Architecture School (2008)

This six-part documentary series from creators Michael Selditch and Stan Bertheaud follows a group of students enrolled in Tulane University's School of Architecture, a proactive and socially-conscious architecture curriculum, as they design and build an affordable house intended to be sold to a needy and qualified home-buyer in post-Katrina devastated New Orleans. "Architecture School" opens a window onto the art and science of architecture while telling a unique and uplifting story about the literal rebuilding of New Orleans. Filmed during the 2007-2008 school year, the series follows the construction of the third home in Tulane University's URBAN/build program, which offers fourth-year architecture students the opportunity to design and build a low-cost single-family home over the course of the school year. Co-founded in 2005 by Reed Kroloff and Ila Berman, URBAN/build is a partnership between Tulane's prestigious School of Architecture and Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans (N.H.S.), a 32-year-old nonprofit agency that works to restore urban neighborhoods and offers assistance to first-time low income home-buyers. N.H.S. facilitates the sale of the URBAN/build home, and also provides the capital and land. Tulane provides the creativity, expertise and manpower, in the form of the students themselves. For the students, URBAN/build represents a chance to see their ideas realized at an unusually early stage of their professional careers, not to mention a way to contribute to a city still struggling nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina. For residents of New Orleans, URBAN/build offers a chance to own an exceptional new home, one built with their needs in mind.