Traction: Design, Action, Research

Mission

Traction works in collaboration with resource limited communities to design and implement projects that leverage local assets and create transformative, grounded change. Our landscapes, buildings, products and research initiatives improve human + environmental health and spur social + economic development. Bridging disciplinary boundaries and merging academic, professional and local knowledge, Traction's work catalyzes and cultivates innovative action with substantive impact.

Description

MISSION STATEMENT
Traction is a design activism, research, and educational non-profit focused on improving community and environmental well-being through transdisciplinary design, implementation and evaluation of community-driven interventions in the built environment. Traction aims to improve human and environmental health and wellbeing in neglected communities and build the capacity of designers and allied health, technology and environmental science professionals to work effectively with resource poor communities and to gather evidence that informs best practices and design performance in these contexts. Traction uses an informed community participatory approach, and projects respond to priorities articulated by community members to maximize individual empowerment and project sustainability.

OUR PHILOSOPHY
Traction acknowledges that the built environment is a determinant of both human and ecological health, and especially for those who live in harsh conditions. We are a group of architects, landscape architects, engineers and global health researchers who serve those who do not typically have access to professional design services. We recognize that meaningful change happens through transdisciplinary collaboration in small-scale incremental projects that stimulate energy and "gain traction" towards positive health outcomes.

OUR STORY
We began working with informal (slum) communities in Lima, Peru in 2010 and have since expanded to other communities in Iquitos, Peru, Kathmandu, Nepal, and homeless Tiny House Villages in Seattle WA. Recent design-build-research projects include an ecological education park in a school; household floating gardens for food and medicine security in the Amazon Rainforest; a fog water farm park for water security, environmental restoration and exercise in the Lima desert; and a community center and amphitheater to support social health and community organizing in a floating slum community.

We have been in operation since 2010 as the UW Informal Urban Communities Initiative (IUCI), however have recently reframed our work to operate independently as a professional 501c3 non-profit while partnering with universities and institutions locally and globally to maximize our reach. We received our non-profit status in February 2020 and we have been working tirelessly to grow the organization. Any support that you are able to give, no matter how small is greatly appreciated, both by us, and the communities we serve! Thank you!