The Coussan house, circa 1850, is a colombage (timber-frame) and bousillage-infill (Spanish moss and mud) home. Professor Cazayoux located the structure before it was torn down and determined it was historically significant. In the restoration process, performed by the Building Institute, the house was partially disassembled in order to move it. The front porch and entire second floor roof was removed. At the new site, students and faculty, as well as volunteers from various trades (excavator and concrete supplier) constructed a new concrete foundation. Subsequently, over a year, the house was reassembled and restored to its original condition. The house will soon open to the public at Vermilionville, a local Living History Museum. The archeology required in restoration was particularly valuable to our architecture students. Deconstruction and the reassembly of the Coussan House required extreme tolerance and rigor and in particular, cultural responsibility. Due to the efforts of the Building Institute, a piece of history and our culture was preserved for the community.

In this project at our University, students and professors designed and built architectural elements for a local homeless shelter. They addressed a terrible paradox: while the center’s mission stated a goal of“Giving People Back Their God-Given Dignity,” the physical facilities were less than “dignified.” The project became one of restoration- the restoration of environmental quality and in the process, the restoration of dignity. Upon the contested terrain, students were asked to design installations, which filled the aesthetic vacuum of the existing facility.

The current “rag-tag” assemblage of buildings, have no sense of “place,” much less “unity.” The space is inhumane and dominated by the car. The concept of the master plan is the formation of a “campus” with a defined edge, unifying elements and “place-making” components- to instill a “sense of home” for those with no home. The eight projects were designed and built during the 2004 spring, summer and fall semesters by students under the direction of a registered architect. Students and faculty had very limited time and resources to complete the projects. The non-profit client serves those in need and thus their resources are stretched very thin. Students and faculty contributed the design services and labor. One of our clients, Vicki Boudreaux, paid us one of the highest compliments:

The Building Institute has put a structure in place which allows participation in service-learning by the entire student body and faculty thus institutionalizing the pedagogy and service. My research, as evidenced by an article written by Hector LaSala and myself, to be published in the May Journal of Architectural Education, is focused on the pedagogy of service-learning and specifically community-based design/ build projects. I have presented papers and projects at several conferences, including the Western Social Science Association and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture regarding service-learning scholarship. In October, I was selected from throughout our University to present the Gloria Fiero- Friend’s of the Humanities Lecture. The title of the lecture was Occupying the Contested Terrain: The Building Institute and Hands-On Service Learning. The lecture was well-attended and allowed me to disseminate my research to the entire community and hopefully impact the teaching and service of the entire University. I concluded my lecture with a challenge to other programs to engage the community. Already, other programs on campus such as Nursing and Business, are beginning to answer the call.