AIA Virginia’s Emerging Leaders in Architecture (ELA) Program is finishing out the year by presenting their project in Charlottesville next Friday (10/13)! Join the ELA Class of 2023 and the Resilient Together team to learn about their creative strategy for building community resilience - Climate Resilience Hubs. This presentation is the culmination of 10 months of research and design by the ELA Class of 2023, in collaboration with County staff and community members. Happy Hour to follow. Friday, October 13th
10:15-11:30 am – Stakeholder Presentation
Lane Auditorium at the County Office Building (401 McIntire Rd, 2nd Floor)
Parking: County Office Building lower parking lot close to the baseball fields.
5:15pm @ VMDO (200 E Market St) – Happy Hour Reception
Join the Class of 2023 for Happy hour at VMDO – Learn all about ELA if you’re considering applying! (Applications due to AIA Virginia November 10th)
*REGISTRATION IS OPEN for ELA Class of 2024 - > Please click here to learn more and apply!
The ELA is a group of 15 young professionals from across Virginia participating in a program designed to develop leadership and community-building skills in the field of architecture. Each year, the ELA Class undertakes a project in one of the five regions within the Commonwealth of Virginia. This year's project examines Climate Resilience Hubs and how they can support communities within Albemarle County. The class has spent the last 10 months studying how to enrich existing community gathering facilities in Albemarle County and equip them to strengthen climate resilience on a local level.
Below you will find the ELA’s design challenge:
As architects, we are in a position of great responsibility to address issues of social, economic, and moral significance. Climate change is one issue we are uniquely positioned to have an impact on because what we design and build has a direct effect on (need a word) While climate change is a massive global issue, our work to combat its effects can (and perhaps should) start on a local scale.
In response to the current and future effects of climate change, Albemarle County, located in Central Virginia, will begin work on a Climate Resilience Plan in 2023. This year’s ELA Class will have the opportunity to partner with the County to understand the direct impacts that climate change will have on the communities that live there and to develop design strategies to respond to these impacts.
The ELA Class will be expected to address the two deliverables of this year’s class project:
Work with the County to research and define what a “Climate Resilience Hub” is and how it can support climate resilience within the county of Albemarle. What type of programs and resources should be available at a resiliency hub? Develop a “kit-of-parts” that the county can use to establish hubs within the community.
Using this kit of parts, the ELA class will design a resiliency hub for the County. Using existing community gathering places that the County has prioritized, assess how the community is currently using these places and how it could evolve to be a climate resilience hub specific to that community’s needs. Develop specific recommendations for how the County can invest in these buildings and landscapes to be exemplary Climate Resilience Centers.
ELA had the opportunity to engage community members with support from Albemarle’s Public Engagement Coordinator, Serena Gruia. The project culminates with this presentation to the community, potential inclusion in the Climate Resilience Plan, and a presentation to Virginia’s Architecture community at ArchEx.
*REGISTRATION IS OPEN for ELA Class of 2024 - > Please click here to learn more and apply!