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Founder’s Bio |
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After moving from Ontario in 1974 to start the UBC architecture programme, I worked for a number of years in Vancouver working as a · Contractor/Designer – in the 70s and early 80s working on houses, small commercial projects; · Architect – between 85, when I formed my own firm, and 94, when I left Canada, we worked mainly on houses for people with extreme environmental sensitivities but also worked with DERA on the renovation of the old Pennsylvania Hotel to create the first Portland Hotel project; and, · Community organizer with the Downtown Granville Tenants’ Association. Along with ongoing negotiations with City Hall about mitigating the effects of development in the Downtown South area, we worked with St. Paul’s on establishing a clinic in the Gathering Place to reduce the load in their emergency room. In the months before I left Canada, DGTA began working with a community in organizing against the City of Vancouver to prevent the eviction and demolition of their housing. This later became Mole Hill Community Housing. In 1994 I began a three year contract in Papua New Guinea working for their national government designing schools in some of the more remote areas of the planet. While there I was again active in the affairs of the architectural institute (PNGIA). In my capacity as Registrar I drafted the new Architect’s Act in 1996-7 and worked with the school of architecture in their successful submission for accreditation with the Commonwealth Association of Architects. I also acted as a technical advisor to the PNG delegation to the Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 1996. At the end of my three year contract with the Department of Works in Papua New Guinea, I took a teaching position at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok, Thailand. There I had the opportunity to expand on my MASA research about the relationship of architecture to basic needs and human rights through yearly community workshop studios in the slums of Bangkok. The first of these studios resulted in one of the international student awards at the 1999 UIA Congress in Beijing. Later we worked on architecture programs for slum kids, tsunami recovery projects, and, more recently, with migrant construction workers. It was out of these activities that I founded the Centre for Architecture and Human Rights. CAHR is developing a rights-based approach to architecture through alternative education, research, monitoring and advocacy. One of its early activities was the participation in a number of UNDP-sponsored projects in the tsunami recovery. Another part of CAHR’s research resulted in the inaugural international symposium on architecture and human rights in 2006 in Bangkok and, in 2007-8, an LLM degree in Human Rights Law from Queen’s University Belfast. |
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Executive Director: Graeme Bristol, MRAIC, MAIBC, |
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CURRENT ACTIVITIES: |
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COURSES: |
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BUILDING: |
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· Unfolding School (upcoming) · Portable School (operating) |
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WRITING: |
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Just completed: · “Surviving the Second Tsunami: land rights in the face of buffer zones, land grabs, and development” (2010), in Lizarralde, G., Davidson, C., and Johnson, C. (eds.), Rebuilding after disasters: From emergency to sustainability, Taylor & Francis. · “Rendered Invisible: Urban Planning, Cultural Heritage, and Human Rights” (forthcoming), in Logan, W., Nic Craith, M., and Langfield, M. (eds.)Cultural Diversity, Heritage and Human Rights, Routledge. For April 2010: · "Architecture & Human Rights" (forthcoming) in Cushman, Thomas (ed.), Handbook of Human Rights, Routledge. |
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TEACHING |
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Professional Degree Programme (with KMUTT) · Studio – Community Design · Architecture and Human Rights · Ethics for Design Professionals · Housing · Professional Practice · Environmental Psychology · Human Impacts on the Environment
Continuing Professional Development: · Architecture and Human Rights (AIBC, for May 2010) · Migrant Construction Workers: Architectural Responses in the International Arena (AIBC, 2009) · The Portable School (MADE, 2009) · Right to the City (RAIC, 2006) · The Role of Architecture in Post-Disaster Development (RAIC, 2005) |
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CAHR 2010: |
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10 KEY PROJECTS: |
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· International Studio (Phnom Penh) · Kids & the Built Environment 1 · Kids & the Built Environment 2 · Portable School · Training Programmes · Continuing Professional Development · Migrant Construction Workers study · Symposium 2010 · Urban Codes & Human Rights · Construction contracts and Human Rights |
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CONTACT: |
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CAHR International 464 Stannard Avenue,
CAHR in Thailand 231/2 South Sathorn Road, |
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IN THE NEWS: |
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· Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed in architectureBC, January 2010 · Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed by Bangkok Post, August 2009 · Portable School on Thai Channel 9 and Executive Director Graeme Bristol interviewed. · Executive Director, Graeme Bristol interviewed by Radio Nederlands |
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· March— Bangkok: The homeless of Sanam Luang (with KMUTT) · May—Vancouver : Lecture at AGM of AIBC · Jun—Completion of Draft, ‘Architecture and Human Rights’ · October—Bangkok |