Staff & Fellows

Sergio Palleroni, Co-founder and Director of the BaSiC Initiative, teaches architecture and sustainable design and development at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development. Sergio earned his professional BArch from the University of Oregon and his MSArchS in History Theory & Criticism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He taught at the University of Washington for 12 years where, he co-founded the BaSiC Initiative with Professors David Riley and Steve Badanes. He has worked on housing and community development in the developing world since the 1970's, both for not-for-profit, governmental and international development and relief agencies such as the United Nations as well as the governments of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, India and Tunisia. He has received numerous awards for his teaching and design work for underserved communities, including the National Design Award from the Smithsonian Institution and the White House Millenium Project in 2005. His books include: Time & Other Constructs: The Work of Carlos Miijares, co-authored with Rodolfo Santamaria (Escala Press, 1989); Studio at Large; Architecture in Service of Global Communities, with Christine Merkelbach (University of Washington Press, 2004); and Teaching Sustainability in Asia (NTUT Press, 2006). In addition, his work has appeared in numerous international magazines and publications including, most recently Design Like You Give a Damn, by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr (Metropolis Books, 2006), the forthcoming Good Deeds, Good Design II: Community Service Through Architecture, edited by Bryan Bell (Princeton Architecture Press, 2006), and also forthcoming Experiments in Design Pedagogy, by Mao-lin Chiu (Taipei, 2007). Email: palleroni@mail.utexas.edu.

Steven Moore, PhD, is the Barlett Cocke Professor of Architecture and Planning at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches design and courses related to the philosophy, history, and application of environmental technology. He has practiced as the design principal of Moore/Weinrich Architects in Maine, and has received numerous regional and national awards for design distinction. In 1999, Moore was appointed Director of the graduate program in Sustainable Design at UT-Austin and in 2001 was co-founder of the UT-Austin Center for Sustainable Development. He has published in Center, the Journal ofArchitectural Education (JAE), the Journal of Architecture (JOA), and the Design Book Review (DBR). His books include: Technology & Place: Sustainable Architecture and the Blueprint Farm (UT Press, 2001); Sustainable Architectures: Natures and Cultrures in Europe and North America, co-edited with Simon Guy (Routledge/Spon, 2005); and Alternative Routes to the Sustainable City: Austin, Curitiba, and Frankfurt (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Email: samoore@mail.utexas.edu.

Gabriela Videla, a Chilean journalist and author, has lived in Mexico for more than 30 years. Since 1973, she has worked to make indigenous communities in Central Mexico economically self-reliant, and culturally sustainable. Gaby has founded several community organizations, which have worked to better the conditions of both native populations and informal settlements in Mexico, two of which (Accion y Dessarollo Ecologico, and now Communidad AC) have become important partners in the work of the BaSiC Initiative in Mexico. Gaby has also received several Mexican and international awards for her community work. Email gabyray@cableonline.com.mx.

James Adamson has been a partner in the Jersey Devil design/build collaborative for three decades. The Jersey Devil, pioneers in design/build and sustainable practices, were an early inspiration to both the BaSiC Initiative and the Rural Studio when they began in the early-1990s. Jim has been a teacher and co-director of fieldwork in the program’s foreign study program’s since 2000. His work can be seen both in a monograph on the Jersey Devil’s work, Devil’s Workshop: 25 Years of Jersey Devil Architecture, by S. Branch,and M. Palladino (Princeton Architectural Press, 1997), and in the BaSiC Initiative's own Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities (University of Washington Press, 2004). He has been widely published internationally. Email: jimadamson@worldnet.att.net.

Peter Spruance is a graduate of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Washington, where he participated in BaSiC Initiative programs in Mexico, and with the American Indian Housing Initiative in Montana. Since then, he has been co-directing field work in the Global Studio with Jim Adamson. His furniture designs have received numerous awards. Email: peter.spruance@gmail.com.

Matthew Sullivan, a graduate of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Washington, Matthew Sullivan has participated in BASIC Initiative design/build programs in Mexico and Cuba. In 2004, he received an AIA Seattle honor citation for work done with a small rural community in western Kenya. He works for Environmental Works, a community design center in Seattle. Matthew, with Geoff Piper, heads the BaSiC Initiative's newest global studio initiative, the "Design a Village, Change a Life Program," for homeless coffee worker families in Central America. Email: matthewbsullivan@yahoo.com.

Geoff Piper, a graduate of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Washington, has participated in BASIC Initiative design build programs in Mexico, Cuba, and United States. In 2004, he received an AIA Seattle honor citation for work done with a small rural community in western Kenya. He is a principal with 5dot Design/build in Seattle. Email: geoff@fivedotdesignbuild.com.