Cascadia
Cascadia
Nearly 12,000 people experience homelessness in Seattle daily. Many are forced to live in unsafe, toxic, hazardous and uninspiring environments. Seattle being our hometown, Traction began working with the housing insecure population in Seattle in 2018. We aim to address and highlight the challenges being faced by this population that experiences extremely vulnerable living circumstances. Recent projects include a University of Washington Design Activism Studio and a US EPA Environmental Justice award to develop the Nickelsville community into an Ecovillage, and install a pilot solar project.
Nepal
Kathmandu | Budhanilkantha | Baluwa | Waling
Traction works remotely to support local partners in Nepal. Our work focuses on the human centered design, development, and dissemination of distributed technologies and infrastructure that spur economic development and improve environmental and human health in the Kathmandu Valley and beyond. We pursue design, education, and research that empower residents, students,and entrepreneurs to effect meaningful change at a local level. Recent and ongoing projects include a Community Hall and Wokshop in Bhangal, Budhanilkkantha, Women's Skills development in Baluwa, Panchal and the School for Bamboo Technology and River Restoration in Waling, Syanja.
Peru
Lima
Lomas de Zapallal (LdZ), is a slum community in northern Lima with a growing population of approximately 27,000 residents. It consists of 19 neighborhoods between 2-15 years old. The majority of its residents live in poverty with variable tenure and unreliable water supplies. LdZ’s newer neighborhoods pirate electricity, purchase water from adjacent neighborhoods and utilize pit latrines. LdZ also has very little public green space. As, water supplies decrease with climate change, it is likely that LdZ will face increasing water insecurity and green space will become increasingly scarce. Traction is based primarily at two sites in LdZ. Its Escuela Ecologica Saludable program is based at the Pitagroas School and its Communidad Ecologica Saludable program is based in the Eliseo Collazos neighborhood.
Iquitos
Claverito Iquitos is a city of approximately 0.5 million people in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Traction is working with urban communities in Iquitos who live both in the zona inundable (floodplains) and the tierra firma (highlands).
In the zona inundable, Traction is facilitating a long-term collaborative program called InterACTION Labs Iquitos - a transdisciplinary partnership between the floodplain community of Claverito, the Centro de Investigaciones Technológicas, Biomédicas y Medioambientales, the University of Washington, Penn State University, the Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, and involves 120+ professionals, faculty and students from 8 research centers in Peru and the U.S. representing 26 different disciplines - to improve built environment conditions, understand and measure One Health connections between humans, animals, plants and the environment, and advocate for traditionally designed amphibious communities. In the tierra firma, Traction supported a school garden, composting program, and house for homeless seniors with dementia. These programs also support the InterACTION Fellows and Scholars program, the One Health Scholars program, and the NIH Fogarty Global Health Research Scholars and Fellows program for students and young professionals, and regular Health and Environment education programs for community members.
Exhibitions
Andrews, Leann, Jorge A. Alarcón & Jorge O. Alarcón. "InterACTION Labs" Design for the Common Good International Exhibition. Design for the Common Good Network. Rotating International Exhibition: Metropolitan State University of Denver's Center for Visual Art, Denver, CO (Jan-Mar 2022); Artus Contemporary Art Studio, Budapest Hungary (Oct 2023).
https://www.designforthecommongood.net/dcg-exhibition/
Andrews, Leann, Alejandra Jhonston, Xiomara Valdivia Zavaleta, Jorge A. Alarcón, Gemina Garland-Lewis, Kathleen Wolf, Ursula Valdez, Susana Cubas, Christian Ampudia Gatty, Carlos Tapia del Aguila, Rebecca Bachman, Christina Flores, Clancy Wolf. Tres Comunidades Un Rio: Life Within Peru's Urban Amazonian Floodplains. Rotating International Exhibition: Ministerio de Cultural Museo de Amazonico, Iquitos, Peru (Aug-Sept 2022); Gould Gallery, Seattle WA (Nov-Dec 2023); Borland Project Space, State College PA (Feb-Mar 2025); Rause Gallery, State College PA (Mar-Apr 2025).
https://iquitos.thinkoutside.org/index.php/en/
Andrews, Leann, Jorge A. Alarcón & Jorge O. Alarcón. "InterACTION". Design for Life Exhibition. Penn State University, HUB-Robeson Center Art Alley, State College PA. Nov-Jan 2022.
Publications
Andrews, Leann, Alejandra Jhonston, Xiomara Valdivia Zavaleta, Jorge A. Alarcón, Gemina Garland-Lewis, Kathleen Wolf, Ursula Valdez, Susana Cubas, Christian Ampudia Gatty, Carlos Tapia del Aguila, Rebecca Bachman, Christina Flores, Clancy Wolf. 2024. Tres Comunidades Un Rio: Supporting Urban Amazonian Floodplain Communities Through Data and Art. Ground Works. Doi: 10.48807/2024.0.0154
https://groundworks.io/journal/projects/154
Neumann, Rebecca, Susana Paredes Fernandez, Leann Andrews, & Jorge A. Alarcón. 2023. Influence of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) on concentration and distribution of Escherichia coli in water surrounding an informal floating community in Iquitos, Peru. GeoHealth 7(4), 1-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GH000768
Andrews, Leann, Rebecca Bachman & Susan Paredes Fernandez. 2022. Living on Water: Amphibious communities in the Amazon Rainforest. In Yekang Ko and Anne Taufen, Chapter Editor Ken Yocom (Eds.), Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim (pp. 20). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis / Routledge. Peer-reviewed/refereed. ISBN/ISSN: 9780367471149
Vildosola, Gabriela, Jorge A. Alarcón & Leann Andrews. 2022. Living on Water and Land: Challenges and Opportunities for the Development of Amphibious Communities in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Environmental Science & Sustainable Development 7(2), 104-110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21625/essd.v7i2.914
Ampudia Gatty, Christian, R.V. Estrella Grandez, Jorge A. Alarcón, Leann Andrews & F. Meza-Velez. 2022. Mariposas diunas (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) de la comunidad Claverito, Iquitos, Loreto, Peru. Ciencia Amazónica 10(1-2), 18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22386/ca.v10i1-2.359
Seminario, Ana Lucia, E. Alpert, E. Bernabé, B. Leroux, Leann Andrews, Jorge A. Alarcón, M. Echevarria, Joe Zunt. 2022. Dental caries and anthropometrics of children living in an informal floating Amazonian community: a cross-sectional study. Brazilian Dental Journal 33(1), 87-95. DOI: 10.1590/0103-6440202204310
Traction. 2022. Fog Water Farm Park and Gardens. In Felipe Vera, Jennifer Doherty, Soledad Patiño, Jeannette Sordi (Eds.), Diseño Ecológico: Estrategias para la Ciudad Vulnerable. Infraestructuras verdes urbanas y espacio público en América Latina. (ENGLISH: Ecological Design: Strategies for the Vulnerable City. Urban green infrastructures and public space in Latin America and the Caribbean) y Caribe.. (pp. 473-481). Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004388.
Bachman, Rebecca & Leann Andrews. 2021. Eliseo Collazos Fog Water Farm-Park and Gardens. Landscape Architecture Foundation Case Study Investigation. (pp. 30). Washington DC: Landscape Architecture Foundation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31353/cs1631
Horton, M., Zolfaghari, S., Bernabé, E., Leroux, B., Andrews, L. (10%), Alarcón, J. A., Echevarria, M., Zunt, J., & Seminario, A. L. 2021. An assessment of pediatric dental caries and family quality of life in an informal Amazonian community. Annals of Global Health 87(1), 1-10. DOI: https://doi. org/10.5334/aogh.3331
Vildosola, Gabriela, Jorge A. Alarcón & Leann Andrews. 2021. "Estrategias urbano-arquitectónicas para comunidades anfibias saludables en la Amazonía Peruana" Simposio Internacional Ciudades Para la Vida en la Amazonia. pp. 16
Alarcón, Jorge O., Jorge A. Alarcón, and Leann Andrews. 2018. “Epidemiología, arquitectura paisajista, “Una Salud” e innovación: Experiencia en una comunidad amazónica”, La Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública. 35(4): pp. 667-74.
Korn, Abigail, Susan M. Bolton, Jorge A. Alarcon, Leann Andrews, Benjamin Spencer, and Joachim G. Voss. 2018. Physical and Mental Health Impacts of Household Gardens in an Urban Slum in Lima, Peru. International Journal of Environment and Public Health. pp. 2-11.
Spencer, Ben. 2018. “Engaging the Field Experience: Integrated, Interdisciplinary, On-Site, Enduring” In Bryan Bell and Lisa Albendroth (Eds.). Public Interest Design Education Guidebook: Curricula, Strategies, and SEED Academic Case Studies. Routledge, UK. pp. 55-57.
Hou, Jeff, Ben Spencer and Daniel Winterbottom. 2018. “Whole-Systems Public Interest Design Education: Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington” In Bryan Bell and Lisa Albendroth (Eds.). Public Interest Design Education Guidebook: Curricula, Strategies, and SEED Academic Case Studies. Routledge, UK. pp. 8-21.
Spencer, Ben and Susan Bolton. 2016. “Emergent Convergent: Technology and the Informal Urban Communities Initiative”. In Daniel Ortega and Jonathan Anderson (Eds.). Innovations in Landscape Architecture. Routledge, UK. pp. 205-222.
Feld, Shara, Ben Spencer and Susan Bolton. 2016. “Improved Fog Collection Using Turf Reinforcement Mats.” Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment. 2 (3): 1-8.
Spencer, Ben, Susan Bolton and Jorge Alarcon. 2014. “The Informal Urban Communities Initiative, Lomas de Zapallal.” In Jeff Hou, Ben Spencer, Thaisa Way and Ken Yocom (Eds.). Now Urbanism: The Future City is Here. Routledge, UK. pp. 328-357.
Andrews, Leann and Ben Spencer. 2014. “Design as Preventive Medicine.” In Evert, J., Drain, P., and Hall, T. (Eds.). Developing Global Health Programming: A Guidebook for Medical and Professional Schools, Second Edition. Schools. Global Health Education Collaboration Press. p. 274-277.
Spencer, Ben and Leann Andrews. 2014. “Interdisciplinary Design Case Study: Escuela Ecologica Saludable Initiative (The Healthy Ecological School Initiative) Lomas de Zapallal, Lima, Peru.” In Evert, J., Drain, P., and Hall, T. (Eds.). Developing Global Health Programming: A Guidebook for Medical and Professional Schools, Second Edition. Schools. Global Health Education Collaboration Press. p. 278-283.
Spencer, Ben, Susan Bolton and Jorge Alarcon. 2014. “The Informal Urban Communities Initiative, Community-driven design in the Slums of Lima, Peru.” International Journal of Service Learning in Engineering, 9(1): 92-107. (first author)