In April 2015, Nepal suffered a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people, injuring 22,000 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 800,000 homes, with entire villages being swept away.

NewSchool architecture faculty member Joseph Kennedy, who specializes in sustainable building, ecological design, and community development, wanted to help and recognized an important opportunity to collaborate with his students to help aid this humanitarian crisis. With an eye on creating a positive social impact, Joseph encourages his students to design for the 99% of the world’s population and to seek out projects not just locally but globally. He recognized that rebuilding all 800,000 homes was too great a task and that the locals needed proper education that would teach affordable and durable building practices that could then be implemented in Nepal, by the locals.