Building?

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jan. 26, 2015 - PRLog -- -- Can architecture improve our health? Can architecture be used to radically improve people's lives? Conversely, can architecture injure the populations it houses?

AIA Jacksonville will feature MASS Design Executive Director Michael Murphy. Wednesday Feb. 11, 2015 at the Jacksonville Downtown Library at 303 Laura St. Program begins at 6:30. Social at 5:30.

“Their approach to design is that architecture is more than just a building. In the five years since MASS began, they have shown that exceptional buildings and infrastructure can actually address many of the health, economic, and social challenges that the world faces today,”  said AIA Jacksonville President Tom Duke.

With his work at MASS Design Group, he has combined sustainable, innovative and appropriate design with immersive research and uses the design process to capitalize on local educational opportunities to generate systemic change, break the cycle of poverty, and ultimately create buildings that heal.

Non-profit MASS Design Group began in 2008 during the design and building of the Butaro District Hospital in Rwanda; a project of Partners in Health and the Rwandan Ministry of Health.

Since then, MASS has expanded to work on three continents with projects spanning the design of buildings, research, policy, education, and strategic planning. Their work seeks to provide infrastructure, buildings, and the human and physical systems necessary for growth, dignity, and well-being.

Murphy co-founded MASS Design Group with Alan Ricks. Murphy has become a thought leader in architecture and healthcare design and was recently listed in The Atlantic Monthly as one of the "Greatest Innovators of Today."

By applying holistic thinking and focusing on the process of constructing a building as much - if not more than - the physical building itself, Murphy will discuss architects ability to not only design the built environment, but also to build capacity, create dignity, and empower.

The event, sponsored by WorkScapes and Shaw Contract Group, is free to AIA member architects and architecture students. Allied Members $10. Non-members $20. Register at http://www.aiajacksonville.org. Call (904) 389-8421 for more information.