Drawing, Make It Right, New Orleans, LA: Multiple Elevation Views, ca. 2009

Make It Right (MIR) is a unique single-family housing solution conceived of by Los Angeles-based architecture firm Brooks + Scarpa. Designed to address the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, the project considers solutions to rebuilding New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward by integrating low-cost, off-the-shelf materials with an innovative design scheme. On the exterior of the structure, easily obtainable rough-hewn wooden palettes are applied in a quiltwork pattern, recalling the distinctive patchwork tradition as seen in the Gee’s Bend quilt-makers of southwest Alabama.[1] The structure’s interior makes clear the firm’s commitment to deemphasizing private space in favor of communal, open-plan and family-oriented public space.
The Make It Right project exemplifies Brooks + Scarpa’s commitment to engaging with social, ethical, cultural and ecological issues of our time. As the team writes, “...[E]very project we undertake has an important symbolic role to play in public life.”[2] Working with local manufacturers and using readymade, low-cost materials in its construction, the Make It Right project proposes a viable solution to rebuilding devastated neighborhoods of New Orleans by making good design accessible to everyone. This drawing would be an important addition to Cooper Hewitt’s 20th and 21st-century architectural drawing collection.

Drawing, Make It Right, New Orleans, LA: Multiple Elevation Views, ca. 2009; Designed by Brooks + Scarpa, Angela Brooks (American), Larry Scarpa (American, b. 1959); pen with red and black ink with white correction fluid on tracing paper; H x W: 45.7 × 77.5 cm (18 in. × 30 1/2 in.); Gift of Brooks + Scarpa; 2015-40-4