Hi Roice,

I happened to run across this article and thought you would find it of interest. Here's the web link i found it at, for your further purusal:

Georgia Tech Undertakes Sustainable Housing Initiative Under the leadership of Dr. Jorge Vanegas, Associate Professor & Construction Program Coordinator in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech is developing the Pan-American Affordable Sustainable Housing Initiative (PASHI).

PASHI has been conceived to directly respond to four challenges: Within an increasingly constrained availability of resources, there are pressing needs to develop new housing solutions, rehabilitate existing deteriorated housing, retrofit existing housing, recover damaged housing, remediate serious externalities associated with housing construction, and restore and preserve housing with historical or cultural significance.

Given the magnitude and complexity of the demand for housing, there is a need to ensure the technical and management performance of the delivery processes for housing, and of the functional and physical performance of the technologies and materials used (including regulatory and legal compliance, contextual response and compatibility, cost, time, quality, safety and security, constructability, procurabiltiy, operability, maintainability, and reliability). Housing projects are framed within increasingly complex contexts (economic, political, social, and environmental), which demand the optimization of resource use, reduction of waste, enhancement of environmental compatibility, and increased satisfaction of intra-and inter-generational human needs and aspirations.

The current approaches to basic and applied research and to education are not fully responsive to the challenges facing the Affordable Housing Community The vision for PASHI is to provide a focused, multi-disciplinary, and self-sustaining institutional structure that acts as a forum for creating new and integrating research, education, and policy analysis directions for the Affordable Housing Community in the U.S. and the Americas. As a result of these efforts, PASHI will act: (1) as a catalyst for integrating the Affordable Housing Community and creating strategic global alliances and partnerships; (2) as a conduit for the exchange of information on Affordable Sustainable Housing; and (3) as a leader for the development and implementation of the next generation of Affordable Sustainable Housing Technologies.

The first responsibility of PASHI is to serve the housing community. Consequently, its mission is to: (1) ensure broad multiple-stakeholder representation from the Affordable Housing Community in its programs, events, products, and services, through strategic alliances, consortiums, and partnerships; (2) develop and operate an institutional structure that serves the Affordable Housing Community, instead of acting as a traditional research or education institution; (3) be considered an intellectual leader, respected advisor; (4) use advanced technologies for acquisition, processing, management, and dissemination of information so that PASHI's activities and knowledge storage is accessible to the widest possible audience.

The initial seed funding available for PASHI will be used to establish the programs, the management and financial structures, and the information infrastructure. PASHI will leverage this seed investment and attract additional resources to fund more senior personnel and student research assistants, and research and education program events and activities.

Contact: Jorge Vanegas, Georgia Tech (tel: 404-894-9881; fax: 404-894-5418; e-mail: jvanegas@ce.gatech.edu

regards,

geneva

Geneva Henry

Executive Director, Digital Library Initiative

Rice University

MS-120

P.O. Box 1892 |6100 Main Street

Houston, TX 77251-1892 |Houston, TX 77005-1892

voice:(713)348-2480; fax: (713)348-5699

ghenry@rice.edu