Planning Studio Wins 2015 AICP/APA Student Project Award for Applied Research
In spring 2014, a team of nine graduate students in Associate Professor Bjørn Sletto's Latin America planning studio conducted academically significant, innovative, and rigorous applied field research under challenging conditions in the informal settlement of Los Platanitos in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The project received the 2015 national AICP Student Project Award for Applied Research and is an outstanding example of applied, participatory research in an international context with significant implications for comprehensive planning practice in developing cities.
The students’ documentation of informal urban agricultural and green infrastructure systems in Los Platanitos was the first such study conducted in the Dominican Republic, and the students revealed important aspects of local environmental knowledge and community-based planning practices unknown even to local planners. As a result of their exemplary approach to field research, their data sets, analysis, and recommendations have been incorporated into the comprehensive planning process in Santo Domingo Norte. A consortium of planning actors including the city planning department is now pursuing an integrated, gender-based economic development and solid waste mitigation effort centered on the development of an integrated greenhouse and composting initiative. This is particularly important in Los Platanitos and other such communities where no waste collection services are provided and as a result, residents must cope with frequent flooding and severely contaminated environments.
The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is the American Planning Association's (APA) professional institute, providing recognized leadership nationwide in the certification of professional planners, ethics, professional development, planning education, and the standards of planning practice.
The national AICP Student Project Awards recognize outstanding class projects or papers by a student or group of students in Planning Accreditation Board-accredited planning programs that contribute to advances in the field of planning. The awards program is intended to recognize exceptional work by the students. The student project awards will be presented at the 2015 APA National Planning Conference, to be held April 18 - 21 in Seattle.
Student project team members included CRP students Kendal Asuncion, Samantha Kattan, Rachel Nolley, Rebecca Rinas, and Sam Siegel; CRP and Latin American Studies dual degree students Sara McTarnaghan, Kelly Strickler, and Sam Tabory; and Public Affairs and Latin American Studies dual degree student Adam Torres. Each CRP student was generously awarded a $1,500 travel grant from the Mike and Maxine K. Mebane Endowed Traveling Scholarship in Architecture, and Torres received a $1,500 travel award from the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
The Santo Domingo initiative was recently recognized with a major grant from the National Science Foundation, which will provide generous scholarships for students to participate in future studios and conduct independent research.