Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Students in a fourth-year design studio at Texas A&M established ties with residents of Las Lomas, a Rio Grande Valley colonia, designing and helping them paint a community mural during a trip to the Texas borderland.
Led by Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture at Texas A&M, the trip was part of a pilot studio that Lang hopes is just the beginning of the College of Architecture's involvement with the settlement, located three miles from the Texas-Mexico border.
The mural, 75 feet wide and 8 feet tall, adorns a courtyard wall outside the Las Lomas Community Center.
Students developed concepts for the mural in a studio workshop with architectural activists Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen, founding members of STEALTH.unlimited, a European architectural collective.
"We asked them how to engage people," said Lang. "They had done a workshop in Sweden that included kids in a school project. Marc and Ana were instrumental in encouraging us to get kids involved."
"Colonias Unidas," a group of Las Lomas community leaders, approved the design, and from April 30 – May 2, 2010, the mural was created.
Children painted friendly-looking monsters on the wall as students and colonia residents painted words such as "comunidad," "futuro," "motivación," "hope," and "friendship."
"After we painted the mural, they made us a fantastic lunch," said Lang. "It all worked out beautifully."
John Nichols, associate professor of construction science, joined Lang and the students in a meeting with community leaders to learn about problems in the colonia that could be addressed in future studios, such as a chronic flooding problem in the community's elementary school.
During the semester, students researched the border's climate, geographical, and economic data, as well is its culture and cultural artifacts.
Students also considered the border in a larger context by studying other historical and contemporary border areas such as the Berlin Wall and Kashmir, the hotly contested area adjoining India and Pakistan.
See a time-lapse video of the mural's creation as well as students' work in the studio at the project webpage.
- Posted: June 9, 2010 -
