Boston-based architect Michael Murphy is lighting up the internet with a TED Talk that went live September 15. His presentation on “Design That’s Built To Heal” is striking a chord around the world, with more than 400,000 views in the first few days.
The eloquent talk is an inspiring look at the ability of architecture to effect social change. He leads a visual tour of projects in Rwanda, Malawi and Haiti, and the US, including buildings that help heal hospital patients, stem epidemics, and even give hope for reconciling America’s legacy of racial injustice. Murphy describes how his firm, MASS Design Group, emphasizes a holistic approach to architecture that solves systemic problems that perpetuate health and social crises. Also key is an emphasis on using design to create lasting economic impact and dignity.
“Buildings are not simply expressive sculptures. They make visible our personal and collective aspirations as a society,” he explains in the 15-minute TED Talk. Murphy founded MASS Design Group in 2008, with fellow Harvard Graduate School of Design student Alan Ricks while both were students there. Their intent, he says, is to challenge the architecture establishment to use its talent to do more social good and deliver great architecture to those who can benefit the most from it.
A DIFFERENT WAY TO TALK ABOUT ARCHITECTURE | Murphy describes how MASS Design Group’s first project, a hospital in Rwanda for Partners in Health, helped form the firm’s new model for architecture, including a commitment to locally fabricated and locally sourced materials—an approach they call Lo-Fab. They also learned about the Rwandan method of ubedehe, meaning, “the community helps the community.”
VALUING A BUILDING’S HUMAN HANDPRINT, NOT JUST ITS ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT | The seminal experience in Africa showed that aesthetic decisions impact peoples’ lives. Murphy explains that the striking volcanic stone used on the hospital façade stimulated a new masonry industry and local pride. “Architecture should ask not only what is the environmental footprint of a building, but the human handprint for those who made it as well,” urges Murphy.
The TED Talk also revealed the design for the Memorial to Peace and Justice to be built in Montgomery, Alabama, a project of Equal Justice Initiative to commemorate the victims of lynching in America. According to Murphy, the building is designed to inspire discussion and instill hope for change.
MASS DESIGN GROUP | MASS Design Group is a non-profit architectural design firm with built projects across the Americas and the African continent and offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Kigali, Rwanda. Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks founded the firm in 2010 while both were students at Harvard Graduate School of Design. In September 2016, ARCHITECT magazine selected MASS Design Group as a “Top Ten American Design Firm.” MASS leverages design, research, advocacy, and training in order to address the most pressing global challenge in education, health, and justice.
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