Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

CSUN Professor Promotes Sustainability Through Humanity Projects

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Mar. 24th, 2009) ―

Imagine a neighborhood where children spend afternoons in the backyard, riding bikes, playing ball and simply enjoying the outdoors. Now imagine that neighborhood located near 30 landfills, surrounded by three major freeways and bisected by a railroad line, polluting the air that children and their families breathe. For the San Fernando Valley residents of Pacoima, this is reality.

Recognized for its lack of harmony with the community and serious health factors, Pacoima has become a focal learning tool for Cal State Northridge professor Kyriakos Pontikis. Together with associate urban studies professor Zeynep Toker and Pacoima Beautiful, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the area, Pontikis and Toker’s students have dedicated a semester to not only helping Pacoima, but also similar current and future communities design more sustainable and livable environments.

“My objective is to have the students learn the theories which support the creation of socially humane and sustainable building and community environments,” said Pontikis, who heads several graduate classes in the Interior Design Program at CSUN. “Students undertake the design and creation of real community projects while employing the theoretical and building methodology they have learned through the curriculum.”

The graduate design students are involved with several service-learning projects this semester, including work on the landscape of 11 Habitat for Humanity family homes. Pontikis initiated the creation of Habitat for Humanity CSUN Chapter and is currently its faculty advisor. The newly established CSUN chapter is headed by graduate design student Kristine Tserunyan, who recognized the demand for the organization while attending Pontikis’ class.

“Dr. Pontikis encouraged me to start the organization and has been actively involved ever since its creation,” she said. “He has helped recruit members to the organization, volunteered along side of our student members during the event and has tremendously helped build the CSUN chapter.”

Last weekend the organization attended “Youth Build Day – Building with Celebrities,” where more than 300 people volunteered time and effort to build Pacoima’s 100th home.

“Habitat Youth Build Day was a very rewarding event,” said Tserunyan. “It was amazing to see how many CSUN students, faculty and staff volunteered to make this event a success. We had a great time, learned about construction and teamwork, and gave back to the community. Since the event, many of our volunteers have contacted me to find out about future events.”

The purpose of the service-learning classes is to allow students to obtain first hand experience and learn to work with a range of budgets, schedules, programs, engineers, contractors, craftspeople, building systems and materials, ornaments and color.

While designing the layouts, Pontikis reinforces the idea of implementing sustainability which includes two aspects of design: green and humane. The green design focuses on technical elements necessary for construction, while the humane factor centers on understanding the people and developing an environment suiting their needs.

“These two models encourage the students to listen, understand and create designs based on their clients’ needs,” said Pontikis. “When both models are integrated a sustainable and living environment is created.”

For Pontikis, creating more livable spaces is a labor of love. Having received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Oklahoma State University, a master’s and Ph.D. in architecture from University of California, Berkeley, Pontikis has more than 20 years experience and has designed more than 50 building projects throughout the United States and Europe.

Over time, Pontikis gained valuable experience that lead him to discover the importance of designing projects governed by attributes of adaptability, flexibility and freedom to “produce building environments responsive to clients’ needs, dreams and aspirations.”

“The more flexible and adaptable the building processes I employed, the more successful and alive my projects were,” he said. “Architects need to view buildings as living organisms which affect not only the natural environment but also the life, well-being and spirituality of people.”

The design and building knowledge Pontikis gained throughout his career brought him to Cal State Northridge in 2006 where he launched a series of graduate design classes within the department of Family and Consumer Sciences. Since then, his efforts have inspired the creation of the Habitat for Humanity CSUN Chapter and a legacy of projects that engage students with the community.

“My intention is to mentor, advise and place students out in the real world so they can work with clients and incorporate sustainability,” said Pontikis. “This is the direction that we want our students to head in so as to be a part of the bigger system. If you embed this into the younger generation then it will continue.”

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