Michael Zaretsky joins the Hunt Institute as a Fellow who brings his expertise in architecture. Zaretsky is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the College of Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the School of Architecture in the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA) at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is the Director of the Architectural Engineering program in Civil Engineering. Zaretsky is a licensed Architect with extensive experience in local and international design/build projects.
His research is focused around culturally and environmentally responsive public interest design projects and community engagement with underserved communities locally and internationally. His published work includes Precedents in Zero-Energy Design: Architecture and Passive Design in the 2007 Solar Decathlon (Routledge Press, 2009) and New Directions in Sustainable Design, with Dr. Adrian Parr (Routledge Press, 2010). Zaretsky has articles published in several architectural journals and has presented at conferences around the world on Sustainability, Humanitarian Design, and Public Interest Design. His work is included in the 2018 book The Public Interest Design Education Guidebook edited by Bell and Abendroth.
He is presently writing Design Beyond Borders: International Design/Build Community Engagement – a book that explores how those in practice, organizations, and universities involved in international design/build projects engage those in underprivileged communities where they are working. Additionally, he is Director of Design for the Roche Health Center in rural Tanzania, a project of Village Life Outreach Project. Roche Health Center is the first-ever permanent health care facility in this region. The Roche Health Center opened April 1, 2011, and provides health care to as many as 20,000 villagers. The Roche Health Center was the winner of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Collaborative Practice Award in 2011 and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Award for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy in 2011 for the Roche Health Center project.
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